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Problems in tiling theory,
solved and unsolved.
Tiling theory, the mathematical study of shapes that fit together with no gaps and no overlaps, is a fascinating field
with connections to many parts of mathematics and computer science.
It is full of beautiful open problems that are easy to understand, but that have nevertheless withstood the efforts of
mathematicians for decades.
We will see some adventures in the use of computational methods to study tiling theory, with an
emphasis on the unsolved problems of Heesch numbers and isohedral numbers, and the recent discovery of the world's
first aperiodic monotiles.
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Welcome to the Math Club home page!
The math club meets once a week in the Winter term, on Thursday evenings for about an hour. It is intended for anyone interested in mathematics, whether they are a math major or not.
At each meeting a speaker will discuss an interesting idea in mathematics. We try to pick topics that can be understood without much background. An ideal topic is one which starts with something simple, and by exploring its twists and turns, leads to something unexpectedly deeper.
The goal is to show mathematics the way that mathematicians see it: a living subject full of deep and intertwining ideas, growing naturally out of our desire to understand the fundamental concepts of space and number.
| Date | Topic | Speaker | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan. | 22 | Geometry over a non-existent field | Gregory G. Smith | ||
| 29 | $q$-numbers | Ivan Dimitrov | |||
| Feb. | 5 | Normal Numbers | Francesco Cellarosi | ||
| 12 | Who's afraid of power series? | Jamie Mingo | |||
| 26 | AI : Friend, Foe, or Frankenstein? | M. Ram Murty | |||
| Mar. | 5 | A difficult Reddit problem | Mike Roth | ||
| 12 | Sameness | Andrew Lewis | |||
| 19 | One Conjecture to Rule Them All | Nic Fellini | |||
| 26 | Problems in Tiling theory | Craig Kaplan (Waterloo) | |||
| Apr. | 2 | Friendships and Martingales | Serdar Yüksel |
The meetings are Thursdays in Jeff 118 from 17:30–18:30.
To suggest a topic for the Math Club, or to find out further information, please email Ivan Dimitrov, Mike Roth, or Greg Smith .
| Web Site of the Week |
| Check out Quanta Magazine; an online science magazine specializing in Mathematics, Physics, and the Life Sciences. |
| Winter 2026 |
| Queen's University |
| Kingston, Ontario |