Keynote: Category Theory in Life
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Category theory can be thought of as being "very abstract algebra". It is thought of as "too abstract" by some people, and as "abstract nonsense" by some others. In this talk, you will discover that while it is abstract, it is far from being nonsense. Eugenia will share that the abstraction has a purpose and that broad applicability is one of the powerful consequences. You will learn how these concepts of category theory are applied to important questions of life such as prejudice, privilege, blame and responsibility. The category theory concepts will be introduced from scratch so no prior knowledge is needed. These concepts will include objects and morphisms, isomorphisms and universal properties.
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Keynote: Category Theory in Life
Dr Eugenia Cheng
Eugenia Cheng is a mathematician and concert pianist. She is Scientist In Residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and won tenure at the University of Sheffield, UK. She has previously taught at the universities of Cambridge, Chicago and Nice and holds a PhD in pure mathematics from the University of Cambridge. Alongside her research in Category Theory and undergraduate teaching her aim is to rid the world of "maths phobia". Eugenia was an early pioneer of maths on YouTube and her videos have been viewed over 10 million times to date. Her first popular maths book "How to Bake Pi" was featured on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and "Beyond Infinity" was shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize 2017. She also writes the Everyday Math column for the Wall Street Journal, and recently completely her first mathematical art commission, for Hotel EMC2 in Chicago. She is the founder of the Liederstube, an intimate oasis for art song based in Chicago. Her next book, "Thinking Better: The Art of Logic in an Illogical World" is due out in 2018.
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SkillsCast
Please log in to watch this conference skillscast.
Category theory can be thought of as being "very abstract algebra". It is thought of as "too abstract" by some people, and as "abstract nonsense" by some others. In this talk, you will discover that while it is abstract, it is far from being nonsense. Eugenia will share that the abstraction has a purpose and that broad applicability is one of the powerful consequences. You will learn how these concepts of category theory are applied to important questions of life such as prejudice, privilege, blame and responsibility. The category theory concepts will be introduced from scratch so no prior knowledge is needed. These concepts will include objects and morphisms, isomorphisms and universal properties.
Thanks to our sponsors
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About the Speaker
Keynote: Category Theory in Life
Dr Eugenia Cheng
Eugenia Cheng is a mathematician and concert pianist. She is Scientist In Residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and won tenure at the University of Sheffield, UK. She has previously taught at the universities of Cambridge, Chicago and Nice and holds a PhD in pure mathematics from the University of Cambridge. Alongside her research in Category Theory and undergraduate teaching her aim is to rid the world of "maths phobia". Eugenia was an early pioneer of maths on YouTube and her videos have been viewed over 10 million times to date. Her first popular maths book "How to Bake Pi" was featured on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and "Beyond Infinity" was shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize 2017. She also writes the Everyday Math column for the Wall Street Journal, and recently completely her first mathematical art commission, for Hotel EMC2 in Chicago. She is the founder of the Liederstube, an intimate oasis for art song based in Chicago. Her next book, "Thinking Better: The Art of Logic in an Illogical World" is due out in 2018.