Natalie Hobson will be visiting our program on Monday October 31. She’ll be giving a guest lecture in our regular classroom Sem 2 D3105 from 3:15 – 4:15, and will be available for informal conversation before and after.

Title: You Decide! How the math behind our voting system might swing the election. 

Abstract: Do you think voter turn out, policy issues, and debate performance will determine the upcoming election? Well it turns out the mathematics behind the voting system itself has a significant influence on the winner. In fact, different fair voting systems can lead to different outcomes in an election even when the same ballots are used. Given this issue, how is power in the US Electoral College currently distributed across states? In this talk, we will investigate the voting paradox and discuss current power distributions in the upcoming election. We will also consider some intriguing questions that have been open for over 100 years related to power distributions in elections.

She adds “I’ll be giving a talk on my education work earlier in the week, so I’d be happy to share any of that with you during the visit, too”.

Bio: Natalie Hobson is a graduate student in the mathematics Ph.D. program and mathematics education masters program at the University of Georgia. Her research interests have focused on the interactions between algebraic geometry and combinatorics, and students’ covariational reasoning. She is involved in many outreach programs and loves working with students. Natalie is originally from Shelton, Washington and holds a bachelors degree in mathematics with minors in education and diversity from the University of Washington. When not doing math Natalie can usually be found riding her bike, swing dancing, or sewing.