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K-State Today

Division of Communications and Marketing
Kansas State University
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Manhattan, KS 66506
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November 8, 2021

Undergraduate Mathematics Seminar today: 'What Are You Going To Do With Math?'

Submitted by John Maginnis

Ian Thompson of the University of Kansas Health System will speak in the Undergraduate Mathematics Seminar on "What Are You Going To Do With Math?" from 1:30-2:20 Monday, Nov. 8, in 122 Cardwell Hall. 

Lecture abstract: In college, when I told people that I studied math, they'd give me a perplexed look and ask, "what are you going to do with it?" My response was, "What can't I do?" Let me tell my story — where I started, what I do now, and how I got here. I'll walk through a variety of examples where I've used math to understand and solve problems, and the courses I took that built my foundation.

Thompson graduated from Kansas State University in 2015 with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics. He currently works as a data scientist at the University of Kansas Health System in Kansas City. He's presented at conferences for both the Cerner Corporation and Health Catalyst, discussing automation, missingness and unsupervised learning. And he enjoys bouldering, coding and reading in his hammock.