Crime and... Mathematics

The Cantrell Lecture Series in the department of mathematics brings UCLA professor and director of Applied Mathematics Andrea Bertozzi to campus on Wednesday April 25 for an interesting lecture:

The Mathematics of Crime

There is an extensive applied mathematics literature developed for problems in the biological and physical sciences. Our understanding of social science problems from a mathematical standpoint is less developed, but also presents some very interesting problems, especially for young researchers. This lecture uses crime as a case study for using applied mathematical techniques in a social science application and covers a variety of mathematical methods that are applicable to such problems. We will review recent work on agent based models, methods in linear and nonlinear partial differential equations, variational methods for inverse problems and statistical point process models. From an application standpoint we will look at problems in residential burglaries and gang crimes. 

Sounds provocative. So much cultural programming has moved in this direction already (e.g., all the CSI shows) that it seems somehow easy to accept. It's great to see this application of mathematics taken in the direction of teaching.

Wednesday, April 25

3:30 pm - 4:30 pm

Zell B. Miller Learning Center (SLC/MLC)

Room 102