THE FIRST ANNUAL PUTNAM TALK AND AWARDS CEREMONY On Tuesday, April 12, we will recognize the achievement of those who did well in the University of Toronto Undergraduate Mathematics Competition in 2004 and 2005. This will be followed by a talk by a former distinguished University of Toronto Putnam competitor. There will be refreshments afterwards in the Lounge. ------------------------------ Date: Tuesday, April 12 at 3 pm Place: Sidney Smith Hall, Room 5017A (Mathematics seminar room) ------------------------------ Top students in 2004: 1. Garry Goldstein 2. Ali Feiz Mohammadi 3. Robert Barrington Leigh Top students in 2005: 1. Robert Barrington Leigh 2. Jacob Tsimerman 3. Garry Goldstein ------------------------------ Speaker: Dr. Barbara Keyfitz, Director of the Fields Institute Title: Can partial differential equations help when you are stuck in traffic? Abstract: The use of partial differential equations began when people started to describe the behaviour of fluids and other continua. From this emerged many branches of analysis and algebra. Now we know that at an atomic scale fluids are not really continua, but the model can still be useful. In the same way, it turns out that it can be useful to model things that are obviously not continuous on the scale of everyday life, like cars on a highway, by partial differential equations. When we do, the equations we get are interesting in themselves. Furthermore, solving them seems to explain some puzzling things about traffic flow. In this talk, I will describe how one finds the solution by rather elementary analysis, and what it says about traffic patterns. I will also show how a very simple extension of the model leads to equations that are not well understood at all and lie at the edge of current mathematical research.