Fall ACCA Math Lectures: Details

The Fall ACCA Mathematics Lecture event will be held Thursday November 13^th 5:45-8pm at the University of St. Francis in Joliet.  We are excited to welcome our speaker Dr. Richard Cleary.  He will be giving two talks, see the titles and abstracts below.  We will have dinner in between the talks at 6:30pm.

Please RSVP through the link sent to the ACCA-Mathematics Google Group by email. Contact Christina Jamroz with questions at CJamroz@stfrancis.edu. Registration Deadline: Noon, Wednesday, 11/4.

First Talk: Sports Applications of Mathematics in the Era of Legalized Gambling

We are now more than twenty years beyond the publication of Michael Lewis’ classic book Moneyball, which popularized the previously niche subject of sports analytics. Since that time the field has grown and evolved, and now the introduction of legalized wagering on sports has made a generation much more interested in sports applications of mathematics. In this presentation, we will look at some of the key analytics ideas that are now deeply ingrained in sports teams and leagues, and we will demonstrate some ‘non-standard’ uses of mathematics in sports that are not well known. The examples provided can be adapted for teaching at almost any mathematical level.

Second Talk: Fraud Detection with Benford’s Law
There are many ways to connect traditional mathematics topics to important modern applications. These connections can help mathematics majors be prepared to enter careers in many fields, particularly data science. In this talk, we present an example of this type of connection by discussing applications of Benford’s Law. This is a surprisingly simple discrete probability distribution that has proven to be useful in various fields, particularly fraud detection in accounting. This is a wonderful example of theory preceding practice as the distribution was known for decades before the applications were implemented.