Monday, November 14 at 4PM: Senior math majors Beth Kinsman and Scott Constable will speak about their work. Refreshments prior to the talks.
Beth Kinsman, speaking about "The Mathematics of Risk: Being an Actuarial Intern"
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be an actuary? This is a student’s perspective of two internships as a retirement consulting intern with one of the world’s top consulting firms. As an actuary in the consulting field specific projects included analyzing client’s asset and liabilities, preparing actuarial funding and accounting reports, calculating pension benefits, and preparing government forms. A general overview will be given on the different projects that were worked on along with highlighting the exam process and what it is like to sit for an actuary exam.
Scott Constable, speaking about "Cracking the Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange"
How is it that two people who have never had a secret in common, can have a public discussion and agree upon a common secret? The answer to this question is one that is both fundamental to all of internet security, and one that is answered quite elegantly with the mathematical science of cryptology. In 1976, Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman published a paper titled ``New Directions," which addressed this issue with a highly illusive concept in mathematics: the one-way function, or a function that can be done, but not undone. Their method is justified by ancient number theory techniques, which ironically and aptly exploit the computational limitations of modern computers.
Monday, November 14
4PM
Williams 310
