Math at Work Career Conference
Keynote Address
Professor Robert L. Devaney
Boston University
Chaos Games and Fractal Movies
In this talk, we will describe some of the beautiful images that arise from the “Chaos Game.” We will show how the simple steps of this game produce, when iterated, millions of times, the intricate images known as fractals. We will discuss how applications of all sorts arise from these ideas, including ways former students of mine have gone on to use these ideas in Hollywood, at Microsoft and elsewhere.
Robert L. Devaney received his undergraduate degree from the College of the Holy Cross, and his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley. Before coming to Boston University, he taught at Northwestern University and Tufts University. His main area of research is dynamical systems. He is the author of more than one-hundred research and pedagogical papers and the author, co-author or editor of thirteen books in that field. He has delivered more than 1,300 invited lectures on dynamical systems and related topics in all 50 states and in more than 30 countries on six continents.
Devaney has also been the “Chaos Consultant” for several theaters’ productions of Tom Stoppard’s play Arcadia. In 2007, he was the mathematical consultant for the Kevin Spacey movie 21. He has won numerous awards, including the Award for Distinguished University Teaching from the Northeastern Section of the Mathematical Association of America, and the Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award for Distinguished University Teaching from the Mathematical Association of America. When not doing mathematics or teaching, he can be found sailing or at the Metropolitan Opera.
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