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Sunday, July 28, 2019
Saturday, July 27, 2019
Mathematical insights through collaboration and perseverance
Wei Zhang’s breakthrough happened on the train. He was riding home to New York after visiting a friend in Boston, during the last year of his PhD studies in mathematics at Columbia University, where he was focusing on L-functions, an important area of number theory.
“All of a sudden, things were linked together,” he recalls, about the flash of insight that allowed him to finish a key project related to his dissertation. “Definitely it was an ‘Aha!’ moment.”
But that moment emerged from years of patient study and encounters with other mathematicians’ ideas. For example, he had attended talks by a certain faculty member in his first and third years at Columbia, but each time he thought the ideas presented in those lectures wouldn’t be relevant for his own work.
“And then two years later, I found this was exactly what I needed to finish a piece of the project!” says Zhang, who joined MIT two years ago as a professor of mathematics.
As Zhang recalls, during that pivotal train ride his mind had been free to wander around the problem and consider it from different angles. With this mindset, “I can have a more panoramic way of putting everything into one piece. It’s like a puzzle — when you close your eyes maybe you can see more. And when the mind is trying to organize different parts of a story, you see this missing part.”
Allowing time for this panoramic view to come into focus has been critical throughout Zhang’s career. His breakthrough on the train 11 years ago led him to propose a set of conjectures that he has just now solved in a recent paper.
“Patience is important for our subject,” he says. “You’re always making infinitesimal progress. All discovery seems to be made in one moment. But without the preparation and long-time accumulation of knowledge, it wouldn’t be possible.”
An early and evolving love for math
Zhang traces his interest in math back to the fourth grade in his village school in a remote part of China’s Sichuan Province. “It was just pure curiosity,” he says. “Some of the questions were so beautifully set up.”
He started participating in math competitions. Seeing his potential, a fifth-grade math teacher let Zhang pore over an extracurricular book of problems. “Those questions made me wonder how such simple solutions to seemingly very complicated questions could be possible,” he says.
Zhang left home to attend a high school 300 miles away in Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan. By the time he applied to study at Peking University in Beijing, he knew he wanted to study mathematics. And by his final year there, he had decided to pursue a career as a mathematician.
He credits one of his professors with awakening him to some exciting frontiers and more advanced areas of study, during his first year. At that time, around 2000, the successful proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem by Andrew Wiles five years earlier was still relatively fresh, and reverberating through the world of mathematics. “This teacher really liked to chat,” Zhang says, “and he explained the contents of some of those big events and results in a way that was accessible to first-year students.”
“Later on, I read those texts by myself, and I found it was something I liked,” he says. “The tools being developed to prove Fermat’s Last Theorem were a starting point for me.”
Today, Zhang gets to cultivate his own students’ passion for math, even as his teaching informs his own research. “It has happened more than once for me, that while teaching I got inspired,” he says. “For mathematicians, we may understand some sort of result, but that doesn’t mean we actually we know how to prove them. By teaching a course, it really helps us go through the whole process. This definitely helps, especially with very talented students like those at MIT.”
From local to global information
Zhang’s core area of research and expertise is number theory, which is devoted to the study of integers and their properties. Broadly speaking, Zhang explores how to solve equations in integers or in rational numbers. A familiar example is a Pythagorean triple (a2+b2=c2).
“One simple idea is try to solve equations with modular arithmetic,” he says. The most common example of modular arithmetic is a 12-hour clock, which counts time by starting over and repeating after it reaches 12. With modular arithmetic, one can compile a set of data, indexed, for example, by prime numbers.
“But after that, how do you return to the initial question?” he says. “Can you tell an equation has an integer solution by collecting data from modular arithmetic?” Zhang investigates whether and how an equation can be solved by restoring this local data to a global piece of information — like finding a Pythagorean triple.
His research is relevant to an important facet of the Langlands Program — a set of conjectures proposed by mathematician Robert Langlands for connecting number theory and geometry, which some have likened to a kind of “grand unified theory” of mathematics.
Conversations and patience
Bridging other branches of math with number theory has become one of Zhang’s specialties.
In 2018, he won the New Horizons in Mathematics Breakthroughs Prize, a prestigious award for researchers early in their careers. He shared the prize with his old friend and undergraduate classmate, and current MIT colleague, Zhiwei Yun, for their joint work on the Taylor expansion of L-functions, which was hailed as a major advance in a key area of number theory in the past few decades.
Their project grew directly out of his dissertation research. And that work, in turn, opened up new directions in his current research, related to the arithmetic of elliptic curves. But Zhang says the way forward wasn’t clear until five years — and many conversations with Yun — later.
“Conversation is important in mathematics,” Zhang says. “Very often mathematical questions can be solved, or at least progress can be made, by bringing together people with different skills and backgrounds, with new interpretations of the same set of facts. In our case, this is a perfect example. His geometrical way of thinking about the question was exactly complementary to my own perspective, which is more number arithmetic.”
Lately, Zhang’s work has taken place on fewer train rides and more flights. He travels back to China at least once a year, to visit family and colleagues in Beijing. And when he feels stuck on a problem, he likes to take long walks, play tennis, or simply spend time with his young children, to clear his mind.
His recent solution of his own conjecture has led him to contemplate unexplored terrain. “This opened up a new direction,” he says. “I think it’s possible to finally get some higher-dimensional solutions. It opens up new conjectures.”
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How to Create a Purpose-Driven Business
It’s one thing to launch a business; it’s another to launch a business with a purpose. Jovian Zayne, founder of the OnPurpose Movement and the International Day of Purpose, wants to help entrepreneurs do just that—create a purpose-driven business.
The certified leadership and professional development coach, consultant, and public speaker says that purpose is the foundation of her work and at the core of who she is.
Zayne says she has worked with Google, Goldman Sachs, The New York Times, Columbia University, Harvard University, The Clinton Foundation, The Aspen Institute, Janelle Monáe’s Wondaland Records, and Teach For America.
“When I think about purpose through my work I think about it through service and impact,” says Zayne. “When people are thinking about using their sense of purpose to grow a business, you need to build your business on purpose, not by accident. Be very thoughtful around why are you doing this.”
She adds that being honest about why you want to start a business is key.
“I don’t think there’s a problem with starting a business because you want it to be profitable. And to that point, asking yourself, ‘Am I doing this in a way that honors the values I hold most dear?’ will help you.”
Zayne
When it comes to making a profit from a purpose-driven business, Zayne says, “Self-care is knowing your worth and being comfortable asking for it. No matter what products or services you provide, you thrive when you know what value you add.”
“I believe in the work that I do; I believe in the service I provide, and I believe that my gifts will make room for me. I also believe in creating a sustainable business that can create a legacy and generational wealth for people who look like me. That is something I’m committed to doing in this world because one of my values is equity,” says Zayne.
She goes on to say, “People should be putting their value where their output is. You can’t say that you’re doing critical work and let people pay you chump change, it’s just not gonna work. You won’t be able to continue to do the work that’s important and have people have a scalable business.”
A Framework For Creating Purpose
A big part of her work with corporations and individuals begins with being clear about not only the goals of the client but how she can best serve them. She starts her work with her ‘Core Five Framework.’ As a part of that framework, Zayne encourages entrepreneurs to ask themselves the following questions:
- Who do I want to serve right now?
- What skills, gifts, resources, and experiences do I have right now that I feel most compelled and uniquely positioned and called to use to positively serve this group?
- What habits need to shift in order for this impact to be real?
- Who needs to impact me?
- Who do you want to be as you serve?
Zayne’s framework serves as a guide but she also says that when doing the work it is important to ask yourself, “what value are you bringing with you?”
In addition, Zayne says that impactful work requires a team effort. “I deeply believe that you can’t be your best self by yourself.”
Doing Business on Purpose Requires a Lifestyle Shift
“There were certain things that I needed to shift in order to set my life up to be an entrepreneur. And it was everything from creating a different kind of health routine to creating structures that supported me being effective and keep my energy up,” says Zayne. She offers these tips on creating a business with purpose:
- Automate services and tasks that might be time-consuming and easy to forget to complete.
- Find a community of people who will hold you accountable.
- Create a routine that supports your health and wellness as you do the work so that you don’t burn out.
- Be more ferocious and committed to carefully curating what you allow in your spirit: from who you follow on your social media, to what you watch on TV, the books you read, etc.
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Conquering Fears About Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace
I have trained thousands of people throughout the United States, South America, and the United Kingdom; had personal conversations and conducted in-depth interviews about diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Two simple but extremely complex words are at the core of all of my diversity and inclusion conversations: loss and fear
If you think about the riot in Charlottesville, Virginia,—it was about fear as white supremacists yelled, “you will not replace us.” And in our local communities, we are tired of the constant fight around loss. Loss of economic development, healthy food, and access to healthcare.
I see it constantly as companies put strategies in place to hire a skilled, diverse workforce. Here is a recent conversation that I have had countless times.
Me: What do you think of the company’s goal to hire more diverse employees?
Employee: It feels like a quota system to me and my team.
Me: How so?
Employee: My team feels like white men are going to either lose their jobs or won’t be hired because of diversity.
Me: But you know that’s not true. No one will be hired or fired based upon their diversity. I think the company has done a great job of explaining their strategy to attain this goal. Why do you think your team chooses to see it different?
Employee: Here’s the deal. If a white guy, and say, a black woman are applying for the same position and everything is equal as far as work experience, skill sets, background and that all stuff—the position will now go to the black woman because of a diversity quota. It’s hard to compete with that.
Me: Now, let me ask you a tough question and it’s going to make you a little uncomfortable but that’s why we are here. This has happened repeatedly to people of color more times than we will ever be able to count. Furthermore, you can count the people of color in this office on one hand. We also both know that, overwhelmingly, positions have gone to white males in most instances throughout history. Have you or your team had any concerns about that?
Employee: I understand where you are coming from, but I guess what I’m saying is that we want fairness in the process.
Leveling the playing field
Diverse individuals, even those with degrees, are often not hired. What diverse people want is a level playing field, so they can compete. The employee mentioned above and I discussed that neither he or his team are responsible for the years of inequity experienced by people of color (or those that fall into an underrepresented category) but that they can be allies and help us dismantle those systems. Furthermore, as white men, they can help to put processes in place for change. We must get away from the thought (and practice) that the white male has no place in conversations about diversity and inclusion.
It affects everyone and we all must be engaged. Why? Because we are all driven by fear. People of color, LGBT people, and women fear being treated unequally and being continually marginalized. White people, especially men, fear living in a society where they are no longer the majority and what that will mean for their families both personally and professionally. Millennials fear their ideas are not being respected because of their age while older people fear not being relevant in our technology-driven world.
Ultimately, we are all scared of a system that treats us unfairly and processes that leave us unable to make a decent income, live in affordable housing, or give us access to healthcare and healthy food. We have the same fears and because I know this, I know the ‘us versus them’ dynamic continues to hold us back.
How do we fix it? Stop being scared! The heart of the matter is, unsurprisingly, showing heart. We confront our issues with unconditional love. Not the touchy-feely kind, but the total acceptance of humanity kind. Get in where you fit in because we ALL do.
Black Enterprise Contributors Network
The ideas and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author’s and not necessarily the opinion of Black Enterprise.
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Sheraton Atlanta linked to 11 new cases of Legionnaires’ Disease
So far, 11 people in Atlanta, Georgia have contracted Legionnaires’ disease and it appears that all of them stayed at the Sheraton Atlanta.
The hotel is now closed down until at least mid-August, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Georgia Department of Public Health investigators are testing water in the Courtland Street hotel pools, fountains, hot tubs, faucets trying to attempt to find where the disease started, although it is not clear whether the hotel is the source of the outbreak, said Department spokeswoman Nancy Nydam.
The hotel will stay closed until at least Aug. 11 and it could be much longer depending on the test results found by Georgia health investigators.
READ MORE: Jordyn Woods seen out and about partying with Khloé Kardashian’s ex James Harden
Initially three guests in the hotel tested positive for the disease, which can cause lung infection. Three more cases of Legionnaires surfaced on Monday and another was discovered on Wednesday. Georgia health officials identified the 11th case on Friday.
People most likely to suffer the greatest harm as a result of Legionnaires are older than 50, have medical conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or diabetes or have a history of smoking.
So far this year, close to 90 confirmed cases of Legionnaires disease have hit the state of Georgia. Last year, in Georgia there were 180 confirmed cases in the state.
CDC officials say a number of factors are contributing to the increase in new cases, including improved testing and an older, more susceptible population.
READ MORE: Boston Celtics sign Tacko Fall, a 7-foot-7 center from Dakar, Senegal to its roster
You cannot contract Legionnaires disease from person to person contact, authorities advise. Instead, bacteria gets into the lungs of those affected after they breathe in mist or another water source, such as lakes or streams, infected with the virus.
Consultants hired by the hotel are working with epidemiologists from the state health department and Fulton County Board of Health.
The CDC says about one in 10 people who get Legionnaires’ disease will eventually die as a result of complications from the disease.
The post Sheraton Atlanta linked to 11 new cases of Legionnaires’ Disease appeared first on theGrio.
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Boston Celtics sign Tacko Fall, a 7-foot-7 center from Dakar, Senegal to its roster
The Boston Celtics team has signed Tacko Fall, a 7-foot-7 center from Dakar, Senegal who wowed the organization during the NBA summer league.
Fall averaged 7.2 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.4 blocks in five summer league games, according to The USA Today.
READ MORE: New Emmett Till historical marker to be made bullet-proof
Fall was a star for the University of Central Florida’s Golden Knights and put up a strong NCAA performance against Duke but ultimately they lost in the second round. Still, Fall was a stand-out for NBA scouts at the draft combine and eventually made a summer league roster prior to getting drafted by the Celtics.
“He’s a high priority for us to try to really develop into a player,” Celtics president Danny Ainge told MassLive earlier this month. “Some of the plays he makes are hilarious because you just don’t see them. Guards get in a bind and they just throw the ball up in the air, then Tacko grabs them and makes tip-toe dunks from under the basket. It’s just like a senior in high school playing against fourth-graders sometimes out there.”
Financial details about Fall’s deal with the Celtics were not disclosed.
While at UCF, Fall averaged 10.1 points, 7.7 rebounds and 2.4 blocks a game in 115 games, according to The USA Today. In the 2018-19 season, Fall helped lead the Knights to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
READ MORE: Jordyn Woods seen out and about partying with Khloé Kardashian’s ex James Harden
In addition to Fall, the Boston Celtics have also signed guards Tremont Waters, Max Strus and Javonte Green to two-way contracts. The terms of those deals were also not disclosed.
Waters averaged 15.6 points, 3.1 rebounds, 5.9 assists and 2.5 steals while playing for Louisiana State University. He finished his sophomore season in 2018-19 as one of five finalists for the Bob Cousy Award. Prior to signing with the Celtics, Strus, 23, played at DePaul University, where he ranked third in the Big East.
We wish Fall and the rest of the new Celtics players an awesome year.
The post Boston Celtics sign Tacko Fall, a 7-foot-7 center from Dakar, Senegal to its roster appeared first on theGrio.
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New Emmett Till historical marker to be made bullet-proof
Mississippi rednecks and racists listen up: your attempts to shoot up a memorial for slain civil rights icon Emmett Till will soon get a bullet-proof solution.
The purple history marker placed near the location where Till’s 14-year-old body was discovered in 1955 has been removed due to vandalism and will be replaced by a new, fool-proof one. This is after a disturbing new photograph recently surfaced of three white University of Mississippi students posing with guns in front of the bullet hole-riddled memorial, according to NBC News.
The picture was discovered after one of the three men posted the photo to his Instagram page in March, according to an article authored by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting and ProPublica. All three of the students are now suspended from their fraternity.
READ MORE: Chances are Equifax owes you $125 in cash or free credit monitoring for 2017 data breach
The Emmett Till Memorial Commission, which maintains the marker, made the decision to replace the 50-pound sign for a 500-pound reinforced steel memorial, reported NBC News.
Patrick Weems, executive director of the commission, said the memorial has been destroyed several times in the past, and knows vandals will attempt to destroy the new one.
“We’re under no naiveté that this is going to end,” Weems told NBC News. “The manufacturers said that this is a bulletproof sign. We’ll test that theory.”
“This is an ongoing saga,” Weems added.
This is really about denial about the evils of racism and history, according to Susan Glisson, co-founder and partner in Sustainable Equity, the organization that consults with the commission on the best ways to memorialize Till, who would have turned 78 this past Thursday.
“It’s easier to cancel out that story for some people than it is to engage with the truth,” Glisson told NBC News.
READ MORE: RHOA star Cynthia Bailey says yes to boyfriend’s surprise marriage proposal
Although this latest incident occurred off of the campus for Ole Miss, the racist and troublesome history of the university is well-documented.
On Friday, Larry Sparks, interim chancellor of Ole Miss, took to Twitter to slam the picture as “offensive and hurtful,” but said the school was limited in what it could do because the incident occurred off campus and was “not part of any university-affiliated event.”
In 1962, federal forces were called to enforce the court-ordered enrollment of James Meredith, who was the university’s first Black student. Today, students and staff need to stand united against acts like these, Sparks said.
“In light of our history, our University of Mississippi community of more than 25,000 people needs to come together to make it clear that these students and their actions do not represent the values of our institution,” Sparks said on Twitter. “They do not speak for our institution, and they do not define us.”
Till, who was from Chicago, was in Mississippi visiting family during the summer of 1955 when a gang of white supremacists – who were never held responsible in a court of law – kidnapped, tortured and killed him. Till’s brave mom ordered his casket remain open so the entire world could see what those animals did to her baby.
The post New Emmett Till historical marker to be made bullet-proof appeared first on theGrio.
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Chances are Equifax owes you $125 in cash or free credit monitoring for 2017 data breach
Many Americans may qualify for compensation as a result of a $700 million settlement Equifax reached with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission this week for its 2017 data breach.
The breach affected 147 million Americans, and the settlement includes more than $425 million for individual compensation as a result, according to CNN. Because so much personal identifiable information was leaked – including names, addresses, birth dates, and social security numbers – the impact of the compromised information and the identity threat exposure may be something that lingers for many years to come.
READ MORE: RHOA star Cynthia Bailey says yes to boyfriend’s surprise marriage proposal
To find out whether your data was compromised, you can go to the Equifax Data Breach Settlement site’s look-up tool. If your data was breached, you are eligible to make a claim for either a one-time, $125 payment or 10 years of free credit monitoring — which is payable to claimants after the settlement gets final approval from the court on Dec. 19. If you’re opting for the payment, you have the choice of having the company send you a check or a pre-paid card.
People can also choose to opt out of the settlement, which then opens the door for them to file their own lawsuits against Equifax. People taking the opting out route don’t forfeit their rights to file an individual lawsuit against the company, for which the company will pay $25 per hour for the time litigants expended recovering from potential identity theft caused by the Equifax breach. This option requires detailed paperwork that outlines the additional funds.
READ MORE: Rumor Patrol: Diddy spotted out in Soho with Steve Harvey’s stepdaughter
For individuals wishing to pursue an individual lawsuit, send a “request for exclusion,” filing but be sure to get it off no later than November 19.
But whatever you do, do something. If you don’t do anything, you most certainly will give up your right to sue Equifax in the future, as well as your right to make a claim on the class action settlement.
Your deadline to opt out is November 19. The deadline to file a claim based on this settlement is January 22.
The post Chances are Equifax owes you $125 in cash or free credit monitoring for 2017 data breach appeared first on theGrio.
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RHOA star Cynthia Bailey says yes to boyfriend’s surprise marriage proposal
Real Housewives of Atlanta star, Cynthia Bailey, and her beau, Mike Hill, are tying the knot.
On Friday, after 14 months of dating, Hill, 48, a sports journalist, got down on one knee and proposed to Bailey 52, with a ginormous 5-carat princess cut solitaire ring, according to PEOPLE Magazine. Hill works for Fox Sports 1 in Los Angeles.
The proposal took place in Atlanta at the grand opening of Bailey’s new company, The Bailey Wine Cellar. Taking part in the surprise was Bailey’s daughter, Noelle Robinson, 19, and Hill’s two daughters, Kayla, 17, and Ashlee, 19, as well as the couple’s close friends and RHOA cast mates of Bailey’s.
READ MORE: Wendy Williams blasts Bow Wow for disparaging Ciara during a club appearance
Hill carried out the surprise with the help of Courtney Ajinça, celebrity event planner. Hill tricked Bailey into believing he was giving a toast to celebrate the opening of her business, but then his daughter, Kayla, interrupted him by handing him a bottle that question mark on it.
“No dad, I think you should propose like this,” Kayla said, a source told PEOPLE.
After this, Hill elicited Noelle’s help in opening the bottle and this is when she passed him the ring box. Both Noelle and Hill opened the box and then Hill dropped down on one knee to request Bailey’s hand in marriage.
Once he did, all of the daughters gathered behind Hill and held up a hand-made sign that looked like puzzle pieces, which read: “Can we be a family?”
Bailey started sobbing, but made sure she got in her “yes” to the big question.
The crowd that surrounded them started cheering and chanting “Congratulations Chill!” — which is the nickname Bailey and Hill use on social media that combines their names, the PEOPLE source said.
Both Bailey and Hill were married previously so this will be their second go at matrimony. Bailey was previously married to Peter Thomas from 2010 to 2017.
And even though Bailey was surprised at the timing of the proposal, she said she had dropped hints for about a year.
“I want to marry Mike. I love Mike. He’s my soulmate,” Bailey gushed to PEOPLE last December. “We talk about getting married all the time. I’m hoping a proposal will happen soon, if not before the end of this year, then hopefully next. I’ve certainly been dropping enough hints! But God has a plan, so I’m just letting it go.”
“You know, we’ve both been married before, so marriage is something we both understand,” she added. “We’re not jumping into this blind. We both have kids and we both love each other very much. We know marriage is the next step.”
Congratulations to them both!
The post RHOA star Cynthia Bailey says yes to boyfriend’s surprise marriage proposal appeared first on theGrio.
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