In Spring 2025, the Department of Mathematics released the first episode of MATH Talks, an initiative of the UIUC Mathematics Development Advisory Board (MDAB) designed to engage Illinois Math alumni, current students, faculty, and anyone with a love of mathematics. Having been in development for several years, this project has grown in scope from its initial conception. The series is now produced through a collaboration between the Department of Mathematics and the Department of Media & Cinema Studies in the College of Media with funding coming from both departments, an anonymous donor, and the college of Liberal Arts & Sciences. In the beginning, however, it was just one man recording on his phone in the middle of COVID.
2020 was a time of reflection for many, including Dr. Bill Taber, math alumnus and former MDAB member. After the murder of George Floyd, he and his employer, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), took a close look at the diversity, equity, and inclusion practices within their company and began to question how they could evaluate their hiring process. Diversifying employer demographics is a complex issue that takes time to resolve and is difficult to determine if an employer is on track to an equitable workplace. With his strong background in mathematics, Taber decided he needed to model it mathematically stating, “Math can help us see our unconscious bias.”
In an ideal workplace, the employee demographics should be equal to the population’s demographics. In practice, most industries are far from the ideal and realistically, disparities in hiring cannot be fixed overnight. Employers are limited by employee turnover rate. How then, would any employer know if they are on trajectory to reach their diversity goals if there is only incremental change each year?
To answer this difficult question requires a thorough examination of the hiring process and a solid understanding of the underlying mathematics. Employers first need a solid foundation to their hiring practices. To hire diversely, they need to be sure to recruit diversely and to seek out a wide range of applicants. Furthermore, they need to have strong anti-bias training within their hiring process to ensure these applicants have a fair chance. Once these practices are in place, the population of workers will gradually shift to reflect the wider population demographics.
To visualize how this process works overtime, Taber treated the problem like a fluid of solutions. All he needed to do was model how long it would take to reach an equilibrium, then he could track the changes in employee demographics to see if his employer was on track to reaching its goals. This process would also estimate how long it would take to reach this equilibrium and give them opportunity to adjust their hiring practices to reach equilibrium at a faster rate.
Taber presented his model and mathematical explanation to JPL to positive reception. Not long after, Taber joined the MDAB, and the committee began discussing ways to get people engaged in mathematics. They felt that the value of mathematics was not well understood by society and wanted to steward a project that would showcase practical applications of mathematics and how math research impacts the real world.
In searching for a way to promote interest and teach these real-world applications of mathematics, they eventually settled on creating a Ted-talk like series of educational videos. The series would provide a platform for sharing insights and ideas from working mathematicians in academia and industry with the broader Illinois Math community as well as the general public. They decided on the name “MATH Talks” with MATH standing for Mathematics Advancing Technical Horizons, a backronym that suits their goals of promoting the real-world value of mathematic theory and research.
As this conversation was happening in the middle of the COVID pandemic, members of the committee were still working remotely, and campus was still under lockdown. It didn’t look like there would be any development towards this project for some time, but Taber took it upon himself to create his own video. Adapting his JBL presentation, he wrote the script, made the slides, and filmed the entire video on his phone from his son’s old bedroom which he was using as an impromptu office. There was still a long road ahead, but there was at least now a proof-of-concept.
From there, the MATH Talks project continued to evolve. Once in-person activity resumed on campus, the MDAB wanted to ramp up the scale of production. For the second episode, they would be recording live in front of an audience with filming and post-production led by Victor Font who would incorporate the production into the curriculum of one of his courses.
Once the production was approved, MDAB needed to select a speaker for the second episode. The committee felt it was important to continue to show that mathematics can be used to solve real-world problems and wanted to select a topic that felt both relevant and accessible. Rui Fernandes, MDAB Faculty Liasson, suggested Professor Zoi Rapti as her work in pandemic modeling would make for a timely and interesting topic. Once she was on board, they began to develop the script with help from Professor Thom Miller from the Department of Theatre, College of Fine and Applied Arts.
After filming the second episode, the MDAB was able to secure funding to continue the series. Now fully funded, they were able to begin formalizing the production process. MATH Talks episodes would be recorded in the fall during Font’s class MACS 370: Cinematography and Sound Design, offered through the College of Media, and would then be edited by students under Font’s guidance. In Fall 2024, the third episode of MATH Talks was recorded with Professors Felix Ledinksy and Amanda Young on the topic of Mathematics in Quantum Science and Technology, set to be released in Fall 2025. The video was once again filmed in front of a live audience. Ledinsky and Young went through the script twice to ensure the best quality of video and afterwards, the guests were treated to a reception with snacks and refreshments.
The fourth video in the MATH Talks series is currently under production and slated for release in Spring 2026, continuing what will become a yearly tradition. This project has been in the works since 2020 and has finally come to fruition with the release of Episode 1: The Mathematics of Diversity in Spring 2025, and Episode 2: Modeling of the Covid Epidemic in Summer 2025. The Department of Mathematics at Illinois is excited to see how mathematics continues to advance technical horizons, and we hope you will tune in for the upcoming episodes of MATH Talks.
-Written by Jaden Meadows 2025