Mathematical Careers and Ideas

presents

"The $25,000,000,000 Eigenvector: The Linear Algebra Behind Google."

by Prof. Kurt Bryan
Mathematical Careers and Ideas is a series of talks offered by the Department of Mathematics for math majors and other undergraduates who have a particular interest in the mathematical sciences.

Kurt Bryan is Professor of Mathematics at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Here is his description of his talk:

    "When Google went online in the late 1990s, one thing that set it apart from other search engines was that its search result listings always seemed to deliver the 'good stuff' up front. With other search engines you often had to wade through screen after screen of links to irrelevant web pages that just happened to match the search text.  Part of the magic behind Google is its PageRank algorithm, which quantitatively rates the importance of each page on the web, allowing Google to rank the pages and thereby present to the user the more important (and typically most relevant and helpful) pages first.

  I'll show how the classic PageRank algorithm works. It involves nothing more than elementary linear algebra, on 8 billion by 8 billion matrices!"

The talk will run from 6:50 to 7:50 p.m.  You are encouraged to arrive at 6:30 for an opportunity to meet other students who are interested in mathematics.

WEDNESDAY MARCH 28
THE UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS ROOM (HILL CENTER 323), BUSCH CAMPUS
All students are welcome — and their professors too.
FREE PIZZA AND SOFT DRINKS FROM 6:30