Wichita State University
More information
For further information email Wichita State Math Circle at tinka.davis@wichita.edu.
Registration and Consent Form
If you are interested, the 
must be filled out and hand delivered when first you attend or sent to:
Math Circle
Mathematics and Statistics
Wichita State University
1845 Fairmount St.
Wichita, Kansas 67260
USA
Next Meeting: 10/18/2026
Speaker: Nathan Thompson
Title: The mathematics of messiness (and how to fix it)
Date: 10/18/2026
Location: Jabara Hall Room 372, WSU main campus
Abstract: Life is full of messes: cluttered rooms, scattered papers, and jumbled collections. But how can we tell just how messy something is? In this Math Circle, we'll explore the mathematics of sorting. We'll investigate measures of messiness, test different ways to organize a collection, and discover why a little extra cleanliness can make finding things much easier.
- 9/27/2026 Dr Daniel Grady
- 10/04/2026 Tinka Davis
- 10/11/2026 Fall break
- 10/18/2026 Nathan Thompson
- 10/25/2026 Santosh Linkha
- 11/1/2026 Dr Mai Dao
Meeting times
Math Circle meets on Sundays from 2 to 3 p.m. on the Wichita State Main Campus, in Jabara Hall, Room 372. You should park in Lots 13 and 15.
About WSU Math Circles
Join us to explore math through hands-on and interactive activities led by university professors.
The Wichita State University Math Circle exists to keep young people interested in mathematics and let them explore and enjoy new topics. Math Circles (WSU Math Circles on Facebook) bring mathematicians and mathematical scientists into direct contact with pre-college students – currently 5th through 8th graders. Students and parents meet with math professionals in an informal and supervised setting to work on interesting problems and topics in mathematics. The goal is to get students excited and passionate about mathematics.
About Math Circles
Math Circles for students brings K-12 students together with mathematically sophisticated leaders in an informal setting, after school or on weekends, to work on interesting problems or topics in mathematics. Math Circles combine significant content with settings that encourage a sense of discovery and excitement about mathematics through problem-solving and interactive exploration. Ideal problems are low-threshold, high-ceiling; they offer a variety of entry points and can be approached with a minimal mathematical background, but lead to deep mathematical concepts and can be connected to advanced mathematics. (Math Circle on Facebook)
Past Activities
WSU Math Circle Spring 2026 Schedule:
- 02/22/2026: Dr Daniel Grady: "Polygons and symmetry"
- 03/01/2026: Dr Buma Fridman: "How big is infinity? Comparing sizes of infinite sets"
- 03/08/2026: Dr Catherine Searle: The geometry of the game SET
- 03/29/2026: D. W. Hall: Peaceful Chess
- 04/12/2026: Santosh Linkha: Fibonacci and the Golden Ratio
- 04/19/2026: Richard Traverzo: All About TORC: Triangles, Oscillations, Rotations, and Circles
- 04/26/2026: Dr Yeil Kwon: The Battle of Greed vs Mathematics
Math for Everyone lectures:
- 04/03/2026: Professor Colin Adams:
Title: Blown Away: What Knot to Do When Sailing
by Sir Randolph Bacon III, cousin-in-law to Colin Adams
Abstract:
Being a tale of adventure on the high seas, involving great risk to the tale teller, and how an understanding of the mathematical theory of knots saved his bacon. No nautical or mathematical background assumed.
- 04/30/2026: Tim Chartier
- 05/01/2026: Tim Chartier
WSU Math Circle Fall 2025 Schedule:
- 02/14/2025: Dr Mark Meyer: "Slithering Snake"
- 09/21/2025: Daniel Trousdale: "Cracking the Cryptic (sudoku variants)"
- 9/28/2025: Dr Tianshi Lu: "Calculating pi"
- 10/05/2025: Dr Nathan Thompson: "Finding Perfect Thirds"
- 10/19/2025: Dr William Ingle: "Vectors"
- 10/26/2025: Bijay Basnet: "Squares and Triangles"
- 11/2/2025: David Hall
- 11/9/2025: Dr George Bousefield
- 11/16/2025: Dr Mai Dao
Special Events:
- 2/7/24 - "e-day" celebration & Children's math library open hourse, with an e-Talk by Dr. Stephen Brady;
WSU Math Circle Fall 2024 Schedule:
- 9/15/2024: Dr. William Ingle; "Binomial Coefficients"
- 9/22/2024: Jamie Swan; "Apportionment methods"
- 9/29/2024: Dr. Mai Dao; "Keeping your messages secret"
- 10/6/2024: Dr. Xiaolong Li; "Bulgarian Solitaire"
- 10/20/2024: Dr. Daniel Grady; "The game of Nim"
- 10/27/2024: Mark Meyer; "Isoperimetric Problems"
- 11/3/2024: Dr. Yeil Kwon; "The Broken Stick Problem & Probabilistic Simulation for Pi"
- 11/10/2024: Dr. Stephen Brady; "Exploring the real number system"
- 11/17/2024: David Hall; "Mondrian Art Puzzles"
Spring 2024 Schedule:
- 2/11/24 - Dr. Robert Fraser; "Infinite Sums"
- 2/18/24 - Dr. Mai Dao; "Cracking Longitude at Sea"
- 2/25/24 - Ashley Thompson; "Careers in Math: My Experience as a Stress Engineering Intern"
- 3/3/24 - Dr. Xiaolong Li; "Magic with Math"
- 3/24/24 - Dr. Tianshi Lu; "Math on the Chessboard"
- 4/7/24 - Dr. Nick Solomey; "The Mathematical Postulates Behind Modern Physics"
- 4/14/24 - Mark Meyer; "Optimal strategy for cutting a circle (or slicing a pizza)"
- 4/21/24 - Jamie Swan; "Mathematical Investigation of the game Spot It"
- 4/28/24 -Dr. Holger Meyer; "Self-similarity in nature and mathematics"
Fall 2023 Schedule:
- 9/10/23 - Dr. Thalia Jeffres
- 9/17/23 - Dr. Fujian Yan
- 9/24/23 - Mark Meyer
- 10/1/23 - Dr. Mai Dao
- 10/8/23 - Dr. Buma Fridman
- 10/22/23 - Dr. Nickolas Solomey
- 10/29/23 - Jamie Swan
- 11/5/23 - Dr. Daniel Grady
- 11/12/23 - Dr. Catherine Searle
- 11/19/23 - Elton Bowman
Organizers: Tinka Davis, William Ingle, Rachel Heckman, and Daniel Grady
Math Circle promotes mathematical literacy, curiosity in youth
K-12 students get a taste of nitrogen in their ice cream
Professor Elizabeth Behrman demonstrates what happens when you pour liquid nitrogen
on a balloon to K-12 students involved in Math Circle. Math Circle was a group that
met up on Sundays to help instill the love of math and math-related subjects in younger
generations. Read the story »Mia Hennen, The Sunflower