Northwestern State University will host the annual section meeting of the Louisiana/Mississippi Mathematical Association of America March 1-3. The conference is expected to draw more than 100 professors of mathematics and undergraduate mathematicians to present research papers that address mathematical principals and mathematics pedagogy, according to Dr. Frank Serio, head of Northwestern State’s Department of Mathematics and Physical Science. The event will also include panel discussions, book exhibits and a WebWork workshop. The conference will take place in the Sylvan Friedman Student Union.

Dr. Erik Demaine, professor of computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will be a featured speaker. Demaine’s research interests range throughout algorithms, from data structures for improving web searches to the geometry of understanding how proteins fold to the computational difficulty in playing games. His address will be entitled “Algorithms Meet Art, Puzzles, and Magic.” The talk will address mathematics as an art form that manifests itself through other media such as sculpture, puzzles, and magic, and how artistic endeavors provide insight to underlying mathematic principles.

There will be two showings of the documentary “Between the Folds” during the conference at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 2 and at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 3. The award-winning documentary depicts a cast of fine artists and scientists, including Demaine, who devoted their lives to the medium of modern origami.

Institutional partners in the Louisiana/Mississippi section of the MAA are Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts, Mississippi College, Mississippi State University and the University of Louisiana-Lafayette.

The section meeting rotates among participating schools and was held at Northwestern State in 2002.