Costa Rica hosting Math + X symposium with renowned researchers

Costa Rica will welcome some of the world’s top scientific minds when it hosts Math + X, a symposium organized by Rice University, this week.

The three-day event, which begins Wednesday, Jan. 29 in Las Catalinas, Guanacaste, will focus on “exploring the role of causal inference in improving models for critical geoscience phenomena.”

Speakers include Sella Nevo (Google Research), Tamara Broderick (MIT), David Weitz (Harvard University), Rene Vidal (Johns Hopkins University) and Andras Vasy (Stanford).

Among the keynote addresses will be presentations on modeling sea ice; improving flood forecasting; and the mathematics of deep learning. Math + X 2020 will also feature discussions of Costa Rica’s natural phenomena — such as volcanic activity and earthquakes — by Tico researchers.

“One needs to develop new approaches to describe the complexities of these natural systems and to understand the robustness and predictive capabilities of models that operate within complete information on the contributing processes,” event organizers say.

Math + X 2020 is funded by the Simons Foundation, a private organization with a mission to “advance the frontiers of research in mathematics and the basic sciences.” It was organized in partnership with the Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica (OVSICORI-UNA).

Rice University, based in Houston, Texas, says it is “expanding academic exchange with top Costa Rican universities, institutions and organizations.”

The full agenda for Math + X 2020 is available here.