Bjarne Toft

Dept of Mathematics & Computer Science, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark

September 2013-December 2013. Hosted by Prof Persi Diaconis, Dept of Statistics

The overall purpose oy my research is to study the interplay between games and mathematics with respect to (1) history, (2) unsolved mathematical research problems, (3) the use of games in mathematical education, and (4) how to use the general interest in games to transfer non-trivial mathematical ideas to a broader audience. I am in particular interested in the games discovered by the Danish designer Piet Hein, like Nimbi, Soma and Hex. There is presently a Danish project, carried out by a broad group of people from design, art and science, to publish a comprehensive book about Piet Hein.