Artist stories

Local world-renowned chaos theorist, UCSC Professor of Mathematics, Ralph Abraham came on to the show to talk about using games and computer technology to educate and help the world. He is currently working on a project using agent based modeling in the classroom (middle & high school).

I first met Professor Abraham in the summer of 2008 when I was greatly concerned about my archaic computer skills for his upcoming class, DANM 220, Computer Programming for the Arts. He told me not to worry even though I hadn’t taken a computer class in over 20 years and he was correct. I had a wonderful time and learned a great deal specifically around a programming language and easy game development entitled the freeware, NetLogo. Ralph showed us the technique of dissecting for learning computer programming. Not only is Ralph brilliant and has consistently pushed active on the research frontier of dynamics, he is able to teach complex theories and higher mathematics to elementary students all the way to graduate university students.

Ralph has been Professor of Mathematics at the University of California at Santa Cruz since 1968. He received the Ph.D. in Mathematics at the University of Michigan in 1960, with a thesis in tensor calculus and applied differential geometry. He is the author of more than 20 texts.  One his newest books, Bolts from the Blue, The Co-Evolution of Arts and Mathematics, Ralph lectured at UCSC in 2009. The entire lecture is on YouTube. I highly recommend watching it.