Report on Bridges 2016—In Memory of Our Founder, Reza Sarhangi (1952–2016)

Abstract

Report on Bridges 2016 -- In Memory of Our Founder, Reza Sarhangi (1952-2016) Carlo H. Sequin, EECS Computer Science, U. C. Berkeley For the last decade, Bridges has been the premiere international conference devoted to mathematical connections in art, architecture, music, and many other cultural domains. It regularly attracts a few hundred participants -- artists, mathematicians, computer scientists, teachers, etc. -- from dozens of countries. The first conference was organized by Reza Sarhangi [1] in Winfield, Kansas, in 1998. Since then it has moved through nine different countries and diverse places such as London (UK), Seoul (South Korea), Pecs (Hungary), Granada (Spain), Coimbra (Portugal), Leeuwarden (the Netherlands), and Banff (Canada). You can learn more about the origins and history of this conference series in an article by Kristof Fenyvesi, one of the organizers of this year’s conference [2]. This year, the annual Bridges conference was held in a particularly beautiful and serene location: The University of Jyvaskyla in Finland. The facilities in the Agora Center were superb: comfortable, modern auditoriums and pleasant, more intimate meeting rooms. Everything was well-signed and easy to find, and there was also a great cafeteria in the same building! The conference comprised four days of talks and interactions plus an optional excursion day. The formal, refereed part of the conference entailed 10 plenary presentations, 40 regular papers, 61 short papers, and 17 “hands-on” workshops. At any time, there were many interesting options in four parallel tracks, and it was often difficult to choose which session to attend. Fortunately, the complete printed proceedings were available at registration time; this allowed one to make informed – but still very hard – choices. Bridges is much more than just the presentation of submitted papers. There is also a curated art exhibition, a festival of short mathematical movies, a session of mathematical poetry, and an informal theatre event performed by conference participants. Moreover, participants who did not want to formally present a refereed paper can still give 10-minute oral summaries in a couple of “abstracts only” sessions and could also display tangible works that they brought to the conference in a large “Show and Tell” area in the lobby and its adjacent corridors. University Hotel Alba, Jyvaskyla The lobby of the conference building Sadly, this was the first conference where Reza Sarhangi, the founder of this conference series and the President of the Bridges organization, could no longer be with us and infect us with his boundless enthusiasm. The conference started with a touching memorial session, where Bridges board members and friends shared fond memories of interactions with Reza [1]. We all miss him very much as a person; but it was also clear, that he was present in spirit and that he lives on through his various legacies: the annual Bridges Conferences, the Mini-Bridges Symposia, and a whole shelf full of beautiful and inspiring Bridges Proceedings!