UC Davis SIAM

Stay tuned for more info!

March 4, 2026
MSB Room 1147, Time: 4-5 pm

This is an opportunity for those of you interested in jobs outside of academia to learn more about what it is like finding jobs and working in industry. We have invited several UC Davis alum and current working professionals to join us over zoom to answer questions you may have about transitioning from academia to industry. Our panelists are Avishai Halev (Data Scientist at Google), Jason Li (Research Scientist at Meta), Tianke Li (Applied Scientist at Amazon) and Carter Johnson (Senior Scientist at Certara).

January 16, 2026
Woodstock's Pizza, Downtown Davis. Time: 5 pm

Come hangout with other SIAM folks and enjoy some pizza! We'll also discuss some future events and how you can participate!

November 19, 2025
MSB Room 2112, Time: 4-5 pm

Hear from postdoctoral researchers about their experiences and advice on applying for academic jobs! Open to all.

November 12, 2025
MSB Room 2112, Time: 4-5 pm

Hear from fellow graduate students about their internships, workshops, summer schools, and other extra academic experiences! Open to all.

October 14, 2025
MSB Room 2112, Time: 11:30am-1 pm

This is a great opportunity to update and polish your resume/CV in time for the upcoming UCD Fall Career Fair (October 15th) and the NCC25 Regional SIAM conference (October 27-28th)!

We will start off with a presentation from a Career Center representative who will share tips and tricks for improving your resume. We will then give you some individual work time and an opportunity for small group peer review. All are welcome.

January 24, 2025
Woodstock's Pizza, Downtown Davis. Time: 5 pm

Come hangout with other SIAM folks and enjoy some pizza! We'll also discuss some future events and how you can participate!

November 20, 2024
MSB Room 2112, Time: 3-4 pm

Hear from postdoctoral researchers about their experiences and advice on applying for academic jobs! Open to all.

November 13, 2024
MSB Room 2112, Time: 3-4 pm

Hear from fellow graduate students about their internships, workshops, summer schools, and other extra academic experiences! Open to all.

April TBD, 2024
Merced, Time: 7 pm

We will be carpooling to take our students to the Central Valley SIAM Conference.

UC Davis students won all of the awards for this regional.

May 17, 2024
TBD, Time: TBD

Check back later for more event details!

March 16th, 2024
TLC 2010, Time: 8am - 5 pm Struggling with 22A or 27A? We’re expanding our workshop to include statistics. Let us help you get the best grade possible. We ask for a small donation to put on this great event.

March 17th, 2024
TLC 2010, Time: 8am - 8 pm Struggling with 22B or 27B? We’re expanding our workshop to include statistics. Let us help you get the best grade possible. We ask for a small donation to put on this great event.

January 12th, 2024
Woodstocks Pizza, Time: 7 pm

December 9th, 2023
TBD, Time: 9 AM - 7 pm

Struggling with 22A? We’re here to help. Come to our all day boot camp to help you understand linear algebra and ace that final! We ask for a small donation to put on this great event.

Thank you to everyone who donated! We raised about $150 in addition to being able to have all of the snacks and coffee paid for entirely by the participants.

November 8th, 2023
Mathematical Sciences Building, Rm 1147, Time: 4-5 pm

This social event is designed to raise awareness of summer opportunities for applied mathematicians outside of academia. Students who participated in internships share their experiences in a casual environment designed to facilitate discussion. This year featured a variety of internships from across the public and private sectors.

October 18th, 2023
Mathematical Sciences Building, Rm 1147, Time: 4-5 pm

Learn about the process of applying to Postdocs as well as ask questions to a panel of persons who already went through the process.

September 29th, 2023
Mathematical Sciences Building, Courtyard, Time: 3-5 pm

Come say Hi and meet your fellow SIAM members.

Lecture 1: March 15th, 2023
Lecture 2: March 22th, 2023

Mathematical Sciences Building, Room 3106, Time: 12 pm

SIAM is hosting a 2-part tutorial session this quarter to help people enter the exciting world of computational mathematics. For this first week, we will walk through the steps at installing python (correctly!) and submitting a project for a Kaggle competition. Please bring your laptops! We will have our representatives there to help with the tutorial, so it will be interactive! The next week, the series continues by exploring computational algebraic geometry and elimination theory. Make sure you have completed the tutorial from the first week in order to fully participate in this live tutorial.

April 27th, 2022
Mathematical Sciences Building, Room 1147, Time: 3-4 pm

This social event is designed to raise awareness of summer opportunities for applied mathematicians outside of academia. Students who participated in internships share their experiences in a casual environment designed to facilitate discussion. This year featured a variety of internships from across the public and private sectors.

Jean-Paul Watson, Sandia National Laboratories
October 25th, 2016

Seminar: Applications of and Challenges Associated With Stochastic Optimization “In the Wild”
Mathematical Sciences Building, Room 1147, 2:10 PM-3:00 PM

Abstract: Due to recent advances in both mathematics and algorithmics, stochastic optimization models are now to the point where they are starting to become computationally tractable at reasonable scales. However, significant challenges remain on both fronts, in terms of both problem classes and application environments that can be addressed. In this talk, I will discuss key applications of stochastic optimization in two large and related application spaces: critical infrastructure protection and power systems operations / planning. The talk will focus on both the applications themselves and mathematical and computational challenges that are inhibiting the broader adoption of stochastic optimization in these contexts.

October 6th, 2016
Mathematical Sciences Building, Room 1147, Time: 2-3 pm

This social event is designed to raise awareness of summer opportunities for applied mathematicians outside of academia. Students who participated in internships share their experiences in a casual environment designed to facilitate discussion. This year included graduate students from mathematics, statistics, and computer science, and featured a variety of internships from across the public and private sectors.

Trina Ray, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Friday May 13, 2016, 3:10-4:00 PM
Mathematical Sciences Building, Room 1147

Abstract: The international Cassini-Huygens spacecraft was launched on October 15, 1997 and had a marathon 7-year 2-billion mile journey to the distant planet Saturn. The 23-foot tall, 14-foot wide, 6-ton spacecraft is the largest most sophisticated outer planet spacecraft ever built, and is in its twelfth year of operation in orbit around the planet Saturn. Cassini-Huygens has been returning extraordinary data about the entire Saturn system: the spectacular rings; the numerous icy satellites with a variety of unique surface features; the giant planet itself; a huge magnetosphere teeming with particles that interact with the rings and moons; and the intriguing moon Titan, which is slightly larger than the planet Mercury, and whose hazy atmosphere is denser than that of Earth. This talk will be an overview of the Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn with a summary of the top science returns of its first 12 years in orbit.

Joseph Grcar, Lawrence Berkeley (Retired)
April 7, 2016, 12:10-1:30 PM
Mathematical Sciences Building, Room 2112

Abstract: Exterior ballistics studies the trajectories of bullets and artillery shells, or in Leonard Euler's phrase, the path of an object thrown into the air. Military technologists predicted trajectories using Isaac Newton's model of a point-mass with aerodynamic drag from Euler in 1753 to ENIAC in 1946. For this purpose they invented various computing methods: ballistic tables, numerical integration, differential analyzers, and finally electronic computers. Indeed, the United States supported inventing computers precisely to construct artillery firing tables in the second World War. Beyond the many fascinating historical events, this long period offers a test for understanding the history of engineering technology. I propose a concept of episodic change in the history of engineering analogous to the paradigm shifts in the history of science.

Johannes Brust, UC Merced
March 9, 2016, 4:10-5:00 PM
Mathematical Sciences Building, Room 2240

Abstract: The problem of minimizing a vector valued scalar objective function can be approached with a Trust-Region algorithm. This method is based on minimizing Taylor approximations of the objective function subject to a constraint. These constrained problems are the so called Trust-Region subproblems. Our focus is on solving the subproblem when the number of unknowns is large, and the 2nd derivative matrix of the objective function is difficult to compute.

February 26, 2016

Seminar
Mathematical Sciences Building, Room 1147, 11:00 AM-12:00 PM

Math Career Talk/Discussion
Mathematical Sciences Building, Room 1147, 12:00-1:00 PM

An informal discussion about mathematical careers at the Department of Defense. Snacks will be provided, and graduate students are especially encouraged to attend. Internship opportunities will be discussed.

Tamara G. Kolda, Sandia National Laboratories
February 4, 2016

Seminar: Optimization Challenges in Tensor Factorization
Mathematical Sciences Building, Room 2112, 11:00 AM-12:00 PM

Abstract: Tensors are multiway arrays, and tensor decomposition is a powerful tool for compression and data interpretation. In this talk, we demonstrate the utility of tensor decomposition with several examples and explain the optimization challenges, both theoretical and practical. The optimization problems are nonconvex, but they can typically be solved via an alternating approach that yields convex subproblems. We consider open problems such as determining the model complexity, tensor completion, incorporating symmetries and other constraints, handling ambiguities in scaling and permutation, enforcing structure like sparsity, and considering alternative objective functions.

Applied Math Career Talk/Discussion
Mathematical Sciences Building, Room 2112, 2:00-3:00 PM

An informal, joint session with the weekly department tea; snacks and drinks provided as always.

October 13, 2015
Mathematical Sciences Building, Room 1147, 2:10-3:00 PM

The first annual Davis SIAM Round-table on Summer Internships, Workshops, and Extra-Academic Experiences was held on October 13th, 2015. At the event several grads discussed a variety of summer opportunities they had pursued. Some of the opportunities included public internships at the NSA and Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, as well as private internships at NASA and Smule, a bay area audio app designer. The event was designed to generate awareness of summer opportunities available outside of academia. To view pictures of the event, check out the Photo Gallery.

Annually, 2008-2013

One of the largest events the SIAM chapter has organized in past years is the Davis SIAM Student Research Conference (DSSRC) which took place in the Spring Quarter at UC Davis. The conferences provided an opportunity for students to promote their research in either a talk or poster session format.