Eugenia Cheng shows how art and math add up. by Liz Logan

SPRING 2018 28 Previous page: Eugenia In her course The Elegance of Abstraction, technology, engineering, and math to 29 Cheng uses a Slinky toy and a bagel to demonstrate “When she class projects are open-ended, guided by share their knowledge with art students. the concept of a torus, a concept but with no right answers. They David Gondek, a mathematician who the geometric shape of a gives examples, open students’ minds and make them helped develop the Watson artificial bagel. A torus can be cut into a Möbius strip. think deeply about the meaning of math. intelligence system at IBM, first held the position. Holmes says, “A major part This page: Eugenia Cheng she connects “The whole idea is that you can make your of our curriculum is teaching artists looks at a math-inspired own math, like making your own recipe self portrait by student to embrace curiosity, think beyond their them to a part in the kitchen,” Cheng says. “The projects Jordan Vela (BFA 2020). discipline, and engage with risky lead my students to have profound concepts that they don’t understand.” of our lives so discussions of concepts such as symmetry.” Unlike other scientists-in-residence, Tiffany Holmes, dean of undergraduate whose engagements have been one we understand studies, notes that while many students semester, Cheng has been teaching at are eager to take science classes related SAIC for two years now. This spring she how [math] to nature and the environment, strong is teaching a new course, Mathematical interest in math classes is unusual. She Secrets of Music, which combines plays a role in observes, “Eugenia’s course deals with her interest in math and her passion tough stuff, math concepts that are hard for music. everyday life.” to visualize, but she makes them concrete using fun props like pies and biscuits.” Holmes says SAIC is committed to engaging Cheng as a teacher “for as long as The Scientist-in-Residence program she wants to be here.” was initiated in 2014 to bring in top ▪ international thinkers in science, PAINTING BY NUMBERS BY PAINTING

STUDENTS SETTLE INTO THEIR of our lives so we understand how [math] Infinity: An Expedition to the Outer Limits SEATS in Professor Eugenia Cheng’s plays a role in everyday life.” of Mathematics. classroom, and in a moment she has A theoretical mathematician and author Cheng was born in Sussex, England, their full attention. She shares a funny of two books on popular mathematics, and earned her PhD in mathematics story about the look a cashier gave Cheng joined SAIC as scientist-in- from Cambridge University. She held her when she asked for bagels with the residence in the spring of 2015. Since postdoctoral positions around the world— biggest possible hole. Her students then, her class The Elegance of Abstraction including at the — laugh and watch intently as Cheng cuts has unleashed a contagious enthusiasm and received tenure at the University a bagel into a Möbius strip, a one-sided for math among SAIC undergraduates. of Sheffield in northern England. But after surface discovered by two German Every semester, there’s a waiting list for several years at the job, “I wasn’t happy, mathematicians in 1858. Cheng uses her class. and it dawned on me that I wasn’t using all bagels, Slinkies, and Play-Doh to of my abilities,” she recalls. illustrate key principles of topology, Teaching art students also fits perfectly advanced mathematical concepts that with Cheng’s mission to make math Just as she planned to resign from her can be difficult to grasp. accessible. Her first book, How to Bake Pi: tenured position for good, she heard about An Edible Exploration of the Mathematics SAIC’s Scientist-in-Residence program “She really cares about her students of Mathematics, cleverly married baking and applied. and cares about teaching,” says Paola with her expertise in , Santos-De Soto (BFA 2020), an “I was so excited about the idea of a highly abstract field concerned with how architecture student who studied with investigating math from an art student’s math works. After its debut in 2015, Cheng in the fall. “When she gives point of view,” she says. “I knew that the book sold tens of thousands of copies examples, she connects them to a part a lot of these students probably didn’t like and was translated into eight languages. math in high school because of how it Cheng was featured in the New York was taught, and I wanted to help them find Times and appeared as a guest on The a new way to get back into it.” Late Show with . Last year, she published a second book, Beyond SCHOOL OF Eugenia Cheng, Emmy Noether: Struggle—Freedom, 2017, chalk on chalkboard photographed and printed. Cheng created this piece in honor of the German SPRING 2018 THE ART INSTITUTE Jewish mathematician Emmy Noether (1882–1935), who was recognized as one of the most creative mathematicians in modern times. The six-pointed star is also OF CHICAGO the first stage of fractalization of the Koch snowflake, the mathematical structure depicted around it.