October Professional Activities wrap up

As context for what follows, the local U.S. Embassy asks all Fulbrighters to send monthly updates of what we've done in country, I guess so they can document some of the good things the Fulbright program does.  Over the course of my career, I've pulled together lots of annual reports -- and unlike many of my colleagues, I actually look forward to doing these.  

Since there's so much going on here, it makes a lot of sense to do these updates more frequently than I've done them in the past, and I figured I might as well include a version of these updates into the blog.  

General professional work

For my research project, I have continued work on Double Take, the book on Optical Illusions that I proposed to write here.  I've finished drafts of the introduction and first two chapters, and am very close to finishing on Chapter 3 ("Anamorphism").  

Here’s one of the pictures I made for the book: it’s a view of the Statue of Liberty that only looks correct if you look at it from the extreme right-hand side, very close to the page. 

 

I’ve been working on step-by-step instructions, with (I hope) helpful images; here’s a bit of that work.

Specific Events

October 1: I was a guest on “The Breakfast Show”, a radio show in Panama in English

October 2:   I was a guest on the Radio Ancón “Relax”, Radio Ancón, interviewed (in Spanish) by Keisy Pimentel, periodista y Comentarista en Radio Ancón

October 13: “Illusiones Ópticas” Taller at FUNDAPROMAT

October 15: “Illusiones Ópticas” Taller at U. Panama, Math & Math Education Departments

October 22: Attended FUNDAPROMAT’s final “MathsJam” of the year, and brought along a “foldology” puzzle for other attendees to solve.  

October 31: “Optical Illusions” workshop (in English) in building 224 of Ciudad del Saber, for the SIT students visiting Panama from the University of Texas

And that's all for October!