Communicating relational thinking

Abstract: I love math, I love people and I am interested in how they both interact. While being a postdoctoral fellow at the Topos Institute, a team of four including me published an online illustrated live-book on category theory -- which we termed as relational thinking for the purposes of this book -- intended for a general STEM-oriented audience. We used story-telling and leaned in on technology instead of formal symbols to communicate category theory.

In this talk, I will outline the storyline of this book and also touch on the technology that made this book happen. This project is joint work with Paul Dancstep, Brendan Fong, Angeline Aguinaldo, Evan Patterson and many others behind the scenes.

The book is available at toposinstitute.github.io/RelationalThinking-Book/cover.html

Computer scienceMathematics

Audience: researchers in the topic

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Relatorium seminar

Series comments: The name "Relatorium" combines "relator" with the Latin root "-ium," meaning "a place for activities" (as in "auditorium" or "gymnasium"). This seminar series is a platform to relate ideas, interact with math, and connect with each other.

In this series, we explore math beyond what we usually hear in standard talks. These sessions fall somewhere between a technical talk and a podcast: moderately formal, yet conversational. The philosophy behind the series is that math is best learned by active participation rather than passive listening. Our aim is to “engage and involve,” inviting everyone to think actively with the speaker. The concepts are accessible, exploratory, and intended to spark questions and discussions.

The idea of relatability has strong ties to compassion — creating space for shared understanding and exploration - which is the spirit of this seminar! This is a pilot project, so we’re here to improvise, learn, and evolve as we go!

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