Cool beyond belief -- a football player AND a published mathematician!

mhardy6647

Until today I didn't know about this guy. Not quite enough to make me start rooting for the Ravens, but I will be pullin' for John Urschel. Heck, for mathematics, this is better than Pi Day 2015!

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/03/20/394340722/john-urschel-ravens-offensive-lineman-publishes-math-paper

Abstact: In this paper, we develop a cascadic multigrid algorithm for fast computation of the Fiedler vector of a graph Laplacian, namely, the eigenvector corresponding to the second smallest eigenvalue. This vector has been found to have applications in fields such as graph partitioning and graph drawing. The algorithm is a purely algebraic approach based on a heavy edge coarsening scheme and pointwise smoothing for refinement. To gain theoretical insight, we also consider the related cascadic multigrid method in the geometric setting for elliptic eigenvalue problems and show its uniform convergence under certain assumptions. Numerical tests are presented for computing the Fiedler vector of several practical graphs, and numerical results show the efficiency and optimality of our proposed cascadic multigrid algorithm.

citation: http://arxiv.org/abs/1412.0565

I particularly like his rationale for why he plays football :- )
This is a guy who knows himself.

"I play because I love the game. I love hitting people. There's a rush you get when you go out on the field, lay everything on the line and physically dominate the player across from you. This is a feeling I'm (for lack of a better word) addicted to, and I'm hard-pressed to find anywhere else. My teammates, friends and family can attest to this: When I go too long without physical contact I'm not a pleasant person to be around. This is why, every offseason, I train in kickboxing and wrestling in addition to my lifting, running and position-specific drill work. I've fallen in love with the sport of football and the physical contact associated with it."

mrbiron

My brain hurts just reading that first paragraph.

Nowhere in the abstract does it mention coke, heroin, methamphetamines or the like. An athelete with a head on his shoulders.....I'm shocked!

mhardy6647

Maybe he beats up other mathematicians in elevators, I dunno...

cnh

A selfless natty? Lol

mhardy6647

I thought of you (and my son, the PhD student in teh maths) when I posted this!

cnh

Ph.D.? OK! But don't beat anyone up, and don't take this guy's steroid stacks (the majority of NFL players are on the juice-the kind that is almost impossible to test). (Natty = an athlete who claims to be 100 percent natural-or drug free, lol)

He enjoys physical contact? Oh my Gandhi!

mhardy6647

I doubt that he beats people up, except on Sunday afternoons, in designated places.
That said, I would not challenge him to a game of chess! ;- )

BlueFox

After a few more concussions his math will be limited to using a calculator.

mrbiron

DSkip wrote: »

BlueFox wrote: »

After a few more concussions his math will be limited to using a calculator.

I've had 6. No calculators here bud.

2 more and you get a free oil change. Keep up the good work!

If he was a basketball player, he'd be a pro in grams, kilos, pounds, 1/8ths, Chevy Cargo Van weight limits....

scubalab

Fellow Penn Stater!! He was a fantastic scholar athlete at PSU, and a prime example of what the program was, and still is about - success with honor.