Welcome! This is the website of Curtis Bright, a mathematician, computer scientist, and assistant professor at the University of Windsor. I received my PhD from the University of Waterloo for demonstrating the effectiveness of combining satisfiability checking and symbolic computation for solving mathematical problems.
Some of the things I'm most proud of are proving the current best known lower bound in the abc conjecture, producing the first computer-certifiable resolution of Lam's problem, deriving a new construction for Williamson matrices proving they exist in all orders that are powers of two, and showing that a three dimensional Kochen–Specker system contains at least 24 vectors.
The MathCheck group at the University of Waterloo and the Algorithms & Mathematics group at the University of Windsor are accepting applications for open research positions. See my academic webpage for more details about the kind of problems I work on.
Research
My research focuses on computer-assisted proofs, automated reasoning, symbolic computation, and discrete mathematics. I am a lead of the MathCheck project for verifying and finding counterexamples of mathematical conjectures. See my academic webpage for my publications and my curriculum vitae for a summary of my academic career. I have also put together a showcase explaining applications of my research.
Teaching
I love teaching, and I've been an instructor of numerous undergraduate computer science courses where I was responsible for the course content, including assignment and exam preparation. I've also taught graduate courses with a focus on computational mathematics and computer algebra and have designed and presented many tutorials with a focus on data structures, algorithms, and logic. I received a teaching award for outstanding performance as a teaching assistant in 2013.
Mathematics
A lifelong lover of mathematics, I have a well-versed background in the subject. I'm the kind of guy who thinks that putting an unabbreviated copy of the quartic formula on a poster is a really awesome idea—especially when you understand the mathematics behind the formula. I have an Erdős number of 2 and my writings have been referenced by giants such as Noam Elkies and Ian Stewart.
Writing
I enjoy the challenge of writing and explaining things clearly. I sometimes blog about ideas of interest to me but these days most of my writing effort is spent on advancing my research program.
Programming
I've had a fascination with computers and programming for as long as I can remember. I love the freedom that comes with it, whether that means automating truth table generation, writing an AI for the game of Ataxx, finding minimal prime numbers, or playing a random game of Go. In high school I developed my own version of the game Minesweeper with video recording capabilities; it is still in use by people who play competitively.
Hobbies
Because I have such a dominant ‘left-brain’ personality, I have deliberately made a point to engage in counter-balancing activities. In early 2013, I started dancing salsa and it has since become my primary hobby. I have taught salsa for three university clubs, danced in Romania, Germany, England, Hawaii, and New York, and performed in Montreal, Toronto, and Ottawa.
Contact
If you feel like discussing one of these topics in more depth, give me a shout!
- cbright (for nonacademic matters)
- cbright or cbright
- Academic page
- Google Scholar
- Computer Science Bibliography
- arXiv
- MathSciNet
- ResearchGate
- Mathematics Genealogy
- GitHub
- Blog