The 10th Annual Pi Mu Epsilon Lecture will be held in Avery 115 next Friday, Oct. 7 from 4 to 5 p.m., with the reception beginning at 3:30 p.m.
The lecture, Breaking Enigma the First Time, will be given by David Saltman, Director of the Center for Communications Research. He will give a talk geared toward undergraduates on the mathematics that led to breaking of the Enigma codes.
Enigma was the name given to the cipher machines that the German Armed Forces used to safeguard their communications during World War II. The story of how the Allies broke the Enigma codes (and kept it a secret from the Nazis) is a compelling and important one. The course of the war might have been far different without the vital intelligence gained by reading Enigma messages. However, the breaking of Enigma started with the less known work of three Polish mathematicians, and this will be the focus of this talk. An actual WWII era Enigma machine will be on display. Audience members are invited to handle it, ask questions and learn how it works.
More details at: http://www.math.unl.edu/events/pme/