Fall 2005
Introduction Albuquerque
Activities Report Set Your Sights on San Antonio
CreditsIntroductionThe Joint Mathematics Meetings in San
AntonioEnjoy the mild weather and the river walk of
San Antonio when the AMS and MAA hold the 2006
Joint
Mathematics Meetings at the
Henry
B.
Gonzalez
Convention Center from
Thursday, January 12, through Sunday, January 15. The
activities for students will include the
Student
Hospitality
Center
with a reception Thursday afternoon, the Undergraduate Students Poster
Session,
the MAA Student Lecture, and the session on Research and Other
Mathematical
Experiences for Students outside the Classroom. Information on these activities may be
found inside in the section ’Set Your Sights on
San Antonio.â?
MathFest
2005: Albuquerque
Beautiful
weather and the scenic surroundings of
Albuquerque,
New Mexico, greeted the math people
who
attended MathFest 2005. Professor John
Harris of
Furman
University
actively engaged the students
in graph-theoretic challenges in the MAA Student Activities Session,
and
Professors Annalisa Crannell and Marc Franz appeared as famous actress
Annalisa
Monalisa Cranberry and producer Stephen ’Marcâ? Frantzberg to present
the
blockbuster hit Projection at the MAA Student
Lecture. Undergraduate student participation in the Student
Papers Sessions hit an all-time high at this conference, and the teams
that won the MAA’s Mathematical Contest in Modeling awards gave
impressive presentations. The conference closed with the U.S. National
Collegiate Mathematics Championship. For a report on these and
other activities, check out the Albuquerque Activities Report.
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Albuquerque
Activities
Albuquerque
Student Reception
The annual MAA/PME Student
Reception was held on Wednesday, August 3, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. in
the Fiesta Room of the Hyatt Hotel. More than one hundred
students, advisors, and MAA/PME officers attended this opening event
for MathFest 2005. The student reception has become a tradition at the
summer meeting of the MAA. It is generally held right before the
Opening Banquet and precedes the first full day of mathematics
talks. It is a relaxed, fun event at which students can meet each
other and be welcomed by established mathematicians. We hope to
see you at the reception in Knoxville next summer!
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Student
Activities Session: Walking on Long Paths
by
Betty Mayfield
Prof. Harris got students actively
involved in graph-theoretic activities. |
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For two hours on Saturday
afternoon, August 6th, the Brazos Room of the Albuquerque Convention
Center was alive with
undergraduate ’vertices,â? armed with the names of
their ’friends,â? attempting to form the longest possible chain in a
graph. This scene was part of the MAA student workshop, led this
year by John Harris of Furman University. Prof. Harris started
with some simple, familiar definitions (vertices, edges, Euler and
Hamiltonian paths) and quickly moved on to some open research questions
in graph theory. Faculty advisors later reported that, at dinner
that night, their students could not stop talking about the
workshop. The event, a tradition at MathFest, features a
mathematician leading students in a hands-on, dynamic session. It
is fun and instructive and often introduces students to new areas of
mathematics. Many thanks to Prof. Harris for an excellent
workshop this summer.
Join us next year in Knoxville, when our activities leader will be
James Tanton, author of Solve This!
Math Activities for Students and Clubs.
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Lights,
Camera, Freeze!
by
Mario Martelli
The MAA Student
Lecture by Annalisa Crannell from Franklin & Marshall College and
Marc Franz from Indiana University was very well received by the
audience of students and faculty. It was informative,
entertaining, and challenging at the same time. Here is a brief
abstract of the two authors’ effort.
Director/Producer Stephen "Marc" Frantzberg teamed up with the
world-famous actress Annalisa Monalisa Cranberry to bring us the new
blockbuster hit, Projection. Spanning the centuries between
Renaissance perspective painting and modern cinematic special effects,
Projection revealed the true secrets behind projecting a 3-dimensional
world onto a 2-dimensional canvas (or movie screen). We laughed,
we cried, and reached the vanishing point.
The key part was to "project a 3-dimensional world onto a 2-dimensional
canvas (or movie screen)". The two speakers explained what a
"vanishing point" means mathematically, talked about how to find the
correct viewing position for a perspective piece, and showed how cute
perspective tricks are used in Hollywood movies.
Marc Frantz and Annalisa Crannell teamed up initially in 1995 as part
of a Math Across the Curriculum (MATC) grant that the NSF awarded to
Indiana University. Over the years, they have developed a bunch of
classroom materials that use real art problems (like, if you draw two
fence posts along a road that goes back into the distance, where do you
place the next fence posts?) that require interesting mathematical
solutions. They did run a series of summer workshops (called
"Viewpoints") for instructors in mathematics and/or art on using these
materials, and they are currently writing a textbook which is funded by
NSF and which will be published by Princeton University Press.
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Professor Annalisa Crannell as the movie
star Annalisa Monalisa Cranberry
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Albuquerque
Student Paper Sessions
by Ed Keppelmann
With 10 sessions and 67 presentations this year’s contributed paper
sessions were the largest in the event’s history. I speak for all the
judges and CUSAC committee members when I say that the variety and
depth of the research presented was nothing short of spectacular. From
applied research in population dynamics, bioinformatics, art and music,
and medical and environmental modeling to theoretical investigations in
number theory, bubbles, knots, hyperbolic geometry, ring theory and
even talks on the history of mathematics, it is quite certain to
everyone involved that these students are headed for great graduate
careers and consequently that the future of mathematics research is in
wonderfully capable hands. We were all so proud to be associated with
their achievements. The winners were as follows. (Their full
abstracts and contact information are available at .)
1. CUR award:
Alexander Zupan of
Gustavus Adolphus College for Numbers
and Patterns in Segments in the Hausdorff Metric Geometry
2. Carl Erickson of Stanford University for Class Number Divisibility of Global
Fields, part II
3. Alan Covert of Arizona State University for Dispersal and Connectivity in a Stochastic
Multi-City Epidemic Model
4. Daniel Walton of Harvey Mudd College for Diophantine Approximations of Real Curves
in the Plane
5. Thomas Kindred of Williams College for Surfaces Bounded by Alternating Knots
6. Nicholas Yates for Irrational
Numbers and the Notion of Equivalence
7. Samuel Kolins of Bowdoin College for Spans of the Derivatives of Polynomials
8. Joseph Kolenick of Youngstown State University for his Solution to American Mathematical Monthly
Problem #11103
9. Sarah Fritsch of Sam Houston State University for her study on The Life and Work of
Georg Cantor
10. Diana Davis of Williams College for her talk on Curvature in the Gauss Plane and
Minimizing Curves
11. SIGMAA Environmental
Mathematics award to Nicole Casacchia of Youngstown State
University for her Statistical
Analysis of Downed Trees in a Riparian Valley
12. SIAM award to Andrew
Harrell of Texas A&M University for his development of Moore-Penrose Interpolation Methods
13. SIAM award to John
Gemmer of Millersville University of Pennsylvania for his talk on The General Brachistochrone Problem
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Research paper
winners: Alex Zupan (MAA)
and Chantel Blackburn (PME)
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Dr. Fusaro and SIGMAA
Environmental Math
award winner Nicole Casacchia |
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Andrew Harrell, Don
Miller, John Gemmer |
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MAA-MCM
Winners
by
Ben Fusaro
The two MAA Winners of the 2005
Mathematical Contest in Modeling’Duke University, NC and the University
of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon’presented their results on Saturday
afternoon. This COMAP-sponsored contest consists of two
open-ended problems, a continuous one and a discrete one.
The Saskatchewan team, made up of Michael Barnett, Jennifer Kohlenberg
and Scott Wood chose the continuous problem. They were asked to
come up with a scenario for the flooding that would occur if the Lake
Murray (SC) earthen dam were breached by a catastrophic
earthquake. They were chosen from among 192 teams.
The Duke team, made up of Pradeep Baliga, Adam Chandler and Matthew
Mian chose the discrete problem. They were asked to make a model
to help you determine the optimal number of tollbooths to deploy in a
barrier-toll plaza that would minimize motorists’ wait-time. The
Duke team was chosen from among 492 teams.
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Kohlenberg, Barnett, and Wood |
Baliga,
Chandler, and Mian
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The teams had three full days to construct their models and write up
their results. Each team member had only a few minutes to present
at MathFest, and they made efficient use of power point presentations,
leaving the audience very impressed. The full problem statements
are rather long and can be found at http://www.comap.com/undergraduate/contests/mcm/contests/2005/problems/
The faculty advisor for the Saskatchewan team
is Professor James A. Brooke, and for the Duke team it is Professor W.
Garrett Mitchener. The MCM judges were Kathleen Shannon,
Salisbury University, MD, and Marie Vanisko, Stanislaus State
University, CA.
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Problem
Solving Competition
by
Richard Neal
A Duke student won first place
in the 2005 U. S. National Collegiate Mathematics Championship held at
MathFest in Albuquerque. Pradeep Baliga, a 21-year-old Duke
senior, finished all 7 problems posed to him before the rest of the
field. Second place went to Gregory Minton, a sophomore at Harvey
Mudd College. Harvey Mudd has had continual placers in the USNCMC
in past years including the first-place finisher last year. Third
place went to Adam Chandler, a senior from Duke University.
Fourth place went to Patrick Dixon, a senior from Occidental
College. The seven problems presented to the students at the
USNCMC call for a diverse background of mathematics knowledge and
skill. The USNCMC is the finals for The Problem Solving
Competition, a monthly mathematics problem solving contest held locally
at hundreds of colleges and universities in the United States and other
countries. This year, 150 additional colleges have registered for
the monthly problems and The Problem Solving Competition. There
is no charge for the monthly competition and there is no entry fee for
your students to compete in the MathFest championship. All competitors
receive beautiful red white and blue medallions and T-shirts. The
first four finishers receive plaques in the shape of the United
States. Texas Instruments provides computer prizes for the
championship.
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If your mathematics department does not receive the monthly Problem
Solving Competition problems and if you are interested in having your
college or university represented at this year’s MathFest in Knoxville
at the championship, contact Dr. Richard Neal, The Problem Solving
Competition, Box 60434, Oklahoma City, OK, 73146, USA; rneal@ascm.org;
1-800-229-1725.
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Richard
Neal and National Problem Solving
Competition winners (l-r): #2 Gregory Minton, #1
Pradeep Baliga, and #3 Adam Chandler.
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Student Hospitality Center
by
Richard Neal
The Student Hospitality Center
at MathFest in Albuquerque was located in the center of the action in
the exhibits area across from the email area. There were more
than 100 visitors each day of the meeting. Many student visitors
congregated and discussed their presentations and talks, socialized,
and enjoyed the free refreshments. The Student Hospitality Center is
sponsored by the MAA Committee on Undergraduate Student Activities and
Chapters. It has become a place to keep up with the flow of the
meeting, to leave messages, to meet others and talk, or just to relax
between sessions. Programs for the student talks, Pi Mu Epsilon
T-shirts, MAA T-shirts, and other materials such as transparencies and
markers were available for students. Judges picked up their
packets at the center. Handouts and announcements to chapter
advisors and students were also available. Please look for
the Student Hospitality Center at the Joint Winter meetings as well as
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Set
Your Sights on San Antonio
Undergraduate
Poster Session
The January 2006 Undergraduate
Research Poster Competition will be held at the Joint Mathematics
Meetings in San Antonio on Saturday, January 14, 2006 from 4:00-6:30
pm. Please encourage students who have completed an undergraduate
research project to submit their abstracts online at /students/undergrad/poster06.html.
We are also seeking judges for the competition. If you or your
colleagues are interested in judging the contest, they can submit their
information online at /students/undergrad/judges06.html.
We are looking forward to your participation in January! For more
information please contact Diana Thomas at thomasdia@mail.montclair.edu.
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Outside
the Classroom
The Contributed Paper Session
titled ’Research and Other Mathematical Experiences for Students
outside the Classroomâ? is organized by the MAA Committee on
Undergraduate Student Activities and Chapters and by the CUPM
Subcommittee on Undergraduate Research. Here is a summary of the
session:
Mathematics
"happens"
both inside and outside the classroom and, in fact, many
mathematics majors are drawn to the subject through a special
event
sponsored by a Student Chapter or Math Club or through special research
projects and programs. This session
seeks presentations by academic, industrial, business, and/or student
mathematicians so that the audience will be encouraged to organize and
run
special events for their students.
Descriptions of
activities could include, but are not limited to, special lectures,
workshops
for students, Math Days/Fairs, student conferences, recreational
mathematics
activities, problem solving activities and contests, general
community-building
activities, and student consulting projects. We especially
encourage
information about student research projects and programs, including
program
logistics and project ideas. Information on how such activities
are
organized and carried out, what activities especially grab students’
interests,
how students are contacted and encouraged to participate, and how the
events
are funded will be especially helpful.
The contact organizer is: Kay Somers, Moravian College, mekbs01@moravian.edu.
Co-organizers are: Susan Morey, Texas State
University; Sivaram K. Narayan, Central Michigan University; Jody
Sorensen, Grand Valley State University.
MAA Student Lecture
The MAA Student Lecture
at the Joint Meetings will be given this year by Marc Chamberland of
Grinnell College. Prof. Chamberland’s mathematics degrees are
from the University of Waterloo, where he wrote a dissertation on ’The
Pompeiu Problem and Schiffer's Conjecture.â? He has served as a
post-doctoral fellow, visiting researcher, and visiting professor at
several Canadian universities and has been at Grinnell since 1997.
Even as an undergraduate, Chamberland distinguished himself, scoring in
the top 3% of all participants in the Putnam competition and spending
two summers conducting research with the assistance of a summer
research scholarship. As a faculty member, he has directed many
undergraduate students in their own research, helping to train a new
generation of young mathematicians.
Dr. Chamberland will speak to us in San Antonio on ’The Many Faces of
Pi.â? This talk brings together ancient and cutting edge results,
results related to analysis, geometry, probability, and theoretical
computer science. He will also give us a look at some of the
people involved in the history of pi ’ some human faces related to the
topic.
MAA Diversity Initiative
CUSAC administers a small grant program called the MAA Diversity
Initiative, designed to help college faculty bring students from
under-represented groups to the Joint Meetings. Institutions may
apply for travel mini-grants of up to $500 per college or university,
to cover some of the costs of registration, travel, and housing.
Last year faculty from fourteen institutions received grants to bring
53 students to the meetings in Atlanta.
Information about the program has been sent to directors of NREUP
summer programs and to institutions in Texas, but we welcome
applications from any faculty member who plans to bring students to the
JMM who would help to add a little diversity to our numbers. For
information and an application, contact Betty Mayfield: Mayfield@hood.edu.
Deadline is December 1st.
Student Hospitatlity Center
The
Student Hospitality Center will be open Thursday to Saturday, 9:00 a.m.
to 5:00 p.m., and Sunday, 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. It is organized by
Richard and Araceli Neal, American Society for the Communication of
Mathematics. A reception for
undergraduates will be held here on Thursday, 4:00 p.m. to 5:00
p.m.
Advisor's
Breakfast
The joint PME and MAA Student Chapter Advisors' Breakfast is scheduled
for Saturday, 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m.
Pi Mu Epsilon Banquet
Friday,
August 5, 6:00
pm ’ 7:45 pm
All
undergraduate students and their supporters
are welcome to attend this banquet, sponsored
by PME and MAA. See the registration form
for more
information
on this ticketed event.
Also
of Interest to Students
Here is the schedule for some other events of interest to
undergraduates extracted from
http://www.ams.org/amsmtgs/2095_students.html. I have also
learned that there will be a contributed papers session on ’my three
favorite calculus problems.â?
Undergraduate
Career Paths in Mathematics, Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 10:20 a.m.
What
Business Looks for in New Hires, Friday, 2:30 p.m. to 3:50 p.m.
Transitioning
into Graduate School, Saturday, 9:00 a.m. to 10:20 a.m.
MAA
Student Research Programs, Sunday, 1:00 p.m. to 2:20 p.m.
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Top
Credits &
Contact
Information
Credits
News/announcements:
Student Activities Session, MAA Student Lecture, Diversity
Initiative’Betty Mayfield, Hood College; Student Lecture’Mario
Martelli, Claremont McKenna College; Student Paper Sessions’Ed
Keppelmann, University of Nevada, Reno; MAA-MCM winners’Ben Fusaro,
Florida State University; Problem Solving Competition and Student
Hospitality Center’Richard Neal, American Society for the Communication
of Mathematics; Outside the Classroom’Kay Somers, Moravian College
Photos: Student Lecture
photo #1’Mario Martelli; Student Paper Sessions #1’Paul Fishback, Grand
Valley State University, #2 & #3’Hal Nesbitt, MAA; others’Editor.
How to Reach the MAA
For Membership Information,
Subscriptions, and Publication Orders contact:
The MAA Service Center
P.O. Box 9112
Washington, DC 20090-1622
800-331-1622 or (301)617-9415
FAX: (301) 206-9789
For
the MAA
Headquarters:
The Mathematical Association of
America
1529 Eighteenth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036-1385
800-741-9415 or (202) 387-5200
FAX: (202) 265-2384
How
to Contact the Chapter Newsletter Editor
Suggestions,
concerns, and/or contributions of articles for the CUSAC newsletter may
be sent to:
John
Holte
Department of Mathematics and Computer
Science
Gustavus Adolphus College
800 W. College Avenue
St. Peter, MN 56082
(507) 933 - 7465
holte@gustavus.edu