Brunelleschi's
Dome
|
|
The MAA Student Lecture at this
year's MathFest in Providence Rhode Island was given by Mario Martelli
of Claremont-McKenna College in California. In giving his talk,
The Secret of Brunelleschi's Cupola, Professor Martelli was assisted by
his wife, Ann and student Adam Cox as narrator and assistant.
Martelli gave his talk as Brunelleschi, and given his natural Italian
accent and his period costume, the disguise was quite convincing.
Martelli refuted some popular conjectures on how the dome of Florence's
cathedral was constructed, and put forth his own very convincing theory
on how Brunelleschi, with some mathematical help, built his
masterpiece. The talk was standing room only and popular with
students and non-students alike.
|
Professor Martelli as Brunelleschi
|
|
|
"Workshop"
on Fractals
|
Professor
Benoit Mandelbrot of Yale University
led the MAA Student Workshop
at the Summer, 2004, MathFest in Providence, Rhode Island.
He entertained an over-crowded room of
students and friends for
two hours (and only a 10-minute break). Students
listened intently; all were awed by the presence
of Professor
Mandelbrot. They asked interesting
questions throughout the talk.
During
the short
break, students surrounded Professor
Mandelbrot to ask more
questions. To the question "What is
the definition of 'Fractals'?", Professor
Mandelbrot answered aptly, "If you tell me the definition of 'Complex
Analysis' or
‘Probability Theory',
I'll tell you the definition of 'Fractals'"
All
in all, everyone had an enjoyable time at the MAA Student Lecture.
|
|
|
|
|
Professor Mandelbrot explains fractals
|
MAA
Student Paper Sessions
|
Sixty-eight
undergraduate
students participated and competed in eight sessions of student paper
presentations at this year's MathFest. They
demonstrated a wonderful enthusiasm for
and mastery of all sorts of matters
mathematical, and they relished the opportunity
to hobnob with kindred spirits from other colleges and universities. A complete list of the MAA student speakers,
titles, and abstracts can still be found at http://adm.hfcc.net/~tkelley/
(look for
the MathFest 2004 section on Tom Kelley's web page).
The best-in-session awards were presented
to the following
students:
Christina Brakken-Thal, Williams
College, White
Blood Cell Models
and Chemotherapy
Nathanial Burch, Grand
Valley State
University, Higher
Order Lanczos’ Derivatives
Anthony DeLegge, Benedictine
University, Regular
Stick
Numbers of (2,q) Torus
Knots
Shawn Elledge, Arizona
State University,
From Number Theory
to Groups
via Graph Pebbling
Stephanie Hurder, Harvard
University, Curvature
and
Surfaces with Density
Matthew Katschke, Ohio
Northern University, San Gaku
Problems in
Other Geometries
Kari Lock, Williams
College, Simultaneous
Approximation of Generalized Golden Ratios
Robert Willenbring, St.
John’s University,
Combinatorial
Representations
of RNA Secondary Structures
In addition, Nicholas
McClure
of St. John’s University
(Minnesota), won the MAA
SIG
award in environmental modeling for
his paper, A Population Model of Dispersal and Extinction, and
Mohammed Haque of Columbia College
won the CUR award for
his paper, Applications of the Omega Transform
in Algebraic Geometry
|
|
|
Professor
Mandelbrot
(right) poses with MAA Student Papers best-in-session winners. Front (l-r): Stephanie
Hurder, Kari Lock, and Christina Brakken-Thal. Back
(l-r): Matt Katschke, Robert Willenbring,
Nicholas McClure, and
Nathanial
Burch, winner of the MAA environmental math SIG award.
Not shown: Shawn Elledge,
Anthony DeLegge
|
MAA
MCM Winners
|
The 2004 Mathematical Contest in Modeling
posed two
problems:
A:
Are Fingerprints Unique?
B:
A Faster QuickPass System
From the 599 solution papers presented
(202 for
A; 397 for B), the MCM judges chose
three A
papers and four B papers as Outstanding and Publishable.
From these papers, the MAA judges chose one
award-winning team in each category. At a special MathFest session, members of the
winning teams made presentations of
their solutions. The Problem A
team—Brian Camley, Pascal Getreuer, and Bradley Klingenberg with advisor
Anne Dougherty—was from the University
of Colorado,
Boulder. The Problem
B team—Ivan Corwin,
Sheel Ganatra, and Nikita Rozenblyum with advisor
Clifford Taubes—came from Harvard
University
|
|
|
|
|
MCM winners Corwin & Rozenblyum
|
Student
Hospitality Center
|
The Student Hospitality Center,
sponsored
by the Mathematical Association of America, was a success at Mathfest
2004. Hundreds of students and professors
came by to enjoy refreshments and interact. Student
speaker programs,
meeting updates, math puzzles, copies of Math Horizons,
and refreshments awaited the students and professors. Located
in the exhibit hall, the Student Hospitality Center
was open during the entire meeting. For
information
about the Student Hospitality Center,
contact Richard or
Araceli Neal at 1-800-229-1725 or
at PO Box 60434, Oklahoma City, OK 73146.
|
|
|
|
|
Enjoying
some refreshments at the Hospitality Center
|
National
Math Championship
|
The seventh
annual US National Collegiate Mathematics Championship took place in Providence
during Mathfest 2004. On Saturday
evening, the last day of Mathfest, several dozen students were present
to
compete in the final event of The Problem Solving Competition. This competition is a monthly problem-solving
activity for
colleges and universities. Colleges send their top problem solver to
the US
National Collegiate Mathematics Championship held at MathFest each year.
Competing
students were given several math problems to solve.
Students all started with the same problem,
and they were then given each subsequent problem only after solving its
predecessor. The
winner was the first person to solve all
seven problems.
First place in
the US
went to Eric Malm of Harvey Mudd College.
Harvey Mudd has entered students in the championship each year of the
last
seven. Second place went to Michael
Hoffman of the University of Utah.
Third place went to Zavosh Koshravi and fourth place went to Jeremy
Hamilton of Youngstown State University.
All winning
students received beautiful red white and blue plaques.
All participants received T-shirts and silver
medallions. The first place prize was a
TI-92 calculator
and an internship to the Lawrence Livermore National Research Laboratory
For
information
on how your students can participate in The Problem Solving Competition
and the
US National Collegiate Mathematics Championship, contact Dr. Richard
Neal at by
email at rneal@ascm.org
or by calling 1-800-229-1725.
|
|
|
Participants
in the Problem Solving Competition
|
In Other News......
New
Student Web Page
The
new, improved student web page is online! Go to http://www.maa.org,
click on Students, and then on
Undergraduate Students. Many thanks to Michael Pearson and Chris Proesel for all their help.
Back to Top
Whassup
in Atlanta?
Student
Poster Session
The 2005
Undergraduate Student
Poster Session will take place on Friday January 7 in Atlanta,
Georgia,
at the Joint Annual Meeting of the AMS, MAA, and AWM.
Prof. Mario
Martelli of Claremont McKenna
College
is the organizer. The MAA Committee
on
Undergraduate Students Activities and Chapters (CUSAC) sponsors
the Session. Please apply early, since the space is limited! Posters
are
expected to present a new result, or
a
different proof of a known theorem, or
an innovative solution of a Putnam problem etc. Purely expository
posters cannot be accepted. Send items 1-6 below to Prof. Mario
Martelli,
Mathematics Department, Claremont
McKenna College,
Claremont, CA 91711
or
e-mail to mmartelli@claremontmckenna.edu
(PDF format,
TeX, or
Microsoft Word).
1.
Title of the project
2.
Abstract (not longer than ½ page)
3.
Names and affiliation of all authors
4.
Name, e-mail, and telephone of the student
who will be in touch with Prof. Martelli regarding the logistics of the
presentation
5.
Name(s) and affiliation(s) of advisors
6.
Sources of financial support
Each poster will be
evaluated
by at least three judges. Prizes will be awarded to the best posters
with money
provided by the AMS, MAA,
AWM,
CUR, PME and by the Moore
Foundation.
Prof. Diana
Thomas (thomasdia@mail.montclair.edu)
is
in charge of coordinating the accommodations
of students
participating in the Poster Session. Please get in touch with her if
you are
interested in this service.
Mathematical
Experiences for Students Outside the Classroom
MAA
special session: Saturday afternoon; Kay B. Somers*, Moravian
College (somersk@moravian.edu), and Jody M. Sorensen, Grand
Valley State
University.
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. 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 non-classroom activities could
include, but
are not limited to, special lectures, workshops for students, math
days, math
fairs, research projects for students, math career days, student
conferences,
recreational mathematics activities, problem-solving activities and
contests,
general community-building activities, and student consulting projects.
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. This session is organized by the MAA Committee on
Undergraduate
Student Activities and Chapters.
MAA
Student Lecture
Robin J. Wilson,
The Open University, Victorian Combinatorics, Friday, 1:00 p.m.
An expert in graph theory, Dr. Wilson is the author
of many articles and books on the subject, including
Student Hospitality Center
Wednesday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., and Saturday, 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m., organized
by Richard Neal, University
of Oklahoma. A reception
for
undergraduates will be held here on
Wednesday, 4:00 p.m . – 5:00 p.m.
Joint PME and MAA Student Chapter Advisors'
Breakfast
Friday, 7:00 a.m. - 8:00 a.m.
Credits
News:
Student Reception, New Student Web Page—Betty
Mayfield; MAA Student Lecture—Jody Sorenson;
MAA Student Workshop—Jean Bee Chan;
National
Mathematics Championship and Student
Hospitality Center—Richard
Neal; Student Paper
Sessions—Thomas Kelley.
Photos: Student Reception—Betty
Mayfield; MAA Student Lecture—Jody Sorenson;
Student Hospitality
Center—Hal
Nesbitt;
MCM winners—Frank Morgan; others—Editor.
