Florida Section Newsletter The Mathematical Association of America June 2005 Volume 26, Issue 3

Contents: Officers 38th Annual Meeting Teaching Award Service Award Executive Committee Meetings April 24, 2004 February 25, 2005 Financial Statement Awards Committee Nominating Committee Governor's Report Regional Meetings Student Activities Mathematics in the Sun 2006 Joint Annual Meetings

Campus News Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Manatee Community College Miami Dade College St. Johns River Community College St. Petersburg College University of Central Florida University of South Florida Employment Opportunity Saint Leo University* Professional Development Opportunities PMET PREP Project ACCCESS Project NExT

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President Stephanie Fitchett Department of Math and Sciences Florida Atlantic University (561) 799-8613	Past President Scott Hochwald Department of Mathematics University of North Florida (904) 620-2653
Vice-President, Programs Li Zhou Department of Mathematics Polk Community College (863) 297-1010 Ext. 5611	Vice-President, Site Selection Guesna Dohrman Department of Mathematics Tallahassee Community College (850) 201-8144
Secretary-Treasurer Joe Skala Department of Mathematics St. Petersburg College (727) 791-2558	Coordinator of Student Activities Daniel Jelsovsky Department of Mathematics Florida Southern College (863) 680-3748
Newsletter Editor Bill Rush Department of Mathematics St. Petersburg College (727) 341-4660	Governor David Kerr Department of Mathematics Eckerd College (727) 864-8437
President-Elect Jacci White Department of Mathematics St. Leo University (352) 588-8338	Vice-President-Elect, Programs Joel Berman Department of Mathematics Valencia Community College (407) 299-5000 Ext. 2695
Vice-President-Elect, Site Selection Eduardo Fernandez Department of Mathematics Eckerd College (727) 864-8402

38th Annual Meeting Florida Section The Mathematical Association of America Scott Hochwald

Where were you on February 25^th and February 26^th of 2005?  If you weren’t at the Lakewood Ranch Campus of Manatee Community College, then you missed a great Florida-Section Mathematical Association of America meeting.  While this report is no substitute for that mathematical event, it does provide you with a glimpse into the goings on at our thirty-eighth annual meeting.  For those who attended the meeting read on.  Although I haven’t used this forum to reveal any skeletons in the Florida-Section closet (I would have if there were any), I think I’ve included information that will be of interest to you.

The meeting began at 8:00 am on Friday, February 25^th with a FTYCMA (Florida Two-Year College Mathematics Association) Workshop concerning Assessment and Implementation of the Developmental Plan.  After that we had a couple of Business meetings and Presidential Welcomes.  I’d like to believe I said something memorable in my welcome, but the part of it that I remember was a misstatement about the length of my student membership (10 years as opposed to the 14 years I mentioned).  At approximately 1 pm we were treated to a wonderful presentation by an MAA Pólya Lecturer.  We get the opportunity to hear a Pólya Lecturer once every five years.  This year David Bressoud talked about Alternating Sign Matrices.  His book, Proofs and Confirmations, the story of the Alternating Sign Matrix Conjecture, received the MAA Beckenbach Book prize in 1999.  Excellent contributed papers and student presentations were readily available from 2 – 5 pm.  A little after 5 pm we saw a clip from the television show NUMB3RS.  The clip was from an episode that revolved around a purported proof of the Riemann Hypothesis.  That clip was part of J. Brian Conrey’s fascinating talk about Primes and Zeros.  After that talk BROOKS/COLE provided some refreshments.  Those tasty tidbits were followed by our Conference Banquet and Award Ceremony (sponsored in part by McGraw Hill, Houghton Mifflin, Addison Wesley, and Prentice Hall).  The recipient of the section’s Distinguished Teaching Award was Patrick MacDonald of New College of Florida, and the Distinguished Service Award went to Bill Caldwell of the University of North Florida.  The state of Florida is lucky to have these two mathematicians.  Now you might think, and I did, that after a long day and a big meal that the Plenary Speaker at 7:30 pm would have trouble keeping his audience awake.  However, John Kenelly, the national MAA treasurer, talked with such enthusiasm and humor about MAA Highlights and Testing that I didn’t want his talk to end at 8:20.  Saturday morning started with a delicious breakfast provided by PLATO learning.  Excellent contributed papers and student presentations were, once again, readily available from 9 – noon.  The presentations ended with a Plenary Session at noon.  The speaker for that session was James Lang, and he entertained us for about an hour with a variety of mathematical morsels.  Those who stayed for lunch and the annual business meeting after the Presidential Farewell got to vote for the 2005-2006 section officers.  Congratulations go to:

	Jacci White, St. Leo University, President-Elect
	Joel Berman, Valencia Community College, Vice-President-Elect for Programs
	Eduardo Fernandez, Eckerd College, Vice-President-Elect for Site Selection

Over 200 people attended this meeting.  A substantial number of the attendees were students and faculty from Manatee Community College.  I thank them for not only attending but for making sure that everything ran smoothly.  C. Altay Özgener headed the local arrangements committee with a remarkable amount of enthusiasm and energy.  Mike Mears assisted him by canceling mathematics classes and collecting door prizes.  John Waters served on the local arrangements committee, helped the section Secretary-Treasurer, Joe Skala run registration and book sales, and was our Vice-President for Site Selection.  I thank all of them for their extensive efforts on our behalf.  Another person who gets a great deal of credit for the excellent meeting we had is our Vice-President for Programs Pam Crawford.  After all, the program is the meeting.  Daniel Jelsovsky, Coordinator of Student Activities, challenged students at the meeting with a large collection of integration problems.  This contest drew eleven competitors from four different schools.  The winner of the contest was Sovandy Hang from Manatee Community College.  I also thank two people, David Kerr our Governor and Judy Jones my predecessor, who both did many things for our section, one of which was keeping me on track.  Finally, if you have read this far, then you and I both have to thank Bill Rush for maintaining our outstanding website and for producing our fine newsletter.

I hope to see all of you next year on February 16^th and 17^th at Florida Atlantic University’s Jupiter campus.  We have already scheduled Plenary Presentations by Underwood Dudley (a former Pólya Lecturer), James Tanton (Beckenbach Book prize winner in 2004), and Steve Dunbar (Director of the American Mathematics Competitions).  There will also be a huge art festival, Artigras, near the campus.

Thanks for letting me be your President this year.

2005 Distinguished Teaching Award Florida Section The Mathematical Association of America

For the gratitude you have earned from a multitude of students at both the graduate and undergraduate levels; For your clear and understandable way of presenting material so that regardless the topic, whether calculus, analysis, differential geometry or advanced probability theory, your students were always challenged by the rigor, depth and beauty of the mathematics yet to come; For your successful work developing new courses in neural networks, discrete probability, combinatorial topology, and mathematical biology; But, perhaps most of all, for your remarkable ability to draw out the highest levels of accomplishment and performance in your students, The 2005 recipient of The Mathematical Association of America Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics for the State of Florida is Patrick McDonald New College

2005 Distinguished Service Award Florida Section The Mathematical Association of America

For the initiative and professionalism you displayed in service to science and mathematics education throughout the state, most notably, in public education at the secondary level; For your successful work at the University of North Florida in coordinating, developing and conducting mathematical enrichment programs for preservice teachers and local area students in the 6-12; But, most importantly, for your exemplary performance, spanning a period of three decades, in service to your faculty colleagues throughout the state, The 2005 recipient of The Mathematical Association of America Award for Distinguished Service to Mathematics for the State of Florida is Bill Caldwell University of North Florida

Executive Committee Meeting Florida Section The Mathematical Association of America Manatee Community College Lakewood Ranch Campus April 24, 2004

Present:  Pam Crawford, Guesna Dohrman, Stephanie Fitchett, Debbie Garrison, Scott Hochwald, Dan Jelsovsky, Judy Jones, David Kerr, Altay Ozgener, Marilyn Repsher, Bill Rush, Joe Skala, John Waters, Li Zhou.

1. President Hochwald called the meeting to order.
    
2. Joe Skala reported that there were 180 attendees at the 2004 meeting at UCF - 108 pre-registers and 72 on-site registrations.  Joe reported that approximately 50% of all the people who attended the meeting were MAA members.
    
   Joe also reported that the $50 cash prize in a random drawing from the pool of pre-registered attendees was very successful and he hoped that the section could continue this in the future.  The Executive Committee agreed and decided that 6 such prizes would be awarded in conjunction with the 2005 meeting.  Joe also encouraged regions to promote MAA book sales, and the specially authorized discount available only during the state-wide meeting, at their Fall Semester regional meetings.
    
3. Marilyn Repsher reported on a new national initiative entitled Project ACCCESS which is a program similar to Project NeXT but geared toward instructors in two-year colleges.  Individuals may apply directly on-line at the MAA website <http://www.maa.org>.  Marilyn also reported on the diversity and richness of the PREP Program and the professional development opportunities available each summer from the MAA.
    
4. Bill Rush provided a statistical report on the section’s website and recommended that the Executive Committee solicit a report from the President-elect each year which would summarize and report on any annual meetings of the six regions in the state.  The Executive Committee agreed and a new “President-elect’s Report” will be solicited for the newsletter.
    
5. Dan Jelsovsky reported that MAA national is currently funding undergraduate mathematics conferences.  Details for applying for a grant are available on the national website.  There is a submission deadline of May 15th each year.  Dan indicated that he would like to provide undergraduate students a small stipend for presenting at the annual meeting in addition to subsidizing their meal at the banquet.  The Executive Committee passed a motion allowing the Coordinator of Student Activities to spend no more than $50 per undergraduate student in whatever combination of stipends, books, or food subsidies the coordinator felt was appropriate.
    
6. John Waters and Guesna Dohrman reported the following site selections:

	February 25-26, 2005 at Manatee Community College
	February 17-18, 2006 at the Honors College of Florida Atlantic University in Jupiter
	February 16-17, 2007 at Tallahassee Community College
	February 15-16, 2008 at Florida Southern College

7. Pam Crawford reported on the 2005 program and the commitment of David Bressoud from Macalester College as our Polya Lecturer and Brian Conrey from the American Institute of Mathematics as a plenary speaker.  Brian is an expert on the Riemann Zeta Function and Pam hoped that several thematic talks could be centered around this topic.
    
8. The Executive Committee passed a motion that the section’s nominee for the national Haimo Teaching Award be the previous year’s recipient of the section’s distinguished teaching award.  This would give the section and the individual time to prepare the nomination packet which is due March 1st each year.
    
9. Debbie Garrison, reporting on behalf of FTYCMA, informed the Executive Committee that the national AMATYC meeting was scheduled for Orlando in November 2004.
    
10. Scott Hochwald adjourned the meeting and several members of the Executive Committee then toured the facilities at Lakewood Ranch.

Executive Committee Meeting Florida Section The Mathematical Association of America Manatee Community College Lakewood Ranch Campus February 25, 2005

In attendance:  Guesna Dohrman, Steph Fitchett, Debbie Garrison, Scott Hochwald, Judy Jones, David Kerr, Altay Ozgener, Bill Rush, John Waters, Li Zhou.  John Kennelly from MAA National also attended.

1. President Hochwald calls the meeting to order at 9:45am and the minutes from the April 24, 2004 Executive Committee meeting are approved.
    
2. David Kerr reported that on the national scene, MAA has received a grant from NSF to fund the Gateways Project – the construction of a portal to link mathematical resources on the web at a single site.  The MAA’s Digital Library http://www.maa.org/MathDL will form a major component of the portal but there will be many other resources accessible there as well.  He also reported that the MAA is beginning a 5 year strategic planning cycle with Professional Development, Revenue, and the American Mathematics Competitions (USA Math Olympiad, and International Math Olympiad) being the first areas to be addressed.
    
3. John Kennelly informed the Executive Committee that sections can invest section monies in the MAA Investment Pool as a way to establish an endowment for the Florida Section.
    
4. Bill Rush reported that all numbers for the FL-MAA website are up over last year:
    

   Activity		February 2004		February 2005
   Membership on listserv Hits annually Hits during February		568 13,000 716		733 18,389 819

   Bill also informed the Executive Committee that he purchased a new digital camera for the section.  Finally, Bill reported that for this year’s sectional meeting we went with two different registration forms – one for students, one for faculty.  The Executive Committee felt that this had worked out well and recommended that we use two forms for the 2006 meeting.
    

5. Steph Fitchett provided a report on the regional meetings.  Suncoast, First Coast, West Florida and Central Florida continue to be active while Big Bend and Gold Coast have not met for several years.  John Kennelly reported that some regions in some sections hold what are called “state dinners” for their regional meetings.  These involve a formal get together but one in which there are only a couple of plenary addresses and then a social dinner.
    
6. John Waters reported that the sites for the next three annual meetings have been determined.  They are the Honors College of Florida Atlantic University for 2006, Tallahassee Community College for 2007, and Florida Southern College for 2008.
    
7. Pam Crawford reported that the development of the program went well and she thanked Altay Ozgener and Bill Rush for maintaining the program on-line.
    
8. Judy Jones gave the Nominating Committee’s report. The new officers are:

	Jacci White, St. Leo University, President-elect
	Joel Berman, Valencia Community College, Vice-president-elect for Programs
	Eduardo Fernandez, Eckerd College, Vice-president-elect for Site Selection

9. David Kerr gave the report for the Awards Committee which selected Bill Caldwell from University of North Florida for the Distinguished Service Award and Pat McDonald from New College of Florida for the Distinguished Teaching Award.
    
10. Debbie Garrison reported that FTYCMA will be focusing on state-wide standards for the College Algebra course at their fall retreat.  She also reported that Cliff Morris was this year’s recipient of the FTYCMA Service Award.

For new business, the Executive Committee established a policy in which the section will provide funding to Executive Committee members to attend the annual February meeting whenever they do not receive funding from their host institutions.

Awards Committee Florida Section The Mathematical Association of America The Awards Committee is seeking recommendations for two awards to be given at the state meeting in 2006: The Service Award to be given for outstanding service to the Florida Section The Teaching Award to recognize distinguished college or university teaching Send your nominations by Friday, October 14, 2005, to the Chair of the Awards Committee: Chuck Lindsey Florida Gulf Coast University (239) 590-7168 Past award recipients can be found at http://www.spcollege.edu/central/maa/archives/.

Nominating Committee Florida Section The Mathematical Association of America The Nominating Committee is soliciting nominations for the positions: President-Elect Vice-President-Elect for Programs Vice-President-Elect for Site Selection Secretary-Treasurer-Elect Newsletter Editor-Elect Please send names of any potential officers including your own if you are interested to the committee chair: Scott Hochwald Past President (904) 620-2653 Past officers can be found at http://www.spcollege.edu/central/maa/archives/.

Governor's Report Florida Section The Mathematical Association of America David Kerr

First off, I am pleased to report that the results of the national election for MAA officers are:

President-Elect First Vice-President Second Vice-President

Joseph A. Gallian (2006) Carl Pomerance (2006, 2007) Deanna B. Haunsperger (2006, 2007)

and I would like to thank all members of the Florida Section who participated in these elections by either returning your ballot or by voting on-line.  The national office was quite pleased with the success of on-line voting and will continue that option in the future.

For other national initiatives, the MAA has begun a process of strategic planning which will, over a five year period, look at all aspects of the MAA.  The first three areas to undergo review are the American Mathematics Competitions, Revenue, and Professional Development.  Each review will last approximately one year and is designed to look at what the MAA is currently doing in these areas and determine if new initiatives could be started or some existing programs terminated.  The MAA is interested in promoting involvement from the sectional level, so if you are interested in serving on any of these working groups (or other national MAA committees), please e-mail at <kerr@eckerd.edu>.

Another major project underway at the national level is called "The Math Gateway" which is an NSF-funded project geared toward developing an internet-based portal for linking a large number of mathematically-related web sites.  MAA's Mathematics Digital Library (Math DL) will be part of the Gateway but so will other things that are currently not available on-line (Classroom Capsules, the Basic Library List, articles from the Monthly, the Illustrative Resources Guide from CUPM to name but a few).

Finally, I would like to encourage you to consider attending MathFest 2005 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, August 4-6.  There are already a large number of interesting presentations planned for the meeting.  Complete information on MathFest 2005 is available under the "Calendar" link of this web site.

Regional Meetings Florida Section The Mathematical Association of America Stephanie Fitchett

This year there were nine students from five schools across the state of Florida presenting papers at the annual meeting.
Laura Lynch Florida Atlantic University Honors College	Exciting Numerical Studies of a GR-type Nonlinear Scalar Wave Abstract:  We will first introduce integration and boundary methods for the linear wave equation and then extend our study to a nonlinear system introduced by Khoklov and Novikov.  The nonlinearities are similar to those seen in General Relativity, and thus our analysis establishes the effects of numerical methods on gravitational wave simulations.
Desirae Chamblin and Sean Simms Florida Southern College	Using Markov Chains to Support Software Testing Abstract:  This presentation describes the development of Markov chain models to describe use of an e-mail system, the use of these models to generate and analyze software test cases, and preliminary work to use Maple to investigate the convergence of the Markov chain usage models.
Mathew Williamson University of South Florida	Inversion and Geometry:  An Interesting Technique Not Usually Taught in Geometry Classes Abstract:  We are all familiar with the geometric process of reflection across a line.  If we replace the line with a circle, we call it a geometrical inversion with respect to a circle, or simply "inversion."  Some helpful properties of inversion will be investigated in order to solve a few problems in other areas of geometry that would otherwise be quite difficult.
Myriam Anez Florida Atlantic University	Counting Subgroups of Groups and Planes in a Three Dimensional Space Abstract:  We will count the number of ways to embed finite subgroups into a larger finite abelian group and show how this number, in some cases, can easily be computed using q-binomial coefficients.  As a small example, we will show how to count the number of planes in a finite three dimensional space.
Colleen Block University of Miami	Phaser Module:  Ricker Salmon Model Will the Salmon Obey Ricker? Abstract:  The Ricker model, a scalar difference equation with density-dependent growth, is one of the most widely known models for modeling fish populations.  The goal of this project is to determine if the actual salmon population data obtained from the USACE's Columbia and Snake River project can be described by the Ricker model.  First, the parameters that influence the salmon population model are estimated from this data using elementary statistical methods.  Then, using these parameter values, the dynamics of the model are explored with Phaser. Note:  This project is supported by the National Science Foundation grant DUE-0230612
Valentine Sobirov Florida Atlantic University Honors College	DSP, DFT, and DWT:  Discrete Transforms in Signal Processing Abstract:  We discuss how Discrete Fourier Transforms are used to analyze digitally sampled analogue signals in the frequency domain.  We then motivate usage of Discrete Wavelet Transforms over Discrete Fourier Transforms and work out an eight-point example, using the Haar wavelet basis.
Stephanie Sunberg Jacksonville University	History of Calculus Reform Abstract:  I will be doing a web-site based presentation on calculus reform, including key players and changes that were made to textbooks and the curriculum.  The focus will be on my personal experience with calc reform.
Sabrina Lyon Jacksonville University	My Experience as an Undergraduate Calculus Class Teaching Assistant Abstract:  As a mathematics education student working as an undergraduate teaching assistant, I developed, presented, and evaluated several laboratory based student activities in close collaboration with a professor.  My presentation will focus on how this unique learning opportunity has helped me to gain a deeper understanding of the dynamics of teaching and learning mathematics.

Sovandy Hang Manatee Community College	Daniel Jelsovsky Coordinator of Student Activities	Laura Lynch (left) Florida Atlantic University Honors College
There were eleven students from four different schools (Manatee Community College, Florida Atlantic University Honors College, Out-of-Door Academy [High School], and University of South Florida) that competed in the integral contest.  Our thanks goes to Bill Albrecht, Jimmy Chang, Kenneth D. Henderson, Jr., David Kerr, Masahiko Saito, and Li Zhou, for submitting questions for the contest.  The winner was Sovandy Hang, a sophomore from Manatee Community College, and the runner-up was Laura Lynch, a senior from Florida Atlantic University Honors College.

This year’s state Retreat, Mathematics in the Sun, will take place on the campus of Central Florida Community College in Ocala, Florida, September 9-10, 2005.  The focus will be on College Algebra.

	Friday, September 9th, 1:00-6:00 PM followed by reception
	Saturday, September 10th, 8:30 AM-3:30 PM

The tentative agenda can be found at http://faculty.mdc.edu/nagras/projects/Agenda2005draft4.DOC.  Speaker Proposal and Registration forms as well as cost and hotel information will be available soon.

Norma M. Agras
Coordinator, Mathematics in the Sun Retreat
Chair, Department of Mathematics
Miami Dade College, Wolfson Campus
300 NE 2nd Avenue, Room 1540
Miami, FL  33132
Telephone:  (305) 237-3926
Department:  (305) 237-7461
Fax:  (305) 237-7652

2006 Joint Annual Meetings
FL-MAA Florida Section The Mathematical Association of America		Florida Atlantic University Honors College		FTYCMA Florida Two-Year College Mathematics Association
February 17-18, 2006

In addition to these three distinguished plenary speakers, there will be invited talks by some of the state’s leading mathematics professionals as well as student presentations.

Other events include:

	FTYCMA Annual Business Meeting and Luncheon, Friday
	Conference Banquet and Awards Ceremony, Friday
	Annual Business Meeting and Luncheon, Saturday

More information will be available in the October issue.

To provide women students with a unique experience to foster interest in mathematics and careers in mathematics, engineering, science, aeronautics and aerospace.   To provide women high school students the opportunity to experience a university environment.   To gain insight into women professors’ experience and educational opportunities associated with mathematics.   To provide women students the opportunity to learn that careers in mathematics, engineering, science, aeronautics, and aerospace are attainable.