Welcome!
Northern Kentucky University is pleased to host the 2007 Annual
Meeting of the KYMAA on March 30-31, 2007. This should be an
enjoyable and inspiring meeting and we strongly encourage you to
join the fun. Perhaps you can give a talk, or just come and listen
to what your fellow mathematicians are up to these days.
More information will be provided below, including a description
of the invited talks, a call for papers, information for students,
meeting forms, directions, and lodging and meal information. A
complete schedule for the meeting should be available on this site
by March 12, 2007 at:
Program for the 2007
Annual Meeting of KYMAA
Please note the following important dates for the KYMAA Annual
Meeting:
- February 28 : Deadline for submitting abstracts for
talks at the meeting AND nominations for officers.
- March 12 : Publication date of meeting program on
this website.
- MARCH 16 : Registration Deadline. You Must
register by this date if you would like to join us for meals at
the meeting since the caterer needs a headcount by this date. At
the very least e-mail our section secretary Leanne Faulkner at
LeanneF@kwc.edu
- March 30-31 : a grand celebration of Kentucky
mathematics at NKU!
The various meeting forms can be obtained via the following
links:
The Invited Talks
On Friday evening, the invited talk will be given by
Professor Aparna Higgins of the University of Dayton. The title of her talk is
Demonic Graphs and Undergraduate Research.
Saturday morning will feature two invited
speakers:
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Last year's recipient of
the Kentucky Section's Distinguished Teaching Award, Professor Austin
French of Georgetown College, will speak on Teaching: How to Grow
Better Instead of Bitter, How to Grow Better Instead of Burned Out.
-
Our second invited
speaker on Saturday morning is the Polya Lecturer Bernd Sturmfels of UC
Berkeley, who will speak on The Joy of Solving Equations.
Abstracts
and Bios
Aparna Higgins,
Demonic Graphs and Undergraduate Research.
Abstract:
My work with undergraduates on mathematical research has been one of the
most satisfying aspects of my teaching career. This talk will highlight some
of the beauty and depth of the research done by my former undergraduate
students on line graphs and pebbling on graphs. We will consider iterated
line graphs, some pioneering results in pebbling graphs, and pebbling
numbers of line graphs. The results of some of the later students built on
work done by the earlier ones, and have spawned some of my own recent
research.
Biographical Information: Dr. Aparna Higgins received a B.Sc. in mathematics from the University
of Bombay in 1978 and a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Notre
Dame in 1983. Her dissertation was in universal algebra, and her current
research interests are in graph theory. She has taught at the University of
Dayton, Ohio, since 1984. Although Dr. Higgins enjoys teaching the usual
collection of undergraduate courses and an occasional graduate course, her
most fulfilling experiences as a teacher have come from directing
undergraduates in mathematical research. She has advised eleven
undergraduate Honors theses; she has co-directed an NSF-sponsored Research
Experiences for Undergraduates program. Dr.
Higgins has been the recipient of four teaching awards--from the College of
Arts and Sciences at the University of Dayton, the Alumni Award (a
University-wide award), the Ohio Section of the MAA, and in 2005, the
Deborah and Tepper Haimo Award for Distinguished College or University
Teaching, which is the MAA’s most prestigious award for teaching. Dr.
Higgins has chaired the MAA Committee on Student Chapters and is co-director
of Project NExT.
Austin French,
Teaching: How to Grow Better Instead of Bitter, How to Grow Better Instead
of Burned Out
Abstract:
45 minutes of one sentences that I have learned, any one of which
can drastically make things better for teacher and student. How to have
enjoyable, briefer prep time and paper grading time. How to enjoy teaching
the lowest level courses. How to overcome in the area of campus politics
and the competition of class time with pledging. Substitutionary burden
bearing by a wisdom system. Minimality measure for math excellence.
Quagmireism vs. clear\conciseism in education. Dependence reinforcing help
vs. transformation help for students. An option to having a battle of the
wills with non-star performers….and much more.
Biographical Information: Austin French received his Ph.D. in mathematics from Auburn University,
an M.S. in computer science from UK, and has subsequently held positions at
David Lipscomb, Louisiana State, UK, and, since 1976, Georgetown College. He
has consulted for Toyota, Proctor and Gamble, and IBM. His excellence in
teaching has been recognized at Georgetown on five occasions. Since 2002, he
has published seven books and accompanying DVDs and CDs. Additionally, he
has papers in three academic disciplines.
Bernd Sturmfels,
The Joy of Solving Equations
Abstract:
Grobner bases are a fun method for solving algebraic equations. See
how it works, why it is useful, and what you should do with the coins in
your pocket.
Biographical Information:
Bernd Sturmfels received doctoral
degrees in Mathematics in 1987 from the University of Washington, Seattle,
and the Technical University Darmstadt, Germany. After two postdoctoral
years at the Insitute for Mathematics and its Applications, Minneapolis, and
the Research Institute for Symbolic Computation, Linz, Austria, he taught at
Cornell University, before joining UC Berkeley in 1995, where he is
Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science. His honors include a National
Young Investigator Fellowship, a Sloan Fellowship, and a David and Lucile
Packard Fellowship. Sturmfels served as von Neumann Professor at TU Munich
in Summer 2002, as the Hewlett-Packard Research Professor at MSRI Berkeley
in 2003/04, and he was a Clay Senior Scholar in 2004. A leading
experimentalist among mathematicians, Sturmfels has authored or edited 13
books and about 150 research articles, in the areas of combinatorics,
algebraic geometry, symbolic computation and their applications. He
currently works on algebraic methods in statistics and computational
biology.
A Call for Papers
One of the main activities of our annual meetings is the presentation of
papers by faculty and students. Please consider giving a talk at this year's
meeting. Use this opportunity to share mathematical ideas and insights, an
interesting mathematical application, or an effective teaching innovation
with your colleagues from across the state. For students, consider reporting
on an honor's project or a summer research project. A panel presentation on
current mathematical issues is always interesting.
For both faculty and students, if you wish to make a presentation, fill out
the Presentation Abstract Form and submit it
by February 28, 2007.
A copy of the form can be obtained on this
webpage. In general, talks are scheduled for 20-minute intervals. Each talk
should be about 15 minutes to leave time for a couple of questions and
transition to the next talk. Special presentations can be allocated more
time if necessary. It is important to note any special needs and a time
preference on this form. Please submit the Presentation Abstract Form by
e-mail to:
Tom Richmond
Department of Mathematics
Western Kentucky University
1906 College Heights Blvd #11078
Bowling Green, KY 42101-1078
e-mail: tom.richmond@wku.edu
fon: 270 - 745 - 6219
fax: 270 - 745 - 3699
Nominations Needed
This spring we will be
holding elections for Vice-Chair, Chair Elect, Newsletter Editor, and
Treasurer. All new officers will begin their terms at the Executive
Committee Meeting immediately following the Annual Business Meeting in
the spring. The new Vice-Chair and Newsletter Editor will serve
three-year terms. The Chair Elect will serve for four years, two as
Chair Elect and then two years as the Chair of the section. The new
Treasurer will serve for four years simply to balance out the future
election schedule. Subsequently the Treasurer’s term of office will be
three years.
If you have any questions
about these positions, please feel free to contact the current people in
these positions or read the “job descriptions” in our bylaws.
Please forward the name
and affiliation of any Section member you would like to nominate for one
of these offices to any member of the Nominating Committee by February
28.
Self-nominations are entirely appropriate.
Update from the Nominating Committee
The nominating committee has received the following nominations
for officers. Further nominations are welcome and may be made at the
meeting or by emailing someone from the nominating committee. You
will note that it is no longer possible to be on the nominating
committee and succeed in ducking a nomination! Also, thank you to
Doug Chatham for agreeing to keep the newsletter going for another 3
years.
Chair elect, 4 years – Will Harris, Georgetown
Vice Chair, 3 years – Scott Dillery, Lindsey Wilson
Ron Sahoo, Louisville
Treasurer, 4 years – Molly Dunkum, Western KY Univ.
Newsletter, 3 years – Doug Chatham, Morehead
Hey Students!
I hope your fall term went well. Seniors who are
planning to go to graduate school are busy applying to graduate programs –
and working hard to finish their undergraduate studies strong! If you will
still be an undergraduate in the Fall Semester of 2007, then you should
consider participating in a summer REU (Research Experience for
Undergraduates). Check out
http://www.maa.org/students/undergrad/research.html for more
information. Faculty members can help you determine which REUs you would
like best, and they can help you apply. Depending on the REU, the
application deadline may be any time from the end of January through late
March.
Don’t forget the Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM)
and the Interdisciplinary Contest in Modeling (ICM). These are four day
competitions that start at 8pm on Thursday, February 8 and end at 8pm on
Monday, February 12. This competition is for three-student teams. Your
institution may have more than one team, but a student may be on only one
team and each team works on only one problem. More information is available
from
http://www.comap.com/undergraduate/contests/mcm/. The registration
deadline is 2pm on Thursday, February 8.
April is Mathematics Awareness Month. This year's theme
is Mathematics and the Brain. For information concerning activities and to
download a poster, check out
http://www.mathaware.org/. Encourage your math/computer science clubs to
organize activities during the month of April. You can also kick off the
2007 Mathematics Awareness Month celebration by organizing a trip to attend
the Annual KYMAA Section Meeting, March 30-31, 2007 at Northern Kentucky
University.
The KYMAA Section Meeting is a great opportunity for students to give a
talk to a friendly audience. Twenty undergraduate students presented papers
at the 2006 meeting. Start thinking about a presentation, discuss it with a
professor at your institution and get ready. Here are some ideas: Discuss
your team’s work in the MCM or ICM. If there is a mathematics or computer
science topic you would like to investigate, do the work, then share what
you learned at the section meeting. This activity makes your resume more
attractive. Student presenters will have a choice of a free one-year
subscription to the Mathematical Association of America, which includes a
monthly publication of the student's choice, or a book.
When you register for the meeting, register for the Friday evening
banquet, too. Meals for students will again be at a discounted price.
Students who have attended the banquet in the past have truly enjoyed it.
Don’t miss it!
I will be writing a newsletter to be included with the registration
packet at the section meeting, and I need your help providing highlights of
your activities. Please have one of your club members send a brief summary
to
m.dobranski@moreheadstate.edu. Your responses are highly appreciated.
If you have any questions about the information above, please feel free
to contact me.
Mike Dobranski at
m.dobranski@moreheadstate.edu
KYMAA Student Chapters Coordinator
Hotel Information
Blocks have been reserved at the following hotels. Please note
the different deadlines for the different hotels.
- Country Inn & Suites, 10 Country Drive, Wilder,
859-441-3707/phone, 859-441-3726/fax.
30 rooms at $89/night, located 3 miles from campus on AA Highway and
I-275
Reserve by March 2 referring to "Northern Kentucky University Math
Group."
website:
http://www.countryinns.com/webExtra.do?key=&hotelCode=KYWILDER
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Comfort Suites, 420 Riverboat Row, Newport, 859-291-6700/phone,
859-291-6702/fax.
40 rooms at $71/night, located 6 miles from campus at I-471 and the
river.
Reserve by March 16 referring to "NKU Dept. of Mathematics."
email:
new@musselmanhotels.com
website:
http://www.choicehotels.com/ires/en-US/html/HotelInfo?hotel=KY008
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Drawbridge Inn, 2477 Royal Drive, Fort Mitchell, 1-800-352-9866,
859-341-5644/fax.
60 rooms at $58/night, located 13 miles from campus on I-75 just
inside the I-275 loop.
Reserve by February 28 referring to "NKU Dept. of Mathematics."
website:
www.drawbridgeinn.com
Directions and Maps
Directions to NKU can be found here:
http://www.nku.edu/directions.php
Campus maps can be found here:
http://access.nku.edu/campusplan/campusmap_right.htm
(Note: NKU has two campuses. The Annual Meeting is on the
(main) Highland Heights campus, not the Covington campus.)
Future KYMAA Meetings
Our schedule of hosts for future section meetings is:
March 28 - 29, 2008 |
Western Kentucky University |
2009 |
Kentucky State University |
2010 |
University of Kentucky |
2011 |
(Your school's name here?) |
Please contact any officer of KYMAA if you would interested in
hosting a future meeting.
Meeting Program & Abstracts
The information at the following links will be complete on March 12:
The meeting program can be found at:
Program for the 2007
Annual Meeting of KYMAA (html)
The meeting program can also be found at:
Program for the 2007
Annual Meeting of KYMAA (doc)
The abstracts for talks can be found at:
Abstracts for the
2007 Annual Meeting of KYMAA (doc)
KYMAA Section NExT
Modeled after the National Project NExT, the mission of the Kentucky
Section NExT (New Experiences in Teaching), is to
support soon-to-be, newly-minted, and recent-but-untenured Ph.D.s in the
mathematical sciences (including all areas of mathematics, statistics,
operations research, and mathematics education) in their role as mathematics
faculty. In particular, the goal of KY-NExT is to foster and enhance all
aspects of an academic career: high-quality teaching and learning of
mathematics, productive research and scholarship, and meaningful
professional activities.
The KY-NExT program will immediately precede the annual KYMAA spring
meeting, beginning the evening before and ending just as the KYMAA meeting
commences. This year’s program includes inspiring presentations by award
winning faculty from Kentucky and beyond, as well as panel discussions on
discovering one’s teaching style and balancing responsibilities and
activities beyond teaching.
To these ends, KY-NExT seeks applications from any and all untenured
mathematics faculty and mathematics graduate students who anticipate
graduating with a Ph.D. by Fall 2008. KY-NExT is intended to be a two-year
program, so selection will favor applicants who are able to demonstrate a
two-year commitment.
Please submit applications to Anne Collins at
collins@centre.edu by February 23rd.
We anticipate that review of applications will be completed no later than
February 28th.
A complete application will include:
-
A brief personal statement (two-page maximum, one-page preferred) describing
your approach to teaching and learning mathematics, and what you expect to
gain from participating in KY-NExT.
-
A short (one-page) vitae, which should include contact information,
education and employment history, teaching experience, and research
interests.
-
A statement of support from your chair or dean indicating a willingness to:
-
Support or coordinate your release from teaching and other
responsibilities on March 30, 2007 as well as the as-yet-undetermined Friday
of the 2008 KYMAA meeting.
-
Pay for registration, Friday night lodging, and Friday evening and
Saturday morning meals for the KYMAA Annual Meeting in Spring 2007 at
Northern Kentucky University and in Spring 2008 at (tentatively) Western
Kentucky University, estimated to be $100 to $150 per meeting. Note that KY-NExT
funds will cover all costs of attending the KY-NExT program, including the
Thursday evening Ice Cream Social, Thursday night lodging, and breakfast and
lunch on Friday.
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