On Saturday, October 25, more than 140 students and faculty from 19 universities across the state and surrounding region gathered at Grand Valley State University’s DeVos Center in Grand Rapids for the 6th Annual Michigan Undergraduate Mathematics Conference. Approximately 100 of the attendees were students, and 27 of these undergraduates gave presentations on scholarly work done in summer research programs or special class projects.
In addition to the student talks, eight different graduate programs gave presentations on opportunities at their universities, two schools gave talks on their REUs (NSF-funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates), and six people gave talks on career opportunities in mathematics. Suzanne Lenhart of the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory gave a keynote address on her research in applied mathematics involving differential equations and optimal control.
The day concluded with a one-hour mathematical game show: Hollywood Equiangular Rhombi. Hosted by GVSU’s Will Dickinson, nine celebrity mathematicians from across the state teamed up to attempt to befuddle students in four intriguing games of tic-tac-toe. Student winners left with complimentary student copies of Maple or Mathematica; other participants won t-shirts or books. The celebrity mathematicians were Ed Aboufadel (GVSU), Janet Andersen (Hope C), Ruth Favro (LTU), Sid Graham (CMU), Mike McDaniel (Aquinas C), Michele Intermont (Kalamazoo C), Randy Pruim (Calvin C), Tim Pennings (Hope C), and John Clifford (UM-Dearborn). The game show was written and developed by Will Dickinson, Jon Hodge, and Reva Kasman (all of GVSU).
More information about the conference can be found at www.gvsu.edu/math/mumc.html.
Everyone involved with MUMC expresses their gratitude to the Michigan Section of the MAA for its generous financial support of the conference. We are currently seeking a university to volunteer to host the 7th edition of the conference in Fall 2004. Interested parties should contact Matt Boelkins (boelkinm@gvsu.edu) or Randy Pruim (rpruim@calvin.edu) to discuss this possibility.
Matthew Boelkins, GVSU
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