The annual meeting of the Michigan Section–MAA and
MichMATYC (the Michigan Mathematical Association of Two-Year
Colleges) will be held on Friday and Saturday, May 7–8,
2004 at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. This
year’s program promises an interesting and exciting mix of
talks devoted to mathematics and the teaching of mathematics.
The meeting begins on Friday morning with a plenary address by Margaret Wright of the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University. Her title is “Direct search methods: the sound and the fuss.” She will describe the latest results in the field of direct search methods (derivative-free algorithms for optimization) and will consider several interesting issues raised by those results. The Friday luncheon talk will be given by Charlene Beckmann, a member of the mathematics faculty at Grand Valley State University and Past President of the Michigan Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Her title is “Mathematicians are from Mars; mathematics educators are from Venus: what can we do to meet on planet Earth?” She will make an appeal for stronger working relationships between mathematicians and mathematics educators. On Saturday morning there will be a follow-up panel discussion in which various panelists share examples of successful collaborations between mathematicians and mathematics educators. On Friday afternoon Karen Smith of the University of Michigan will speak on “Rational Algebraic Varieties.” She will address the question of when an algebraic variety can be parametrized. Her talk will include a review of concepts and a description of some of the most recent discoveries in the field.
The Friday evening banquet speaker is Michael Starbird of the University of Texas at Austin. He is co-author, with Edward Burger, of a successful textbook for a course in mathematics for liberal arts students. Mike will ask us to rethink the place of a mathematics course in the general education of students and will inspire us to teach courses that emphasize profound mathematical ideas and celebrate mathematical ways of thinking.
On Saturday morning, Jerry Uhl of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will speak on “MathBC: advancing interesting mathematics before calculus.” He will describe a new pre-college course that is designed to keep more students in mathematics so that they are prepared to study mathematics at the college level. The meeting concludes with a Saturday luncheon talk by William Dunham of Muhlenberg College. Bill is author of the widely acclaimed book Journey Through Genius. He will share some of his insights into the mathematical work of Leonhard Euler.
In addition to the plenary talks, we will have a variety of contributed talks on topics of interest from various areas of mathematics and on pedagogical issues related to particular courses. There will also be sessions devoted to talks by undergraduate and graduate students as well as book exhibits from the MAA and other publishers. Details about the schedule (including abstracts), registration, and accommodations are contained in the Program for the Annual Meeting, which is included with this Newsletter. The program is also available on the Section’s web site, http://sections.maa.org/michigan/meeting04/. Please note that advance reservations for all meals must be made by April 23 and that hotel reservations must be made by April 16 in order to receive the conference rate. The deadline for submission of abstracts for student talks is April 23.
The program committee for this year consists of co-chairs Gerard Venema (Calvin C) and Scott Barnett (HFCC) along with Earl Fife (Calvin C), Deborah Loewenberg Ball (UM-AA), and Kevin Andrews (OU). The local arrangements committee consists of Jack Nachman (chair), Kevin Andrews, Eddie Cheng, Jerry Grossman, and Serge Kruk.
I hope to see you in Rochester this May.
Gerard Venema, Four-Year College Vice Chair