The Mathematical Association of America

New Jersey Section - Spring Meeting

Rowan University,Glassboro, NJ

Saturday,April 21, 2001

Main Lecture Hall - Bosshart 203

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Announcements

8:30-9:30 Registration and Coffee - Second floor Lobby Bosshart Hall
   
8:30-1:30 Book Exhibits
   
9:30-9:35 Welcome byRonald Czochor, Chairperson, Department of Mathematics, Rowan University
   
9:35-9:45 Graph Products and Cannon Pairs
  Joseph Loeffler, The College of New Jersey

Student Speaker

Presider: Cathy Liebars, The College of New Jersey

   
9:45-10:30 Effective 3-D Visualizations of High Level Mathematical Functions
  Bonita Saunders, National Institute of Standards and Technology

Presider: Bonnie Gold, Monmouth University

   
10:30-10:35 Remarks by Chair of MAA-NJ
  Judith Lenk, Ocean County College
   
10:35-11:15 Intermission (Coffee and Book Exhibits)
   
11:15-12:15 Concurrent Sessions
   
  Workshop on Active Learning, by Janet Caldwell, Rowan University

Campbell Library Commons Room 126

   
  MAA-NJ Contributed papers - I Bosshart 118
  MAA-NJ Contributed papers - II Bosshart 116
  MAA-NJ Contributed papers - III Bosshart 129
  MAA-NJ Contributed papers - IV Bosshart 236
  Student Contributed papers - Bosshart 316
 
12:15-1:30 Lunch (Book Exhibits end at 1:30) and Discussion Tables

Student Center Ballroom

1:30-2:15 Mathematics as Empirical Science
  Doron Zeilberger, Temple University

Presider: Melkamu Zeleke, William Patterson University

2:15-2:45 Intermission
   
2:45-3:30 Double Bubbles: Proof and Prizes
  Frank Morgan, Williams College

Presider: Mark Korlie, Montclair State University

   
3:35 Drawing of Prizes and announcement of silent auction winners
   
5:00 Dinner honoring invited speakers at the 

Italian Bistro Restaurant

   

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Organizing Committee Dawn Lott, New Jersey Institute of Technology; Theresa C. Michnowicz, New Jersey City University; Revathi Narasimhan, Kean University;

Program Committee Carol Avelsgaard, Middlesex County College; Amy Cohen, Rutgers University; Lawrence D'Antonio, Ramapo College; Bonnie Gold, Monmouth University; Mark Korlie, Montclair State University; Cathy Liebars, The College of New Jersey; Reginald Luke, Middlesex County College; Matthew Haines, New Jersey City University; Judith Schick-Lenk, Ocean County College; Pablo Zafra, Kean University

Hosting Committee Abdul Hassen, Paul Laumakis, Ming Sun-Li, Hieu Nguyen, Rowan University

Acknowledgements The MAA-NJ thanks Bette Counsellor, Terry Magliocco, and the faculty volunteers of Rowan University for their assistance and the College of Liberal Arts and the Department of Mathematics at Rowan University for their financial support.

ABSTRACTS AND BIOGRAPHIES OF INVITED SPEAKERS

Effective 3-D Visualizations of High Level Mathematical Functions

Bonita V. Saunders , NIST

High level mathematical functions, such as Airy, beta and gamma functions, are important for solving many problems in the mathematical and physical sciences. Although visualization can help one gain a deeper understanding of these ``special functions'', the singularities, poles and other complexities which make their computational domains irregular, discontinuous, or multi-connected can make the creation of effective visualizations quite difficult. The author will examine the use of numerical grid generation techniques to tackle this problem and show how this research is being used to create dynamic interactive 3D visualizations for a massive project at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) called the NIST Digital Library of Mathematical Functions (DLMF).

Bonita V. Saunders is a research mathematician in the Mathematical and

Computational Sciences Division at the National Institute of Standards and

Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Maryland. She received her Ph.D. in

mathematics from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. Her areas of research include numerical grid generation, the numerical solution of partial differential equations and the visualization of special functions. Currently, she is managing the design and development of graphics and visualization for the NIST DLMF Project. (http://math.nist.gov/~BSaunders)

Mathematics As Empirical Science

Doron Zeilberger, Temple University

Mathematics is called the `Queen of the Sciences' because it is widely believed to be a DEDUCTIVE science, concerned with A PRIORI, UNIVERSAL Truths, as opposed to the `Natural Sciences' that are INDUCTIVE, EMPIRICAL, and EXPERIMENTAL. But thanks to that great equalizer, the computer, Mathematics will soon have to resign her Queenship, and become yet another empirical science.

Doron Zeilberger is trying to harness the vast, and largely untapped, potential of the computer to do mathematics, in particular in combinatorics and special functions. He is the inventor of the Zeilberger algorithm and the co-inventor of Wilf-Zeilberger Pairs, and the prover of the Alternating Sign Matrix Conjecture, among many other accomplishments. (http://www.math.temple.edu/~zeilberg/)

Double Bubbles: Proof and Prizes

Frank Morgan, Williams College

We'll report on the 2000 proof of the Double Soap Bubble Conjecture and

some later breaking news. The show will include a guessing contest with

prizes.

Frank Morgan, Third Century Professor of Mathematics at Williams College and Second Vice-President of the Mathematical Association of America, is part of the international team of mathematicians who recently proved the Double Bubble Conjecture. In January, 1993, he received one of the first MAA national awards for distinguished teaching. He has written textbooks on Riemannian Geometry, Geometric Measure Theory, and Calculus Lite, and The Math Chat Book, based on his live, call-in Math Chat TV show and Math Chat column, both available at MathChat.org.

(http://www.williams.edu/Mathematics/fmorgan)

INVITED WORKSHOP

Active Teaching for Active Learning

Janet Caldwell, Rowan University

Explore ways to involve students more actively in the learning of mathematics

through use of projects, concrete materials, and technology. Examples will be

drawn from a variety of courses, including those for preservice elementary

teachers.

Janet Caldwell is well known in the field of mathematics education and is a past winner of the MAA-NJ Distinguished Teaching Award. She has taught an interesting array of courses incorporating active learning strategies, including one on patterns in nature (Fall 2000).

(http://www.rowan.edu/mars/depts/math/caldwell/caldwellweb.html)

INVITED STUDENT SPEAKER

Graph Products and Cannon Pairs

Joseph Loeffler, The College Of New Jersey

A Pair (G,A) consisting of a group G and a finite generating set A is a Cannon Pair if the language of all geodesics in the associated CayleyGraph is regular. This property is preserved by graph products and leads to applications to the spherical and geodesic growth series for graph products.

Joseph Loeffler is a senior math major at TCNJ. The talk is based on his research at the Lafayette College Summer 2000 REU program with John Meier (Lafayette College) and James Worthington (student, Binghamton University) in geometric group theory. This work has been accepted for publication in The International Journal of Algebra and Computation (IJAC).

CONTRIBUTED PAPER SESSION

MAA-NJ SPRING 2001 MEETING

Organized by Theresa C. Michnowicz, New Jersey City University

Session 1 (Bosshart 118)

Presider: Ronald Czochor, Rowan University

11:15-11:30

11:30-11:45 11:45-12:00 12:00-12:15 Session 2 (Bosshart 116)

Presider: Abdul Hassen, Rowan University

11:15-11:30

11:30-11:45 11:45-12:00 12:00-12:15 Session 3 (Bosshart 129)

Presider: Ming-Sun Li, Rowan University

11:15-11:30

11:30-11:45 11:45-12:00 Session 4 (Bosshart 236)

Presider: Xiaoming (Jim) Zeng, Rowan University

11:15-11:30

11:30-11:45 11:45-12:00 After 3 years of preparing 8th and 11th grade East Orange students for proficiency exams, the speaker has reached the conclusion that some aspects of these tests are destructive.

Organized by Lawrence D'Antonio, Ramapo College of New Jersey

Presider: Diana Thomas, Montclair State University

11:15-11:30

11:30-11:45 11:45-12:00 12:00-12:15
LUNCH DISCUSSION TABLES

Mathematical Preparation of Teachers, led by Janet H. Caldwell, Rowan University

Projects and Research for Undergraduates, led by Frank Morgan, Williams College

Discussion Table for Department Chairs, led by Ronald Czochor, Rowan University

Mathematics Outside of Academia, TBA

Program authored by Revathi Narasimhan