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BCIT Mathematics Department Honored
by AMATYC and NSF

The American Mathematical Association of Two Year Colleges (AMATYC) has selected the British Columbia Institute of Technology Mathematics department as one of 10 exemplary programs serving students in two-year highly technical fields in North America. The department was awarded a U.S. National Science Foundation Award in Las Vegas, Sept. 17^th. In order to receive this international recognition, the department needed to show a U.S. National Advisory Committee that their program could be considered a “pump” not a “filter” for two-year programs related to information technology, high-tech manufacturing, biotechnology, electronics, mechanics and other emerging technologies. Departments were judged on the following 5 criteria:

• Content: Students receive the appropriate mathematics in order to succeed in a highly technical program.
   

• Delivery: Students have access to excellent mathematics instruction as well as resources that aid learning.
   

• Classroom Environment: Students are actively and energetically involved in the learning process. The facilities and equipment promote effective teaching and learning.
   

• Currency: Faculty provide an up-to-date curriculum using appropriate technology.
   

• Part of a Successful Program: The mathematics program serves as a gateway to successful attainment of students’ educational goals.

The aim of the AMATYC and this NSF award is to recognize best practices and share them with the academic community.

Deann Leoni and Rebecca Hartzler from Edmonds Community College are the coordinators of a "Mathematics Across the Curriculum" project funded in part by the National Science Foundation. The project supports faculty from Washington high schools, two and four-year colleges in creating projects and courses that make the quantitative dimensions of their disciplines more explicit. The project runs until 2003. Stipends are available. Contact - Deann Leoni - dleoni@edcc.edu or 425-640-1184.

Ms. Alison Setyadi, a senior mathematics major at University of Portland, took part in an REU at the Colorado School of Mines and was a student in the Park City summer program.

Alison reports on the REU, "There were 10 participants, split into 4 groups of 2 or 3. Each group worked with a professor. My group worked on the estimation of a numeric solution to a differential equation, which required knowing the infinity-norm of the right inverse of a non-square matrix. We extended what other people had already done for square matrices to square matrices. We came up with an algorithm based on the work of William W. Hager (for square matrices) and implemented it via code, compared results, provided some theoretical justification, made regular presentations, wrote up a formal "paper" documenting what we did."

On the Park City (Utah) program, Alison says, "I went to a program in Park City, the Summer Session for IAS/PCMI (Insititute for Advanced Study/Park City Mathematics Institute). I was a participant in the undergraduate program, which consisted of daily lectures in differential forms and problems sessions four days a week. Something similar to typical first year class in graduate school apparently. I also had a chance to meet other undergraduate professors who participated in the Undergraduate Faculty Program. There were also Cross-Program Activities for everyone to attend. The program was mathematically intense."

Alison will give a talk on some of her summer work, either in early December or in mid-January.