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ALBION COLLEGE
M A T H
E M A T I C S
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Mathematics Department Calendar of Events
2000-2001
August 23-26, 2000
Math Camp. Entering and returning math enthusiasts participate
in a variety of social and recreational activities with a mathematical theme.
Friday Afternoon Math Tea
Every Friday at 3:14 math students, math faculty, and friends of the Math
Department gather in Palenske 213 for cookies and soft drinks; some people
even drink tea. Check out the progress on the
Menger sponge, and join in
the discussion of the latest news from our department and the wider world
of mathematics.
September 1 is the date of the first Math Tea of the semester. Congratulate
the Math Camp participants as they receive their Million Dots certificates.
September 8, 2000
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.
September 10, 2000
Math/Science Picnic. Come join faculty and
staff of the Science departments for a free picnic in Victory Park. Experience
homemade root beer brewed by the Math Camp participants under the training
of brewmaster Bob Messer. See Chef Anderson assisted by Chef
French (the Child Julia of the Department Chemistry) perform their culinary
magic at the charcoal grill. Who knows, there may even be a quiz.
Sign up in the Math office so we know how much food to prepare.
September 15, 2000
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213. The Linear Algebra class
will be the hosts of this Math Tea.
September 22, 2000
Math Tea/Colloquium, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.
Robert Osserman
will speak on "The Shape of the Universe". Robert is the author of the book
"The Poetry
of the Universe" selected for the Mathematical Reading Experience of the 1998 Math Camp
at Albion College. Like this popular book, his talk will be accessible to
a general audience with math backgrounds of high school algebra and geometry.
September 29-30, 2000
October 6, 2000
Homecoming Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213. We have invited alumni
who will be visiting our campus to be guests of honor. You can ask them
about the olden days at Albion College and get their words of wisdom about
a liberal arts education, graduate schools, careers, and life. They will
be interested in learning from you the latest news about the Math Department.
October 7, 2000
2000 Midwestern ACM
Chapter Conference. The conference is open to everyone willing
to register. No ACM or industry affiliation required, simply an interest
in computers and technology. Students interested should contact
Dave Reimann for
further information.
October 13, 2000
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.
October 20, 2000
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.
The Calculus II classes will be the hosts of this Math Tea.
They will tell us about the paradox of Gabriel's horn.
October 27, 2000
Friday Afternoon Mathematics Tea. The Mathematics Department
will host this tea and provide information on the mathematics of pizza
and spring mathematics courses. All Math majors, Computer Science majors,
Math/Physics majors, Math/Econ majors, prospective majors, and friends
of the department are invited to join us Friday at 3:14 in Norris 109.
Bring a friend. Delare your major.
November 4, 2000
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.
November 10, 2000
November 10, 2000
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.
November 11, 2000
Michigan Autumn
Take-Home Challenge.
Teams of three students work for three hours Saturday morning on a set
of ten interesting problems. Albion's teams have placed third in 1994,
second in 1995, nineteenth in 1996, twelfth in 1997, eighteenth in 1998,
and fifteenth in 1999. The members of Albion's two MATH Challenge teams
this year are:
- Colleen Thomas,
Emily Arend, and Dan Westerhof,
- David Friday and John Lighthall.
November 17, 2000
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.
Michele Intermont
will speak on "An Artist's View of Curves and Codes". Michele is a faculty member
in the Math Department at
Kalamazoo College. She will illustrate how an artist's
perspective led mathematicians to the objects known as projective planes. She
will discuss two particular projective planes, focusing on curves in one example
and an application to coding theory in the other.
December 1, 2000
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Norris 109.
Members of the Albion College Putnam Team will present solutions to last year's exam
in preparation for the 2000 competition. Join in this discussion of these challenging
problems, and cheer our team on to great accomplishments in this national competition.
December 2, 2000
Sixtieth Annual William
Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition. Your final exams will be
a breeze in comparison to the Putnam exam. All three participants
in the 1999 competition achieved nonneagtive scores, and
James Smaby placed 1015th
in this national competition. This year Dan Westerhof will represent
Albion College in this national math competition.
December 8, 2000
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.
December 15, 2000
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.
Happy birthday to Holly Jacobs.
January 19, 2001
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.Several of the
Math faculty have just returned from the annual meetings
of the math societies in New Orleans and would like to
bring a little flavor of that city to Albion College.
So dig out your Mardi Gras beads and join us for beignets.
January 26, 2001
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.The amazing RAMdi will
perform the feat of spoon breaking. You will see that it is not
the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.
February 2, 2001
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213. Jennifer Willard
and Andrew Frick
will discuss the work they did last fall during
the Oak Ridge Science Semester. Jennifer will talk about Biocomputing:
In-Vivo AND Gates, and Andrew will talk about Autonomous Robotics and the Oak
Ridge Experience.
February 9-12, 2001
Mathematical Contest in Modeling.
All math enthusiasts are invited to join in eating pizza and
supporting the teams at the kickoff in computer lab in the Kellogg Center on Thursday night
shortly before the official opening of the problem sets at 12:01am. Talk
to Mark Bollman for further information about this competition.
February 9, 2001
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.
Erin Risser will present the information she has found about the life and works of Emmy Nöther.
February 17, 2001
The Michigan Undergraduate
Mathematics Conference will be held at the Grand Rapids campus of
Grand Valley State University.
Colin Adams,
author of
The
Knot Book, has arranged for his brother-in-law, Mel Slugbate,
to be the keynote speaker on the topic "Real Estate in Hyperbolic Space: Investment
Opportunities for the New Millenium". In addition to this talk, the
conference will include student presentations, career representatives,
information on graduate programs, and the game "Who Wants to be a Math Millionaire?".
The Math Department will be organizing a group of students to participate
in this conference this spring. Contact Robert Messer if
you are interested in attending.
February 16, 2001
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.
February 23, 2001
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.
February 24, 2001
Denison
Spring Programming Contest.
The Contest challenges a team of four programmers to solve up to five
programming problems in a period of four hours. The programmers have
their choice of programming in Pascal and/or C++. The team with the most
questions solved in the least amount of time wins.
See Dave Reimann or the
related Web page for more information about this competition.
This year's teams placed
12th (Andrew Frick, Holly Jacobs, Rick Straughen, JP Walters),
16th (Scott Campbell, Alex Oatley, Corey Philipp), and
17th (Hans Chen, Marco Jeromin, Tom Sikma)
out of 19 teams. Congratulations to the participants!
March 2, 2001
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.
March 9, 2001
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.
March 23, 2001
Friday Afternoon Mathematics Tea.
The Mathematics Department will provide information
about fall courses in Mathematics and
Computer Science. All Math majors, Computer Science majors,
Math/Physics majors, Math/Econ majors, prospective majors, and friends
of the department are invited to join us Friday at 3:14 in Palenske 213.
Bring your friends; bring your questions; bring your schedule.
April 2001
Mathematics Awareness Month.
The theme this year is Mathematics and the Ocean. Some mathematical threads
in ocean sciences include physical modeling, prediction and studies of
complex motion, data collection and analysis, state estimation and
verification.
April 2001
April 6, 2001
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.
April 13, 2001
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.
April 20, 2001
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.
April 27, 2001
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.
April 27, 2001
International Plaid Day. One of the highlights of Mathematics Awareness
Month at Albion College is International Plaid Day. We have contacted people
around the world who will join faculty, students, and staff on campus in
wearing plaid to show their support of mathematics. In past years, even the
Rock took on a suitable color scheme. Last year,
Sarah Burpee showed
us how to make plaid scrunchies.
Link to the Albion College home page.
Link to the Mathematics Department.
Modified March 20, 2001, by Robert Messer