November 19, 2009

Darren E. Mason's Research Published in the Journal of Metals
Darren Mason's research was published in the paper "Strain Heterogeneity and Damage Nucleation at Grain Boundaries during Monotonic Deformation in Commercial Purity Titanium" in the Journal of Metals. Darren's co-authors were T.R. Bieler, M.A. Crimp, Y. Yang, L. Wang (Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science); P. Eisenlohr (Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung — Düsseldorf, Germany); W. Liu (Argonne National Laboratory); G.E. Ice (Oak Ridge National Laboratory). The official citation is Int. J. of Metals, 61 (12), p. 45 - 52, 2009.

November 18, 2009

Students Finish 4th. 25th in MATH Challenge
The results of the 2009 Michigan Autumn Take-Home Challenge have arrived, and both Albion teams landed in the top half of the field. The team of Chen Chen, Yang Chen, and Mingjia Yang finished 4th with a total of 66 points out of a possible 100. Becca Putans, Rachel Kamischke, and Kathryn Wagner finished 25th with 30 points. Fifty teams completed the competition. The top ten teams were: 1. Calvin College & Taylor University: 78 pts. 3. Hope College: 73 pts. 4. Albion College: 66 pts. 5. Lawrence Technological University & Kalamazoo College: 63 pts. 7. Kalamazoo College: 60 pts. 8. Grand Valley State University: 53 pts. 9. Merrimack College & Calvin College: 52 pts. Congratulations to both teams!

November 16, 2009

Chance Class Travels To Soaring Eagle Casino
Mark Bollman's First-Year Seminar, Chance, traveled to the Soaring Eagle Casino in Mount Pleasant, MI on Monday, November 16. The class took this opportunity to test their theoretical knowledge of probability on the gaming floor. In so doing, they re-created the origins of their subject, as much of what we now know as probability theory finds its roots in the study of gambling and games of chance. Though they learned in class that the odds and payoffs for any casino game are set in the house's favor, 13 of the 16 students took advantage of a pair of lucrative promotions offering free casino play and successfully beat the casino's edge.

Front row, left to right: BJ Konkle, Nate Ross, Dustin Peterson, Nick Tombrella, Andrew Hurrle, Eric Ondrus, Matt Sowa, Kameron Sibert, Alex Archer, Dr. Mark Bollman.
Back row, left to right: Sining Gu, Courtney Malpass, Amanda Klage, Taylor Peruchietti, Krysta Schroeder, Megan Heyn, Samantha Bowditch.

October 31, 2009

Six Students Compete In MATH Challenge
Six students represented Albion in the 15^th Michigan Autumn Take-Home Challenge, held at colleges across the greater Midwest on Saturday, October 31. Competing for Albion were Chen Chen, Yang Chen, Rachel Kamischke, Becca Putans, Kathryn Wagner, and Mingjia Yang. The MATH Challenge is a 10-question, 3-hour exam taken by undergraduate students in teams of two or three. The 2009 MATH Challenge included 53 teams from 20 colleges in 6 states. Mark Bollman coordinated the students' participation in the contest. Results of the MATH Challenge are expected by the end of the semester.

Left to right: Rachel Kamischke, Kathryn Wagner, Becca Putans.

Left to right: Mingjia Yang, Yang Chen, Chen Chen.

August 27, 2009

Computer Labs Upgraded
The Linux and Windows computer labs have both been upgraded. The E.R. Sleight Computing Lab is now running OpenSUSE version 11.1. The 17 computers in the lab each have a 32-bit Intel Core Duo processor (E7300) running at 2.66 Gz and 4 GB of RAM. In addition, a new linux server, mathcs, has dual 32-bit quad-core AMD opteron processors (2350) running at 2.00 GHz and has 16 GB of RAM. The Putnam Computer lab, located in 251 Putnam, is now running Windows Vista. The 24 computers in the lab each have a 32-bit Intel Core Duo processor (E7300) running at 2.66 Gz and 4 GB of RAM. Windows software of note includes Mathematica, Matlab, Mathcad, Minitab, SPSS, and Java. Contact Dr. Reimann if you experience any difficulty in using these labs.

August 19, 2009

Mark Bollman named as new department chair
Mark Bollman has been named as the new chair of the Mathematics and Computer Science department. Dr. Bollman has been a member of Albion's faculty since 1999 and has taught nearly every mathematics course offered by the department. Dr. Bollman succeeds Dr. David Reimann as chair. Reimann has served as chair since 2002 and will return to full-time teaching responsibilities in the department. Albion has a rotating internal chair model, with a renewable three-year appointment as chair; appointments are made by the College President upon the recommendations of the Provost and the department.

July 27, 2009

David Reimann presents research at the 2009 Bridges Conference
Professor David Reimann presented his research "Text from Truchet Tiles" at the 12th Annual Bridges Conference held July 26-30 2009 in Banff, Alberta, Canada. His paper appears on pages 325-6 in the printed proceedings. The Bridges Organization fosters the mutual exchange of ideas among practicing mathematicians, scientists, artists, educators, musicians, writers, computer scientists, sculptures, dancers, weavers, and model builders. A nice article about the conference appears on the AMS website.

An example of a random Truchet tiling containing the text "Albion College Mathematics and Computer Science" is shown above. A darker color has been used for the text to increase its contrast.

June 25, 2009

Three Students Present FURSCA Summer Research
Chen Chen, Eric Richardson, and Kathryn Wagner all presented progress reports on their summer research projects at the weekly FURSCA summer symposium on Thursday, June 25. Chen and Kathryn are working in the area of biangular analytic geometry: Chen's research is on calculus in the biangular plane and in tri-angular space, and Kathryn's focuses on two-dimensional graphs of biangular functions. Eric's project is in operations research and is attempting to design an efficient mass transit system from metropolitan Detroit. All three students are supervised this summer by Mark Bollman.

June 15, 2009

Mark Bollman Leads At AP Calculus Reading
Mark Bollman served as a Table Leader at the 2009 Advanced Placement Calculus reading, held from June 9-15 in Kansas City, Missouri. As a table leader, Mark was part of a team of two who were jointly responsible for the performance of a room of 16 exam readers. His room contributed, along with 830 college and high school calculus teachers from 49 states, the District of Columbia, and several foreign countries, in scoring 304,490 AB and BC Calculus exams. Mark is in his fourth year as a TL, following five years of service as a Reader.

June 1, 2009

Darren E. Mason is visiting scholar at the Max-Planck Institut für Eisenforschung (MPIE)
Darren Mason is currently visiting the Max-Planck Institut für Eisenforschung in Düsseldorf, Germany and will remain its guest until June 30, 2009. During his visit Professor Mason will be working with colleagues from the Microstructure Physics and Metal Forming division of MPIE and the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science from Michigan State University on fundamental problems that arise in modeling microcrack/damage nucleation in textured metals. The research program is a fusion of experimental, numerical modeling, and mathematical modeling of material behavior across multiple length scales. This international and interdisciplinary project is funded by a three-year joint grant from the National Science Foundation and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation).

May 29, 2009

Darren E. Mason's Research Published
Darren Mason's research was published in the paper "The Role of Heterogeneous Deformation on Damage Nucleation at Grain Boundaries in Single Phase Metals" in the International Journal of Plasticity. Darren's co-authors were T.R. Bieler, D. Kumar, and M.A. Crimp (all of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at Michigan State University), and P. Eisenlohr, F. Roters and D. Raabe (all of Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung — Düsseldorf, Germany). The official citation is Int. J. of Plasticity, 25 (9), p. 1655 - 1683, 2009.

April 28, 2009

Student Creates Homepage for Albion College Community
Matthew Howe ('11), a computer science major, has created a new webpage Squeller.com to serve as a home page for the Albion College community. You can read about his venture in an April 17 Pleiad article.

April 23, 2009

Students Present Research
Several mathematics and computer science students gave talks at the 20th annual Elkin R. Isaac Student Research Symposium.

• Yang Chen, '11, dual economics and financial engineering (combined course) major with an applied mathematics minor, gave a talk entitled "Factors of China's Rapid National Saving Growth." Her faculty sponsor was Dr. Kotaro Yoshida (Economics and Management).
• Ryan Graham, '09, gave a talk entitled "Quantifying the Influence of a 4.8-Tesla Magnetic Field on the α↔γ Phase Transitions in Fe-0.75C Steel." Ryan is a Physics major with an applied mathematics minor. His faculty sponsor was Dr. Aaron Miller (Physics).
• Whitney Patton, '09, a mathematics major, gave a talk entitled "The Biangular Coordinate System as Seen Through Complex Numbers". Her faculty sponsor was Dr. Mark Bollman.
• Tim Rambo,'09, gave two talks. The first was entitled "An Introduction to Quantum Algorithms"; his faculty sponsor was Dr. Harold Connamacher. His second talk was entitled "Implementation of an Algorithm-Driven Solar Tracker"; his faculty sponsor was Dr. Aaron Miller (Physics). Tim is a dual Physics and Computer Science major.
• Culver Redd, '11, gave two presentation. The first was a talk entitled "Calibration and Use of the 11-Inch Celestron Telescope for Observing and CCD Imaging"; his faculty sponsor was Dr. Nicolle Zellner (Physics). His second was a poster entitled "Photophysics of Benzoic Acid Derivatives"; his faculty sponsor was Dr. Craig Bieler (Chemistry). Culver is a physics major and computer science minor.
• Lesley Simanton, '09, a physics major with an applied mathematics minor, gave a talk entitled "Multi-Wavelength Photometry on Stellar Clusters: Applications in Telescope-Camera System Analysis and Galactic Formation." Her faculty sponsor was Nicolle Zellner (Physics).

The purpose of the Elkin Isaac Research Symposium is to honor excellent student research, scholarship, and creative activity. The participants are nominated by their faculty sponsors after having participated in independent research that results in the significant synthesis of new knowledge. The research must have been performed under the direct supervision of an Albion College faculty member, or in a College-approved off-campus program. This year over 100 students presented their research.

April 22, 2009

Mark Bollman's Research Published
Mark Bollman's research was published in the paper "Sums Of Consecutive Factorials In The Fibonacci Sequence" in the January 2009 issue of Congressus Numerantium. This issue includes the Proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on Fibonacci Numbers and Their Applications, held at the Technische Universitat Carolino-Wilhelmina in Braunschweig, Germany in July 2004. The main result of this paper is that the only Fibonacci number less than 10¹⁰⁰ which is the sum of more than two consecutive factorials is F₉ = 34 = 0! + 1! + 2! + 3! + 4!. Mark's co-author on this paper is George Grossman of the Central Michigan University Department of Mathematics.

April 21, 2009

Mark Bollman Publishes Book Review in The College Mathematics Journal
Mark Bollman's review of Ian Stewart's Professor Stewart's Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities was published in the May 2009 issue of The College Mathematics Journal. The May issue is devoted to puzzles, and includes an interview with Martin Gardner along with a collection of articles on mathematically-oriented puzzles. The CMJ is published by the Mathematical Association of America and is focused on the first two years of college mathematics.

April 15, 2009

Students Finish 2nd, 24th In Lower Michigan Mathematics Competition
The results of the 33rd Lower Michigan Mathematics Competition, hosted on April 4 by Albion College, have arrived. A Calvin College team took top honors with a score of 41 points on the 10-question, 100-point exam. Finishing a close second was Albion's top team of Chen Chen, Yang Chen, and Qian Wang, who notched a score of 35. Rounding out the top 5 was a second Calvin entry and two teams from the University of Michigan-Flint. Also participating for Albion were Rachel Kamischke, Whitney Patton, and Kathryn Wagner, who finished 24th with 11 points. Thirty-one teams from 11 small colleges in Michigan participated in the 2009 LMMC. Congratulations to both Albion teams!

April 9, 2009

Albion Students Excel in COMAP International Mathematical Contest in Modeling
Two teams of three Albion students each were honored with awards of both Meritorious Winner and Honorable Mention in the 2009 International Mathematical Contest in Modeling sponsored by the Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications. This year 1675 teams from 14 countries participated in the competition. The team of Yang Chen, Chris Creighton, and Sophia Potoczak received the prestigious award of Meritorious Winner for their work on a problem a complex problem related to cell phone usage and energy consumption. Only 9 teams in the world scored better than this Albion team in the competition. Other schools that received the same level of recognition as Albion for this problem included Harvard University, Harvey Mudd College, Tsinghua University (Beijing), Cornell University and The United States Military Academy at West Point.

In addition, the team of Chen Chen, Whitney Patton, and Kathryn Wagner, who chose to solve a problem involving the mathematics of traffic circles, received the rank of Honorable Mention for their solution. This is significant since, out of the 1675 teams in the competition, 1074 (61%) received a ranking lower than honorable mention. Other schools that received this ranking include Princeton University, Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute, Michigan State University, Colorado College and numerous universities from China.

Congratulations to all six students for this fine achievement! Official results are available at the official COMAP MCM Results Website

April 7, 2009

Students Complete Honors Theses
The following senior mathematics and computer science students have completed theses:

• Ryan Graham, a Physics major with an Applied Mathematics Minor, completed a thesis entitled "Quantifying the Influence of a 4.8-Tesla Magnetic Field on The α-γ Phase Transitions in Fe-0.75c Steel" for College honors. His thesis advisor was Dr. Aaron Miller (Physics). Ryan plans on attending graduate school to study civil engineering.
• Whitney Patton, a Mathematics major, completed a thesis entitled "Comparison of the Rectangular, Polar, and Biangular Coordinate Systems as Seen Through Real and Complex Analysis" for Mathematics and Computer Science Departmental honors. Her thesis advisor was Dr. Mark Bollman. Whitney plans on pursuing a PhD in mathematics after graduation.
• Timothy Rambo, a dual computer science and physics major with a minor in applied mathematics, completed two departmental theses. His thesis "Quantum Algorithms" was for departmental honors in Mathematics and Computer Science. His thesis advisor was Dr. Harold Connamacher. His thesis "An Algorithmic Solar Tracking System for a Solar Collector" was for departmental honors in Physics; his physics thesis advisor was Dr. Aaron Miller. Tim plans on pursuing a PhD in electrical engineering after graduation.
• Lesley Simanton, a physics major with a minor in applied mathematics, completed a thesis entitled "Establishing Observing and Imaging Protocols for Albion College Telescopes: Investigating Instrumentation and Photometry" for College honors. Her thesis advisor was Dr. Nicolle Zellner (Physics). Lesley plans on pursuing a PhD in the area of astronomy and astrophysics after graduation.

April 4, 2009

Department Hosts 33rd Lower Michigan Mathematics Competition
On Saturday, April 4, Albion College hosted students and faculty from 11 Michigan colleges in the 33rd Lower Michigan Mathematics Competition. Teams of 2 or 3 students faced off in a 10-question, 3-hour exam covering a variety of undergraduate mathematics topics. Calvin College is the defending LMMC champion; Albion teams won the contest in 2004 and 2007. The 2009 LMMC was written by Andy Niedermayer of the University of California-San Diego. Representing Albion in the LMMC were Chen Chen, Yang Chen, Rachel Kamischke, Whitney Patton, Kathryn Wagner, and Qian Wang. In addition to coordinating the 2009 LMMC, Mark Bollman advised the two Albion entries. Results of the competition are expected by the end of the academic year. The 2010 LMMC will be hosted by Grand Valley State University.

March 19, 2009

Department Offers New Course in Partial Differential Equations
The deparment has added a new course, Math 370 Partial Differential Equations, with the following course description: "A study of the theory and applications of partial differential equations. Linear and nonlinear PDEs, including quasilinear first order equations, conservation laws, discontinuous solutions, classification of PDEs, wave propagation in multiple space dimensions, Fourier analysis and separation of variables, Sturm-Liouville theory, fundamental solutions for equations of parabolic adn elliptic type, as well as consideration of the nonlinear Riemann Problem. Applications in biology, chemistry, engineering, and physics.

March 6, 2009

Kappa Mu Epsilon Announces Three New Members
The Albion Chapter (Michigan Alpha) of Kappa Mu Epsilon, the national mathematics honor society, is pleased to announce its new members for 2008. New members are Yang Chen, Rachel Kamischke, and Kathryn Wagner. KME members must complete at least three semesters of college and rank in the top 35% of their class; complete three college math courses, including at least one semester of calculus; and attain an average grade of 3.0 or better in all mathematics classes. Albion's chapter of KME was founded in 1937. Mark Bollman serves as corresponding secretary and advisor to the Albion chapter. Further information about the national organization is available at kappamuepsilon.org. Congratulations to the new KME members!

February 15, 2009

Darren Mason's Research Presented at 138th Annual Meeting and Exhibition of The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society
Darren E. Mason collaborated on the poster presentation Deformation Mode Characterization and FEM Simulation of alpha-Titanium Deformed in Bending. which was presented at the 138th Meeting and Exhibition of The Minerals, Metals, & Materials Society at the Moscone's West Convention Center in San Francisco, CA. Darren's collaborators included T. R. Bieler, M. A. Crimp, Y. Yang, and L. Wang of Michigan State University (USA) and P. Eisenlohr of the Max-Planck Institut für Eisenforschung (Germany).

February 9, 2009

COMAP Mathematical Contest in Modeling
Two teams of threeCOMAP Mathematical Contest in Modeling Albion College mathematics students completed their work in 2009 Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM) sponsored  the Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications. On the evening of Thursday, February 5, 2009 at 8pm, the Albion College mathematical modeling team of Chen Chen ('11), Whitney Patton ('09) and Kathryn Wagner ('09)  & Yang Chen ('11), Chris Creighton ('10), and Sophia Potoczak ('10) twere presented with the choice of solving two different, yet thought-provoking real-life problems in mathematical modeling.  Over the course of the next ninety-six hours, the team independently selected, sweated, solved, and wrote up a paper presenting each of their team's solution to the problem they chose.  The solution was completed at 8pm on Monday, February 09, 2009 and then directly emailed to COMAP for judging.  Professor Darren Mason organized the participation of the Albion students in this year's MCM. Final results of this highly competitive international contest will be available by May, 2009.