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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
2001-2002
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.
August 20 is the date of the first Math Tea of the semester. Certified
sponge builders will be on hand to show you how to build your own level-1
Menger sponge. This will certify you as a sponge builder who is thereby
authorized to work on the level-3 sponge.
August 31, 2001
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213. Try your hand at brewing a batch
of homemade root beer for the upcoming Math/Science picnic. All the necessary
supplies and ingredients will be provided. What a fitting way to begin the
Labor Day weekend.
September 7, 2001
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 312. The
Computer Science 171 class
will be the hosts of this Math Tea. They will demonstrate their expertise
in creating Web pages and help the other Tea participants develop their
personal pages and their Math/CS portfolio pages.
The Math Department relies heavily on these pages in making decision about scholarships
and departmental awards, invitations to be tutors and homework graders, and
for letters of recommendation. This is also an opportunity for you to reflect
on how the various components of your education at Albion College fit together
and enrich your personal, academic, and professional life.
September 9, 2001
Math/Science Picnic. Come join faculty and staff of the Science departments
for a free picnic in Victory Park. Sample 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 14, 2000
Math Tea, 3:14 pm at 413 Darrow Street. By popular request, the Math Tea
participants can try their hands at making the chewy biscotti that we enjoyed last year.
While you are waiting for each batch to bake, you can watch
Donald in Mathmagic Land.
September 21, 2000
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.
September 28-29, 2001
September 28, 2001
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.Learn the basics of the ancient art of
change ringing. We will try the patterns of ringing two bells each to
a plain hunt on eight bells. For example, the pattern of the 1-2 pair is shown in bold.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
|
| 2 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 8 | 7
|
| 2 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 8 | 5 | 7
|
| 4 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 8 | 3 | 7 | 5
|
| 4 | 6 | 2 | 8 | 1 | 7 | 3 | 5
|
| 6 | 4 | 8 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 5 | 3
|
| 6 | 8 | 4 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 3
|
| 8 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 1
| 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1
| 7 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2
| 7 | 5 | 8 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 2
| 5 | 7 | 3 | 8 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 4
| | 5 | 3 | 7 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 6 | 4
| | 3 | 5 | 1 | 7 | 2 | 8 | 4 | 6
| | 3 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 7 | 4 | 8 | 6
| | 1 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 8
| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
| | | | |
October 5, 2001
October 12-14, 2001
2001 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 12, 2001
Homecoming Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213. A kind
benefactor
of the Math Department has donated two Williams-Sonoma Caramel Apple Kits
for our use at Math Tea. 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 19, 2001
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.
October 26, 2001
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 Palenske 213.
Bring a friend. Declare your major.
November 2, 2001
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.
November 3, 2001
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,
fifteenth in 1999, and fourth and twelfth in 2000. The members of Albion's
three MATH Challenge teams this year are:
- Nick Drake, David Friday,
Phil Thorson
- Erin (Reflexive) Risser,
Brendan (Symmetric) Schaenzer, Colleen (Transitive) Thomas
- Hans Chen, Sumit Pathak, Samata Singhi
November 9, 2001
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.
November 10, 2001
November 16, 2001
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.
November 23, 2001
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.
November 30, 2001
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.
Members of the Albion College Putnam Team will present solutions to last year's exam
in preparation for the 2001 competition. Join in this discussion of these challenging
problems, and cheer our team on to great accomplishments in this national competition.
December 1, 2001
Sixty-Second Annual William
Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition. Your final exams will be
a breeze in comparison to the Putnam exam. All participants
in recent competitions have achieved nonnegative scores, and
James Smaby placed 1015th
in this national competition. This year, Hans Chen, Nick Drake,
David Friday, Sumit Pathak, Samata Singhi, Rick Straughen, and
Phil Thorson
will represent Albion College in this national math competition.
December 7, 2001
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.
January 11, 2002
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213. Emily Arend
and Colleen Thomas will talk about their adventures in off-campus
programs in Aberdeen, Scotland, and the Philadelphia program.
January 17, 2002
Math Colloquium, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213. The first of our
candidates for a faculty position in applied mathematics will present
a colloquium. This will be followed by a chance for students to
meet with the candidate.
January 18, 2002
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.
January 22, 2002
Math Colloquium, 3:14 pm in Norris 109. Our second candidate
for a faculty position in applied mathematics will present a colloquium.
January 24, 2002
Math Colloquium, 3:14 pm in Norris 109. Our third candidate
for a faculty position in applied mathematics will present a colloquium.
January 25, 2002
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.
January 29, 2002
Math Colloquium, 3:14 pm in Norris 109. The first of our
candidates for a general faculty position in mathematics will present
a colloquium.
January 31, 2002
Math Colloquium, 3:14 pm in Norris 109. Our second candidate for a
general faculty position in mathematics will present a colloquium.
February 1, 2002
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.
February 7--11, 2002
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 Darren Mason for further
information about this competition.
February 8, 2002
Math Colloquium, 3:14 pm in Norris 109. Our third candidate for a
general faculty position in mathematics will present a colloquium.
February 16, 2002
The fourth annual Michigan Undergraduate
Mathematics Conference will be held this year at Calvin College.
Frank Morgan,
will be the keynote speaker on the topic "Double Bubbles". In addition to this talk, the
conference included 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 15, 2002
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.
February 22, 2002
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.
February 23, 2002
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 team
(Scott Campbell, Aaron Card, Brendan Schaenzer, and JP Walters) placed 8th out of
15 teams. Congratulations to the participants!
March 1, 2002
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.
March 14, 2002
March 15, 2002
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.
March 22, 2002
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 312. Karla McCavit will conduct a workshop
on constructing your electronic portfolio. We will start from scratch, but if you
already have a portfolio Web page, you can update your site and help some of the
beginners create their Web pages. We want your program in Math or Computer Science
to be more than a sequence of courses. In addition to providing information for
departmental awards and letters of recommendation, these Web pages will help develop
a sense of community among the students in our department. They will also be of
interest to alumni and prospective students who visit our Web site.
April 2002
Mathematics Awareness Month.
The theme this year is Mathematics and the Genome. Some mathematical threads
in genetics include data collection and analysis, modeling of molecular and
biochemical processes, and statistical analysis of proposed connections between
diseases and genetic signatures.
April 5, 2002
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213. Judy Wheeler will present the
Texas Instruments Technology Showcase. She will demonstrate the calculators and
the Calculator-Based Laboratory. Students will have a chance to try these out.
April 6, 2002
The Lower Michigan Mathematics Competition. Teams of three students represent small
colleges in lower Michigan in solving a set of ingenious math problems.
Albion College was the host of the
1996 LMMC. Olivet College
will be the host for the 2002 competition. Contact Mark Bollman if
you are interested in attending.
April 7, 2002
Judy,
or What Is It Like to Be a Robot?
Since the dawn of the computer age, oceans of ink have been spilled writing about
intention and conscious states and how to define them, and what sort of organisms
or machines might have what kinds of these qualities. The battles continue to rage
about whether a machine could ever approach consciousness in the way that we
understand it and make meanings the way we do. Oddly enough, in the search
for the truth of the matter, both camps seem to have overlooked an obvious strategy:
interviewing a computer and asking her opinion.
Tom Sgouros has addressed this appalling lacuna in empirical studies by constructing
a test subject, Judy, and has been conducting extensive interviews with her to begin
to address the deep questions at the very heart of our identity as thinking beings:
Can machines think? Do people with mortgages have free will? What exactly does it
mean to play chess with a set where the black pieces are red?
Tom and Judy will present their results in a production that has amused and provoked
the general audience while profoundly engaging the minds of professionals in the
fields of cognitive science, philosophy of mind, and robotics.
Join us for their performance at 7:00pm in the Gerstacker Commons of the Kellogg Student Center.
April 12, 2002
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213.
April 19, 2002
April 26, 2002
Math Tea, 3:14 pm in Palenske 213. Join us in recognizing
thirty-eight years of service to Albion College by
Ron Fryxell.
April 26, 2002
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.
Link to the Albion College home page.
Link to the Mathematics Department.
Modified April 24, 2002, by Robert Messer