Dear Friends,

What follows is a a monthly informational newsletter related to the department of Mathematics and Computer Science. It contains a student profile plus highlights of some of recent news and upcoming events. I hope this information helps you support our departmental mission.

Class of 2007 Senior Spotlight

Name: Lauren M. Paul
Hometown: Pinckney, Michigan

Lauren Paul studying in the Math/CS Lounge.

Mathematics. Running. Psychology. Senior Lauren Paul has managed to combine these passions at Albion College. "I've always wanted to attend a small college and have the opportunity to work closely with the professors. I loved the campus, and I also wanted to run cross country and track throughout college. Albion was the perfect choice."

Lauren did not always plan on majoring in mathematics. A good math student throughout high school, it wasn't until after she took Calculus II that she realized how much she really enjoyed math. Her interest in higher levels of mathematics has steadily grown. She is glad Dr. Mason and Dr. Messer saw her mathematical talents and encouraged her to become a mathematics major.

The department has wonderful professors who are all so eager to help me.

She has high praise for the Mathematics and Computer Science department. "One thing I love about being a math major is the other students in the department. Over the course of four years, you grow close to your fellow math majors and can count on spending a lot of study time together. Some of them are even my best friends. The department has wonderful professors who are all so eager to help me. I am very proud and grateful to have had the opportunity to work with this particular group of professors." She also likes the new science complex. "Students have access to a lot of extremely nice facilities, such as the new computer labs and study rooms."

Majoring in Mathematics is not without challenges. She says the hardest class she took was Abstract Algebra. "Taking challenging math classes has always been tough a times, but looking back, I've really enjoyed working hard and studying hard with my classmates. We've had very funny times studying late together in Palenske Hall for a tough abstract algebra exam the next morning."

Her advice to new students? "Spend time in the math department and get to know the professors. They're all really cool." She says anyone interested in mathematics can get a better feel for mathematics by taking a few math classes and attending the various departmental colloquium talks.

Helping other students is something she enjoys. This year she is the student mentor to Dr. Bollman's First-Year Seminar Chance. She has also worked as a teaching assistant for the Psychology Department's Research Design and Analysis class.

Like many Albion students, involvement in a wide variety of activities has helped shape her future plans. "I really enjoy the campus and all the opportunities Albion has for its students," says Lauren. During the summer of 2006, she participated a FURSCA (Foundation for Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity) project with psychology professor Mary Jensen entitled "Common sense theories of illness of diabetes and heart disease in an African American population". She has been a member of the cross country and track teams since her freshmen year. She loves running cross country and enjoys spending time with her teammates.

While Lauren's future plans are still evolving, she currently plans on finding a job as an actuary. She is also applying to the Teach for America program and thinking about graduate school. Lauren says "I've worked extremely hard in challenging classes and that has given me confidence that I can do well in the work place."

Recent News and Upcoming Events

• Andrew Lake has completed his Honors Thesis entitled "BRU-SCI: Bandwidth reservation for users of science applications". BRU-SCI was developed as a client-server model that allows users, particularly science users with high bandwidth requirements, to automatically reserve network bandwidth across network domains. In his thesis, he discusses issues related to reservation requests, path discovery, and reservation creation. He also discusses test results and future work. This thesis documents work performed by Andy as an intern (since 2004) at Internet2 in collaboration with researchers at the Department of Energy. Internet2 is a not-for-profit advanced networking consortium between the research and education community designed to facilitate the development, deployment and use of revolutionary Internet technologies. Internet2 actively engages our community in the development of important new technology including middleware, security, network research and performance measurement capabilities. Andy is a dual Computer Science and Economics and Management major and a member of the Prentiss M. Brown Honors Institute. The thesis is one of the most unique and rigorous elements of the Honors experience, providing a unique opportunity for Honors students to develop their capacity for independent research. An honors thesis is a piece of original research or creative activity that adds to the general body of knowledge in a discipline or to the body of work in the creative arts. Originality may mean that the thesis tries to uncover new facts or principles, suggest relationships that were previously unrecognized, challenge existing truths or assumptions, afford new insights into little understood phenomena, or suggest new interpretations of known facts. All research and writing take place under the close supervision of a thesis committee consisting of at least three Albion College faculty members: a primary thesis advisor and at least two additional readers. David A. Reimann served as the primary thesis advisor; Harold S. Connamacher and Daniel S. Christiansen (Economics and Management) were the remaining thesis committee members. All students who successfully complete a thesis and the other requirements of the Honors Institute, are recognized at commencement and on their diploma with the special designation: graduation "with Albion College Honors." Every year about 30 students graduate with College Honors.
  
• Three Albion mathematics students represented the College in the 67^th William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition on Saturday, December 2. Jeremy Troisi and Carmen Weddell (pictured to the right) took the 6-hour, 12-question exam in Albion, while Dennis Ross, who is studying with the Budapest Semester in Mathematics this year, took the test in Hungary.  Mark Bollman coordinated Albion's student participants.  The Putnam is North America's most prestigious mathematics competition, and was contested by over 3000 students from American and Canadian colleges. From the official Putnam Web site: "The Putnam examination tests originality, technical competence and familiarity with the formal theories embodied in undergraduate mathematics. Questions cut across the bounds of various disciplines, and include self-contained questions that do not fit into any of the usual categories. These self-contained questions can involve elementary concepts from group theory, set theory, graph theory, lattice theory, number theory or cardinal arithmetic." Previous Putnam exam questions, now including Saturday's test, may be found here. Results of the competition are expected by the end of March.
  
• The results of the 13^th Michigan Autumn Take-Home Challenge have been announced. Jeremy Troisi, competing as an individual, was Albion's top entry, finishing in 21^st place with 19 points. Adam Hashimoto, Elizabeth Jewell, and Carmen Weddell scored 16 points to tie for 23^rd. There was a three-way tie for first place, with teams from Taylor University, Michigan Tech, and Kalamazoo College each scoring 61 points. 54 teams from 23 colleges competed in this year's MATH Challenge.
  
• Mark Bollman has published a review of Peter Olofsson's Probabilities: The Little Numbers The Rule Our Lives on the Mathematical Association of America's. MAA Reviews Web site. Probabilities is a book for general audiences that includes references to such topics as Seinfeld and the O.J. Simpson trial in and around the mathematics of chance. In his review, Mark notes that this book is "a fine addition to the popular literature on probability".
  
• The Albion College Faculty Development Committee has approved funding a grant entitled "Enhancing the Interdisciplinary Connections between Mathematics, Computer Science, and Art at Albion College" through their Foundation for Interdisciplinary Study Fund. The proposal was coauthored by David A. Reimann, Darren E. Mason, and Gary B. Wahl (Art and Art History). The main goal of this proposed project is to substantially enhance the collaborative climate between art, mathematics, and computer science on the Albion College campus by commissioning a work of mathematically inspired art by the internationally recognized mathematician, artist, and computer scientist George W. Hart. The artwork will consist of several "spherical" sculptures that will permanently hang along a sweeping path that crosses the length of the new science complex atrium. One exciting aspect of this project is the active participation in a "barn-raising" on-site assembly of the sculpture components. Our plan is to invite individuals from the College campus, the greater Albion Community, Starr Commonwealth and the Battle Creek Area Mathematics and Science Center to participate in a hands-on assembly event. It is our expectation that due to the atrium's multipurpose function as a common meeting space for not only students and faculty from all majors, but also residents of the local Albion community, this addition to the museum-like atmosphere of the atrium will help to motivate K-12 students and young adults to consider careers mathematics, computer science, art, and other related fields. The Foundation for Interdisciplinary Study focuses resources on empowering faculty to integrate interdisciplinary study into their courses by reaching across traditional disciplines, exploring new ideas, engaging in collaborative projects, and developing innovative new courses and teaching approaches. This year, two of the five proposals received were funded.
  
• Darren E. Mason was second author on the paper The Effect of Grain Boundary Normal on Predicting Microcrack Nucleation using Fracture Initiation Parameters in Duplex TiAl, which was recently published in the archival journal Materials Science and Engineering: Series A.  Mason's co-authors were A. Fallahi from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Amir Kabir University of Technology in Tehran, Iran, and D. Kumar, T.R. Bieler, & M.A. Crimp from the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at Michigan State University. The official citation is Materials Science and Engineering: Series A, 432 (1-2), p. 281-291, 2006.
  
• Professors Mark Bollman and Darren Mason have both been granted sabbaticals. Mark Bollman plans to be on sabbatical during the Fall semester of 2007-08. He will collaborate with George Grossman of Central Michigan University on research in combinatorial number theory. In addition, pending the approval of a recent grant application, Bollman may be working with the Capital Area Science and Mathematics Center, developing professional development activities in mathematics for K-8 teachers in the greater Lansing area. Darren Mason plans to be on sabbatical the entire 2007-08 academic year. He will collaborate with Professor Roger L. Fosdick at the University of Minnesota on writing a book on the interplay between observer invariance and the mathematical foundations of thermomechanics. Mason and Fosdick will also collaborate on a new research project to develop a mathematically rigorous foundation for the relatively new field of chemomechanics. Mason, through The Institute for Mathematics and its Applications, will also expand his knowledge base in the field of mathematical biology. Sabbaticals are opportunities for intensive professional growth and renewal of faculty by increasing faculty competence as creative and effective teachers and scholars. Sabbaticals strengthen the College's educational program by grounding teaching in research, scholarship, and creative activity. Applications for sabbaticals are prepared by faculty and approved by the President based on recommendations of the Faculty Development Committee and by the Chief Academic Officer. Faculty are eligible for sabbaticals every seventh year.
  

Please feel free to contact me or visit our website (http://www.albion.edu/mathcs/) for further details on any of these items.

Sincerely,
David A. Reimann
Associate Professor and Chair
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
517-629-0426