Dear Friends,

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

Table of Contents

1. Recent News and Upcoming Events:
   1. Five Students Compete In MATH Challenge
   2. Students compete at ACM-ICPC Regional Programming Contest
   3. Students Place 9th and 15th in MATH Challenge
   4. Mark Bollman Named As Consultant To MMSTLC
   5. Four Students Participate In Putnam Exam
   6. Paul Anderson's Research Published
   7. Paul Anderson on Leave of Absence
   8. Welcome to Michael L. Robison
   9. Department Purchases Calculators
   10. Lerew, '04, Featured in USA Today
   11. Mathematical Contest in Modeling
   12. Denison Spring Programming Contest
   13. Pi Day
   14. Pizza and Pamphlets
   15. Colloquium: Fatih Celiker

Recent News and Upcoming Events

• The 14th annual Michigan Autumn Take-Home Challenge, held on Saturday, November 3, attracted a record number of entries: 62 teams from 22 colleges in 7 states. Two Albion teams participated: Chen Chen and Jeremy Troisi formed one team; the second consisted of Elizabeth Jewell, Dennis Ross, and Carmen Weddell. The MATH Challenge is a 10-question exam that students take in teams of 2 or 3 without outside assistance. This year's exam was written by Gerald Heuer of Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. Results of the MATH Challenge are expected by the end of the semester.
  
• A team of three students from Albion competed with over one hundred other teams in the 2007 East Central North America Region Programming Contest. In the contest, students work in teams of three to solve eight problems in a five hour period. Teams are ranked by the number of solved problems, the time to solve problems, and the number of attempts. A solution is accepted by the judeges only if it meets strict guidelines and works on an extensive battery of unknown test data meeting the problem description. The competing teams came from 67 colleges and universities throughout western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, eastern Ontario, and Indiana (excluding the Greater Chicago Metropolitan Area). There were four contest sites: the University of Cincinnati Site in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA (30 teams from 16 schools), the University of Michigan Site in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA (27 teams from 17 schools), the McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada (27 teams from 14 schools), and the Youngstown University Site in Youngstown, Ohio, USA (32 teams from 20 schools). Albion's team traveled to the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, Michigan with professor David Reimann. The Albion Gold team (below) was comprised of junior computer science majors Kelly Behr and Christopher Moyle and senior mathematics major Dennis Ross. Final standings for the region are available at http://acm.ashland.edu/2007/standings.html. This contest was one of the many held as a part of the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) program. Since 1970, the ICPC has provided a mechanism for students to demonstrate their skills in solving problems, programming and teamwork; In the 2006 ICPC, 6,099 teams from 1,756 universities in 82 countries competed at 205 sites worldwide.
  
  
• The results of the MATH Challenge have arrived. Albion's top team of Chen Chen and Jeremy Troisi tied for 9th place, scoring 42 pts. Dennis Ross, Elizabeth Jewell, and Carmen Weddell finished 15th, with a score of 33. Saginaw Valley State University won this year's MATH Challenge with a score of 63 on the 100-point test. 53 teams from small colleges across the greater Midwest competed in the 14th MATH Challenge.
  
• Mark Bollman has been named as a mathematics consultant on a team of 5 people working with the Michigan Mathematics and Science Teacher Leadership Collaborative. Mark will be working for the next two years with a team based at the Capital Area Science and Math Center in Clinton County, on projects designed to enhance middle grades mathematics and science teaching at high-need schools in mid-Michigan. He joins the team as its mathematics subject specialist; other team members are CASM director Julie Fick, Clinton County RESA mathematics consultant Denise Brady, Lansing Public Schools gifted and talented program director Mark Rudd, and Central Michigan University earth science professor Mark Francek. Twelve such teams, each based at a math/science center in Michigan, make up Cadre II of the MMSTLC program.
  
• The 68th annual William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition was held at campus sites across North America on Saturday, December 1. Competing for Albion were seniors Dennis Ross, Jeremy Troisi, and Carmen Weddell; and freshman Chen Chen. The Putnam exam is a 12-question, 6-hour exam taken by students as individuals, and is known throughout the mathematical community as the world's most challenging math test. This year's questions may be found here. Mark Bollman organized and supervised the students' participation. Results of the exam are expected no later than the end of March 2008.
  
• Paul Anderson's research was published in the paper "Innovations algorithm asymptotics for periodically stationary time series with heavy tails" in the Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Volume 99, pages 94-116, January 2008. Paul's coauthors were Laimonis Kavalieris from the University of Otago and former Albion professor Mark M. Meerschaert now at Michigan State University.
  
• Professor Paul Anderson is on a leave of absence for the next three semesters in the Department of Statistics and Probability at Michigan State University (MSU). He will be working on several research projects with former Albion professor Mark M. Meerschaert, who is now Professor and Chairperson of Statistics and Probability at MSU. Dr. Anderson will also develop his teaching skills by teaching several statistics courses in an environment very different from that at Albion. He will return to Albion for the Fall 2009 semester.
  
• Welcome to Mr. Michael L. Robison, who is joining the department as a visiting instructor starting the Spring 2008 semester. In recent years, he has been running the Mathnasium learning center in Okemos, Michigan, a program for 2nd through 12th grade students to boost their math skills. He also has previous collegiate teaching experience at Grand Valley State University and Michigan State University. He is originally from south-central Michigan and earned his undergraduate degree in managerial and applied economics from Olivet College in 1997 (where he was a student of professor Mark Bollman). He received his master's degree in teaching mathematics from Michigan State University in 2001. Professionally he is interested in identifying alternative productive ways to serve mathematics students. He also has an interest in the connections among mathematical topics and relationships between mathematics and other academic topics.
  
• The department has purchased ten new TI-84 Plus Silver Edition EZ-Spot model calculators for use by faculty and students. Six will be used by faculty in support of their courses and the remaining four will be available for student use in the library. Students will be able to check out a calculator for a two-hour block at the circulation desk, similar to the laptop checkout program. Introduced in 2004, the TI-84 Plus Silver Edition is a graphing calculator designed for use in mathematics courses such as pre-calculus and calculus. The EZ-Spot model has several features to help easily identify the calculator as an institutionally owned calculator, including a unique "school bus yellow" colored case and a faceplate inscribed with the words "School Property". This purchase was made possible by the generous financial support of alumni and other friends of the department. See our giving webpage to learn about ways you can support our departmental mission.
  
• Math major Annie Lerew, '04, was featured in yesterday's USA Today in an article about the country's shortage of quality math teachers. In the article, entitled "Making math pay: Good teachers appear when the price is right," Lerew explains that after graduating from Albion she had planned to be an actuary and pursue a path to wealth. She says she was not interested in teaching and the "life of poverty" it implies, but then she discovered the Math for America program, which is similar but unrelated to Teach for America. Math for America pays for participants to receive their master's degrees, and gives a $90,000 stipend over five years in addition to the public school salary. Before landing her job at the Bronx's Banana Kelly High School, Lerew earned her master's degree from Bard College, located 90 minutes north of New York City. Austin Lampros, a 2002 graduate who majored in math, also worked in the Math for America program. Lerew says this is a great program and would love to get more Albion graduates involved. A more complete story is available on the Albion College news website.
  
• February 14: The Mathematical Contest in Modeling is a contest where teams of undergraduates use mathematical modeling to present their solutions to real world problems. The contest begins at 8pm EST on the 14th and runs through 8pm EST on Monday, February 18th. Talk to mark Bollman for further information about this competition.
  
• February 23: The Denison Spring Programming Contest challenges teams of up to four programmers to solve up to six programming problems in a period of four hours. The programmers have their choice of programming in Java and/or C++. The team with the most questions solved in the least amount of time wins. See David Reimann or the related Web page for more information about this competition.
  
• March 14: Pi Day celebrates on of the most famous mathematical constants, pi.
  
  Click on the above picture for your very own printable Pi poster.
  
• March 20:
  
  Pizza and Pamphlets is the event where the Mathematics and Computer Science Department provides information about fall courses in Mathematics and Computer Science. All Math majors/minors, Computer Science majors/minors, Math/Physics majors, Math/Econ majors, prospective majors, and friends of the department are invited to join us. This year the event will be held at 3:10 pm in Palenske 227. Bring your friends; bring your questions; bring your schedule.
  
• Fatih Celiker ( Assistant Professor , Mathematics , Wayne State University , Detroit, Michigan) will give a talk entitled "A brief introduction to finite element methods" for our departmental colloquium on February 14.
  

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