2009
De Pillis's Cancer Modeling Research Featured on the Front Page of
SIAM News (2009-11-06)
The cancer-modeling research of Lisette de
Pillis, the Norman F. Sprague Professor of Life Sciences and
Professor of Mathematics, has been featured in a front-page article in
the October,
2009, issue of SIAM News.
The article includes highlights of an invited plenary talk
delivered by Prof. de Pillis at the SIAM Annual Meeting last July in
Denver, Colorado. De Pillis describes how she and her colleagues have
developed ordinary differential equations models based on clinical and
laboratory data that incorporate the nonlinear interactions of tumor
cells and immune cells with chemo- and immunotherapies. Their models
implement optimal-control techniques to determine improved treatment
protocols. The models can use data from an individual's immune system
to give insight into conditions and treatment strategies that will
maximize healing of a patient while minimizing damaging
side-effects.
Professor de Pillis also is serving as the Director of the HMC Global Clinic program. The same issue of SIAM
News includes an article describing
both HMC's Clinic and Global Clinic programs (scroll down).
SIAM (Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics)
is the leading international professional organization for applied
mathematicians, and the SIAM News monthly publication has
a circulation of over 14,000 subscribers.
Election Results Can Be Affected by Voting Procedures, HMC Study Shows (2009-11-03)
As voters around the country head to the polls on November 3, many
may be unaware that the voting procedure used to tally their votes may
be more important than what they actually think about the
candidates.
In the paper “Voting, the Symmetric Group, and Representation
Theory,” HMC researchers revealed huge possible discrepancies in
election results when voters are asked to vote in different ways (even
though the voter's opinion on the subject remained
unchanged).
“For example, the results of an election can change drastically
when a voter is asked to order a slate of candidates from `most
preferred to least preferred' versus asking them to simply identify
their `favorite' candidate," said Michael E. Orrison, associate
professor of mathematics and a co-author of the paper.
That election results can be altered by even slight changes to a
voting procedure can create very complex problems. Orrison is hopeful
that his team's algebraic approach to analyzing voting structure and
data will help. He collaborated on the voting research with his
students, now alumni, Zajj Daugherty '05,
Alex Eustis '06, and Greg
Minton '08. Their paper appeared in the October issue of the
American Mathematical Monthly, a highly selective and
high-profile mathematics journal.
Much of their research is built atop a geometric approach created
by Don Saari, distinguished professor of mathematics and economics at
UC Irvine. Saari's work allows researchers to study certain questions
regarding voting in a very systematic way. Orrison and the students
took that geometric framework and augmented it with an algebraic
framework. “We can create a common arena in which these seemingly
different types of information can coincide and be studied
simultaneously. In that sense, the algebraic (versus the geometric)
framework is liberating because it allows us to ask practical
questions and still harness a great deal of mathematical insights,
tools and machinery to extend what was done before," said Orrison.
The vast scope of the issue is thrilling to Orrison. “I feel like
I'm able to impress upon the student researchers that the joy of
tackling this problem is sometimes bound up in the fact that it really
is bigger than any of us and the contributions that a student can make
in a given year or a given summer will undoubtedly contribute to our
understanding of this big problem.”
“One of the things I admire most about Orrison's research is that
he has a knack for showing how very abstract ideas can be used to
yield concrete insights into real-world problems. His passion for the
field is enormous and he demonstrates once again that our
undergraduates can produce first-rate research,” says mathematics
department chair Andrew Bernoff.
The alumni who contributed to the paper are now working on research
of their own. Daugherty is at the University of Wisconsin (Madison),
where she is working on combinatorial representation theory; Eustis is
at UC San Diego studying combinatorics; and Minton is working toward a
Ph.D. at MIT.
Voting, the Symmetric
Group, and Representation Theory (PDF).
Original article by Maya Chalich.
Mathematics Pioneer Melvin Henriksen, 82, Dies (2009-10-14)
Melvin Henriksen, professor of mathematics emeritus at Harvey Mudd
College, passed away on Oct. 14 in Albuquerque, N.M., at the age of
82. A significant portion of his life was spent at Harvey Mudd College
where he served as a professor of mathematics from 1969 to 1997. After
retiring, he was a very active member of the HMC community.
“Mel was among the most published mathematicians in Claremont and
had a wide array of international contacts and collaborators,” said
Bob Cave, vice president for academic affairs and dean of
faculty. “He did a wonderful job of raising the profile of
mathematics at HMC. We will deeply miss the passion and care he
continued to bring to his work each day throughout his career, as well
as his sense of humor.”
Henriksen was well known in the mathematics community for his work
on the study of rings of continuous functions, which involve the
interplay of algebra and topology. As a major innovator in a part of
topology developed mostly in the second half of the 20th century, his
work on “rings of continuous functions” helped create a new field of
mathematics that combines topology with modern algebra. This new
mathematics started with a seminar he co-organized in
1954–55.
He's been published in countless journals for his work on
ordered rings and topology.
“Mel is just a grand old man of ordered rings,” said James
Madden, Louisiana State University professor and a former student of
Henriksen's, at a Conference on Ordered Rings in
2007. “He's dipped into every aspect of it. He's
responsible for a large research community—people who are
pursuing questions he originally raised and developing ideas that
hatched first in his brain.”
The conference also celebrated Henriksen's 80th birthday.
During his diverse and varied career as a math professor, Henriksen
also received recognition for his attempt to apply mathematics in
order to reduce the amount of waiting time spent by citizens called
for jury duty. Together with a group of six students from The
Claremont Colleges and colleague George Orland, Henriksen devised a
system for reducing waiting time for jurors for the Superior Court of
Los Angeles County. Results from the Mathematics Clinic project
boasted that their system would help save at least $73,000 a year in
fees paid to jurors if it was implemented just in the Pomona
Courthouse alone. They also made recommendations for further studies
that could improve juror utilization.
“While most of us feel that jury duty is an obligation of
citizenship, sitting in a jury waiting room day after day without even
entering a courtroom is usually enough to dampen anyone's civic
ardor,” said Henriksen in the mid-1970's.
Known for speaking his mind and articulating a clear argument,
Henriksen was a staunch enforcer of having his math students write
their answers in complete and logical sentences. On the first day of
any class, he was sure to tell students, “I am more interested in how
you arrive at answers to problems than I am in the answer
itself.”
Henriksen is the unnamed third author on the well-known book
Rings of Continuous Functions by Meyer Jerison and Leonard
Gillman, past president of the Mathematical Association of
America. Henriksen also wrote a paper with Gillman on “real closed
fields” that Madden calls “an ancient monument in real algebraic
geometry—Stonehenge for the discipline.” Additionally,
Henriksen also helped write Single Variable Calculus with an
Introduction to Numerical Methods, with M. Lees (1970), and
participated in the film “Infinite Acres,” which was produced by the
Mathematical Association of America in 1965.
Henriksen graduated from the City College of New York with a
bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1948. He received his
master's and Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin in 1948 and
1951. While serving as a faculty member at HMC, Henriksen also served
briefly as a visiting professor in the department of mathematics at
Wesleyan University. Before coming to Mudd, he taught math at Case
Western, Purdue University, Wayne State University, University of
Alabama and the University of Wisconsin.
Henriksen belonged to the American Mathematical Society, the
Mathematical Association of America and the National Association of
Mathematics. He also directed 11 Ph.D. dissertations, seven at Purdue
University, one at Case Western University and three at Claremont
Graduate University.
Henriksen was an avid history buff and enjoyed traveling to
collaborate with mathematicians around the world.
Original
article taken from HMC's website.
Mathemagics at the National Academy of Sciences (2009-09-30)
On September 30, 2009, HMC Professor of Mathematics Arthur Benjamin
presented “Mathemagics” to the National Academy of Sciences, as part
of their “Distinctive Voices” lecture series for the general
public. The lecture series takes place at the Beckman Center at the
University of California in Irvine. Among the audience were HMC alums
John Murray '61, and Jack
Appleman '68.
HMC Team Optimizing Cataract Care in Africa (2009-09-17)
In late August, recent Harvey Mudd College graduate Brian Stock '09 and mathematics professor Talithia Williams traveled to Mombasa, Kenya, for
the Ophthalmological Society of Eastern Africa's 38th Annual
Scientific Conference to present results of an ongoing research
project examining the incidence of cataract and appropriate treatment
strategies in Africa. The pair is working with HMC alumna Dr. Susan Lewallen '76, an ophthalmologist based in
Tanzania and several other African ophthalmologists to provide more
accurate estimates of target cataract surgical rates (CSR) in African
countries.
The project is the brainchild of Dr. Lewallen, who had a hunch that
current World Health Organization CSR targets might be unrealistically
high for African countries. Stock explains, “The World Health
Organization has this big `Vision 2020' initiative where they want to
eliminate preventable blindness by the year 2020. Cataract is a
common cause of avoidable blindness in the elderly, and there is a
simple, cheap surgery to replace the lens and restore sight. So
eye-care providers in Africa were given target numbers of surgeries to
perform each year, which would supposedly eliminate blindness due to
cataract. But Susan and others found it impossible to get their CSR
up to the target levels.”
Dr. Lewallen reached out to the HMC Mathematics Department for help
assaying the rate of cataract and appropriate surgical rates.
Prof. Williams, a statistician with a strong interest in real world
applications, saw an opportunity to contribute to the project.
“Susan sent us this data from nine sites in Africa,” explains
Williams, “then we calculated prevalence and incidence to come up
with realistic estimates of target CSR in Africa and they were much
lower than current World Health Organization targets.”
When the team realized the implications of their research, they
felt compelled to travel to Africa to present their results. “It was
important for us to communicate directly with the ophthalmologists in
Africa to better explain our methods and discuss the possible
implications.” enthused Williams. “They no longer need to be
fruitlessly trying to increase their surgery rates. They can focus on
other objectives, like increasing the quality of care.”
This trip and project was a perfect springboard for Stock's
postgraduate career plans. He leaves for Africa in February to teach
math in the Peace Corps and was grateful for the ability to get a
taste of what working in Africa might be like. “It was an incredible
opportunity for a number of reasons, and the trip was just one of
them. I also was able to talk with professionals working and living
in Africa, which is something I'll be doing soon. We got an
interesting glimpse of how nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)
operate in eastern Africa as well.”
Travel funds for Stock were provided by the HMC Mathematics
Department through the recently established Jonsson Travel Fund, which
supports student and faculty travel. Dr. Lewallen also generously
pitched in a plane ticket earned through her airline's rewards
program. HMC underwrote Professor Williams travel and summer research
support. The team is presently working on two papers based on this
research, which will be submitted to the Journal of
Opthamology.
The Lewallen–Williams research team; from left to right: Dr. Paul Courtright (Kilimanjaro Centre for Community Ophthamology, Moshi, Tanzania), Dr. Wanjiku Mathenge, (Ministry of Medical Services, Kenya), Dr. Susan Lewallen (HMC '76 and the Kilimanjaro Centre for Community Ophthamology, Moshi, Tanzania), Prof. Talithia D. Williams (HMC Mathematics), Brian C. Stock (HMC '09) and Dr. John Nkurikiye (King Faisal Hospital, Kigali, Rwanda).
Inaugural Alvin White Prize awarded to Natalie Durgin (2009) and
Sarah Fletcher (2009-09-02)
The Alvin White Prize is an
annual award presented to an HMC student or students who have
contributed greatly to the humanistic side of the Harvey Mudd College
Mathematics Community and beyond. The award recognizes contributions
to making mathematics more accessible and enjoyable, enriching the
mathematical experiences at the College, performing mathematical
education outreach, and/or the use of mathematics in the service and
betterment of humanity. These values embody the spirit of Alvin
White's vision of a kinder, gentler and more humanistic approach to
the practice and teaching of mathematics.
The inaugural Alvin White prize is awarded jointly to Natalie Durgin '09 and Sarah
Fletcher '09.
Natalie Durgin's infectious enthusiasm for all things mathematical
reminded many of us about the joys of math on an almost daily basis.
As president of the Math Club she organized many events, including a
celebration of Pi Day and the first Harvey Mudd Integration Bee. She
is presently a mathematics graduate student at Rice University.
Sarah Fletcher showed leadership both as a head grader and through
countless unofficial hours of tutoring in the dormitories. She is a
passionate supporter of the Budapest Semester in Mathematics and
Mathcamp. Sarah could also be counted on to raise one's spirits
through her willingness to help everyone with their mathematical
studies and her amazing baked goods, which always put a smile on the
faces of the people around her. She is presently a mathematics graduate student
at Georgia Tech studying Algorithms, Combinatorics, and
Optimization.
Emeritus Professor Alvin White joined the faculty at Harvey Mudd
College in 1962 and was on the faculty for over 35 years. He played a
pivotal role in developing the Humanistic Mathematics Network and
founded and edited the associated Humanistic Mathematics Network
Journal. His own humanistic pursuits included tutoring inmates at the
Chino Men's Prison and reading and recording textbooks for the blind.
In many ways he was ahead of his time, his work foreshadowing a
growing emphasis on service learning and outreach in the HMC
Mathematics Department.
Jon Jacobsen and Math Department's Demo Lab featured on NPR's
Science Friday (2009-08-24)
The Math Department's Demo Lab was recently
featured on NPR's Science Friday as the “Video
Pick of the Week". Science Friday featured the Chladni (“klad-ni")
Plate demo which illustrates fundamental modes of vibration. The
video has been viewed over 19,000 times.
The Math Demo Lab is an interdisciplinary lab created by Jon
Jacobsen with the goal of developing a first-rate collection of
physical demonstrations that illustrate key mathematical concepts.
The initial demos were developed in collaboration with Austin Rutledge '07 (engineering) and Katie Eliseo '08, with further models, including the
Chladni Plate demo, built in collaboration with Hyung
Joo Park '08 (physics) and Hendrik Orem
'09.
For more information visit the demo lab website.
2009 Nelson Series Highlights the Power and Beauty of Mathematics (2009-08-19)
The theme for the 2009 Dr. Bruce
J. Nelson '74 Distinguished Speaker Series is “The Power and
Beauty of Mathematics”, and will feature talks and discussions about
the use of mathematics to directly influence the world in which we
live, from its application to questions of public policy, its
influence and inspiration in media and entertainment, and even its
pure aesthetic power in creating works of art.
The initial speaker list includes Brian Greene, Professor of
Mathematics and Physics, Columbia University (October 2); Danica
McKellar, mathematician, actor, and author (October 9);) Gary Lorden
Professor of Mathematics and Executive Officer for Mathematics,
Caltech (October 30); Keith Devlin, Senior Researcher and Executive
Director of the Center for the Study of Language and Information,
Stanford University (November 12); and Steven Strogatz, Jacob Gould
Schurman Professor of Applied Mathematics, Cornell University
(November 20).
More information about the Nelson series is available on the Nelson
Speaker Series page.
Harvey Mudd College Well-Represented at Society of Industrial and
Applied Mathematics Annual Meeting (2009-07-06)
Harvey Mudd College was well represented by students, faculty, and
alumni at the SIAM Annual Meeting held in Denver, Colorado the week of
July 6, 2009. The Society for Industrial and Applied
Mathematics (SIAM) is an international community of researchers in
the mathematical sciences from many backgrounds including academia,
private industry and government laboratories. The annual meeting
provides a venue for sharing research accomplishments and pedagogical
developments in applied mathematics, computational science, and their
applications; it also provides a nexus for community and mentoring for
applied mathematicians.
Prof. Lisette de Pillis gave an invited
lecture on “Modeling Cancer-Immunology Dynamics” in which she
described strategies for modeling the interaction of cancer therapies
(radiation, chemotherapy and immunotherapy) and the progress of the
disease with the longterm goal of optimizing therapeutic outcomes.
Prof. de Pillis also spoke about “Teaching, Research, and Family: Who
Has the Time?” in the aptly named minisymposium “A Balancing Act”,
sponsored by the Association of Women in Mathematics.
Prof. Rachel Levy co-organized a minisymposium
on the “Dynamics of Thin Films” which had twelve speakers, including
Prof. Andrew Bernoff and Michael Gratton '02, who received his Ph.D. from
Duke University and is presently a postdoctoral researcher at
Northwestern University. Other alumni sightings include Erin Bodine '03 and Erin Byrne
'00.
The meeting also featured the second annual SIAM undergraduate
poster session. Organized by Professors Andrew Bernoff and Rachel Levy
(Harvey Mudd College) and Chad Topaz (Macalester College), the session
included nineteen entries. Five posters, including one titled
“Modeling Fluid Transport in Subcutaneous Tissue” by Melissa Strait '09 were awarded prizes consisting
of a crisp $100 bill and a copy of the student edition of MATLAB, both
provided by The MathWorks, which sponsored the event.
Su Elected Vice President of MAA (2009-06-23)
Harvey Mudd College Professor of Mathematics Francis Su has been
elected first vice president of the Mathematical
Association of America (MAA), it was announced in May.
Su's two-year term begins after the Joint Mathematics Meetings
(with MAA and the American Mathematical Society) in 2010 and ends
after the Joint Mathematics Meetings in 2012. Also elected at the
meeting were president-elect Paul Zorn (St. Olaf College) and second
vice president Douglas Ensley (Shippensburg University). More
information about the MAA election can be found at http://www.maa.org/news/060809election.html.
Su joined the faculty at Harvey Mudd College in 1996 and is the
recipient of numerous awards for his teaching and research, notably
the MAA's Henry L. Alder Award for Distinguished Teaching in 2004 and
the Merten M. Hasse Prize for outstanding mathematical exposition in
2001. He earned his Ph.D. in mathematics from Harvard University in
1995.
The MAA has 27,000 members and its mission is to advance the mathematical sciences,
especially at the collegiate level, through its core interests:
education, research and exposition, professional development, public
policy, and public appreciation. Its membership includes university,
college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate
students; pure and applied mathematicians; computer scientists;
statisticians; and many others in academia, government, business, and
industry.
HMC Hosts Math-in-Industry Workshop (2009-06-23)
Harvey Mudd College (HMC) is a co-sponsor and host of the Math-in-Industry Workshop, presented by the
Claremont Colleges Applied Mathematics Group, July 24–31, 2009.
The workshop will follow a model begun at Oxford University in 1968
and which continues today through the European
Study Group with Industry.
The program will begin with a student study camp from July 24 to
26. During the Math-in-Industry workshop, which runs from July 27 to
31, seven problems, covering areas such as semiconductor modeling and
microarray statistics, will be presented by the industrial sponsors on
Monday morning, July 27.
The invited audience, comprising 30 graduate and undergraduate
students—including two each from HMC and Claremont McKenna College—and 30 faculty from various universities, will separate into
“study groups” until Friday, July 31. The workshop will conclude
with a reporting session and close of proceedings, and there will be a
subsequent final written report.
“Our goal is to provide affordable consulting for industrial
clients in a setting where academics solve industrial problems,”
according to Lisette de Pillis, Norman
F. Sprague Jr., Professor of Life Sciences, director of the Harvey
Mudd College Center for Quantitative Life Sciences and the director of
the Harvey Mudd College Global Clinic program. “This workshop is like
a super-compressed Clinic experience, but it involves students and
faculty as the problem solvers. Students and faculty from all over the
country are invited to participate.”
The workshop is being sponsored by the Harvey Mudd College Center
for Quantitative Life Sciences and a $46,541 National Science
Foundation grant that names de Pillis as co-principal investigator.
The workshop is directed by de Pillis and Ellis Cumberbatch, program
director of the Joint Ph.D. Program in Engineering and Industrial
Applied Mathematics at Claremont Graduate University.
More information is available at the workshop's website.
Original
article.
Professor Emeritus Alvin White Dies (2009-06-23)
Professor of Mathematics Emeritus Alvin
White, a long-time member of the Department of Mathematics at
Harvey Mudd College (HMC), died June 2, 2009.
“Alvin served the college from 1962 until his retirement in 1996
with grace, kindness and good humor,” said Vice President and Dean of
Faculty Robert Cave in an announcement to the college community. “He
loved mathematics and was a strong advocate within and beyond HMC for
seeing mathematics as a humanistic discipline. He was also a friendly
and supportive senior colleague to young faculty.”
Professor of Mathematics Emeritus Robert
Borrelli said of his colleague, “Al was the sweetest, kindest
person, who was very interested in helping students. He will be
missed.”
Before coming to HMC, White was a member of the Math Research
Center at the University of Wisconsin. He earned his A.B. in liberal
arts at Columbia University, his M.A. in mathematics at UCLA and his
Ph.D. in mathematics at Stanford University.
White served for many years as project director for the
Interdisciplinary Holistic Teaching/Learning Program at The Claremont
Colleges, which advocated a synthesis of science and humanities and an
awareness of the interdependence of intuitive and analytical thought
processes. In 1971, he was called upon to take part in the State of
California's Blue Ribbon Commission on Writing Standards.
In addition to his teaching and research at HMC, White was the
founding editor of the Humanistic Mathematics Network
Journal, which was part of a resurgence in the recognition of
mathematics as a humanistic discipline. The journal was funded largely
through grants from the Exxon Education Foundation.
White described the journal thus:
The journal includes book reviews, classroom teaching
experiences, polemics, poetry, puzzles, philosophical issues, and
other free interpretations of humanistic math, including
“half-baked ideas.”
In his paper “Humanistic Mathematics—Rediscovering Joy in
Learning,” Roger Haglund of the Department of Mathematics and
Computer Science at Concordia College, wrote of White:
Dr. White began a campaign for “humanistic mathematics” and he
has seen his personal vision grow into an international movement
which is having a significant impact on mathematics education.
Humanistic dimensions of mathematics...included the
following:
- An appreciation of the role of intuition, not only in
understanding but in creating concepts that appear in their
finished versions to be “merely technical.”
- An appreciation of the human dimensions that motivate
discovery: competition, cooperation, the urge for holistic
pictures.
- An understanding of the value judgments implied in the growth
of any discipline. Logic alone never completely accounts for what
is investigated, how it is investigated, and why it is
investigated.
- There is a need for new teaching/learning formats that will
help wean our students from the view of knowledge as certain, to
be “received.”
In his paper, “Journals: Assessment Without Anxiety,” White
wrote:
Mathematics is sometimes perceived as stark and unbending. This
may be caused by presentations which are strictly
definition-theorem-proof, or lack a sense of historical evolution
and excitement.
How do students acquire knowledge of mathematics? Memorization
and solving problems are two routes that may be
followed. Constructing personal meaning by reflection and
conversation is another route. These routes are not mutually
exclusive.
Original
article.
Harvey Mudd College Mathematics Department Recognized by National
Science Foundation with Grant to Mentor Postdoctoral Fellows (2009-05-26)
An $800,000 grant to the Harvey Mudd College (HMC) Department of
Mathematics from the National Science Foundation (NSF) is one of
several grants recently announced on campus to fund research,
teaching, learning and technology resources.
The five-year $800,000 NSF grant will underwrite a new
Department of Mathematics program, “Optimizing the Mathematics
Postdoctoral Experience: A Teaching and Research Postdoctoral
Fellowship,” which will establish a new postdoctoral fellowship
focused on the synergistic activities of teaching and research as well
as connections between the two.
Over the five years, the program will support five postdoctoral
fellows and 10 undergraduate summer research associates. Each fellow
will spend two years at HMC and develop their research under the
guidance of a research mentor. They will also teach an average of one
course per semester in tandem with a teaching mentor, supervise a
summer research student, advise a capstone research experience such as
a senior thesis or one of Harvey Mudd College's industrial
research-based Clinics, and participate in outreach activities and
other vital departmental functions.
Professors Andrew Bernoff, Jon Jacobsen and Rachel Levy
are principal investigators on the grant.
“Harvey Mudd College is a recognized leader in the teaching of
undergraduate mathematics and mentoring of undergraduate research,”
said Bernoff. “This grant will allow us to train recent Ph.D.s to
excel as faculty members at undergraduate institutions.”
The grant also provides funds for HMC undergraduates over the
summer. “Our plan is to team up the postdoctoral fellows with HMC
faculty members and undergraduates over the summer to create small
research groups,” said Bernoff. “We are all very excited to welcome
these fellows to the HMC family.”
In 2006, the American Mathematical Society recognized the
department with its inaugural Exemplary Program or Achievement in a
Mathematics Department award, citing the department's leadership and
innovation in undergraduate teaching, mentoring undergraduate research
and outreach to the broader community.
The HMC Department of Mathematics is a leader in outreach
activities, including the Pathways Program founded by professors
Jacobsen and Michael Orrison, which
facilitates visits from professional mathematicians to elementary,
junior high and high school classrooms; the L.A. Professional
Development and Outreach Group run by Professor
Darryl Yong, which provides networking and support for
secondary school teachers in the Greater Los Angeles Area; and Math
for America Los Angeles, where Yong and HMC President Maria Klawe
serve as members of the executive steering committee.
Diversity and Geometry: Prof. Dagan Karp to Run NSF-Supported
Symposium on Categorical Methods in Topology and Quantum Geometry at
the National Meeting of the Society for the Advancement of Chicano and
Native Americans (2009-05-26)
Assistant Professor of Mathematics Dagan
Karp is co-principal investigator on a $23,850 NSF grant to
support the scientific symposium Categorical Methods in Topology and
Quantum Geometry, which will take place at the National Meeting of the
Society for the Advancement of Chicano and Native Americans in the
Sciences in Dallas, Texas, Oct. 15–18, 2009.
The funding will be used for student, speaker and organizer support
for the workshop, which will disseminate knowledge to a wide and
extraordinarily diverse audience, to provide the opportunity for
scientists to interact and foster collaboration and new research, and
to enable and encourage students and other scientists to pursue
research in areas related to low dimensional topology and quantum
geometry.
Prof. Martonosi helps Kenyans Harness Solar Power for Water Purification (2009-02-19)
(L to R) Annika Eberle '09, Rob Best '10, and Autumn Petros-Good '09 with the solar still they constructed for the Clay International Secondary School in Ngomano, Kenya.
Harvey Mudd College (HMC) engineering majors Annika Eberle '09, Autumn
Petros-Good '09 and Rob Best '10—all
members of the environmental group Engineers for a Sustainable
World/Mudders Organizing for Sustainability Solutions (ESW/MOSS)—spent 16 days in Kenya, Africa, on an educational mission in
January.
Setting out for the remote village of Ngomano to help the Clay
International Secondary School master a solar water purification
method, the group returned to HMC with lessons learned, amazing
memories, and an appreciation for the education and experience they've
gained both at home and abroad.
“Having this as my first big out-of-culture experience is quite
the story,” said Petros-Good, who plans to apply to graduate school
and the Peace Corps after HMC. “I had to adapt very quickly to
different cultural norms, different ways of doing things, and a
wake-at-sunrise-sleep-at-sunset schedule, which was perhaps the most
difficult part.
“[But] I wouldn't trade this experience for anything. I learned so
much about how life can be different for other people and learned
first-hand how many different ways there are for me to help people in
developing countries using my engineering degree.”
The students, who were accompanied to Kenya by HMC trustee Andrea
“Andy” Leebron-Clay, her husband James “Jim” Clay and Assistant Professor of Mathematics Susan Martonosi,
constructed a solar still to purify the school's water and taught a
course on solar distillation to the teenage Kenyan students.
“The water, which the locals often have to dig up to 5 feet to
reach, is sometimes too salty to drink,” explained Eberle, who plans
to attend graduate school in structural or biomechanical engineering
and then work to develop renewable energy solutions for the developing
world. “Solar distillation utilizes the same method employed in the
natural water cycle. First, the sun's energy heats the water so that
it evaporates. The evaporated water then condenses onto a sheet of
plastic or glass that redirects the water to a clean container,
leaving the salts behind.”
But building a solar still in Kenya wasn't quite as easy for the
HMC group as it was back home. (Eberle and Best had constructed a
still as part of a research project last summer.)
“One of the biggest lessons I learned as an engineer was that
materials we take for granted as being available here are hard to find
in Kenya,” said Best, current ESW/MOSS president who hopes to
eventually work in green design or environmental consulting. “For
example, we couldn't find plywood in [the village] Wote, so we had to
build our prototype solar still out of an old plastic wood-glue
drum. The experience of standing in front of a hardware store
redesigning our solar still to fit the materials they had there was
something I will never forget.”
After wrestling with a saw for about a day and enlisting the help
of their skilled guide Benson Mutua, the in-country director for the
non-profit organization Project Education, Inc. (PEI)—founded by
Leebron-Clay, Debra Akre and Jeana King—the engineering students
had constructed a functioning solar still.
“We had some of the students taste the water we produced, and they
informed us that there was no salt in it, which was the goal,” said
Petros-Good, who founded ESW/MOSS with Eberle in 2006. “Even though
the final product didn't look particularly fancy, at least it was
functional.”
Martonosi, who served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guinea, West
Africa, and visited Kenya in 2001 as a tourist, can vouch for the fact
that flexibility is essential in Africa.
“Traveling in Africa is not easy,” she said. “The unexpected can
be expected to happen, and one always has to be good-natured about
these things. The students adapted so well to the culture and climate,
and were a joy to travel with.
“Moreover, their flexibility and creativity paid off in spades
when they were designing the solar still. At the Kenyan hardware
store, the students had to think on their feet to figure out how to
use available materials to design and build a comparable still. This
demonstrated how well the HMC curriculum had prepared them to leverage
their engineering know-how in creative ways to solve a problem.”
Students at the Clay International Secondary School put their water distillation lessons to work.
In the end it all worked out, and the HMC group hopes the
project inspired the Kenyan students.
“I hope that the students understood the principles of the solar
still, and saw that they could use what they had learned in their
homes with their families,” said Petros-Good. “I know that a few of
them really enjoyed our design project, and I hope that some of them
will pursue engineering as a possible career field.”
Aside from working and teaching, the HMC group also had the
opportunity to run with zebras, gazelles and impala; visit an elephant
orphanage in Nairobi; and spend time on safari and barter in a region
inhabited by Maasai people—a tribe that often appears in pictures
of African culture because of its members' colorful style of dress,
beadwork and jewelry, and stretched earlobes.
“The trip was amazing,” noted Eberle, whose international travels
also include Cambodia and Singapore, where she participated in Global Clinic projects during the summer of 2008. “The Kenyan
people were more welcoming than I ever could have imagined. Being able
to see all of the wildlife in Maasai Mara was great. And having the
opportunity to practice my engineering skills in the field was
challenging, but rewarding.”
The people of Kenya made the biggest impression on Petros-Good:
“The most potent lesson for me was that people are people, no matter
where you are. I was able to communicate with people with a background
completely different from mine, who grew up speaking a tribal language
and herding cattle, simply by using a few Swahili phrases, a lot of
smiles and gestures. Even though many of the people I met are poor by
American, or even world, standards, they still find things to be happy
about, and they're still incredibly friendly, which I wasn't
expecting.”
Follow-up projects for the Kenyan solar still or other engineering
systems that could ultimately be implemented in the Ngomano village
could be on the horizon for other HMC students as well.
According to Best, ESW/MOSS hopes to continue its partnership with
the Clay International Secondary School and would like Kenya to become
an annual trip where HMC students solve an existing engineering
problem.
The school was established in 2005, as part of PEI, which seeks to
increase the availability of education to impoverished students
through parent participation and community development in Kenya.
“We were told before we went that once you visit, Africa gets into
your blood,” Best said. “Having been there, it's definitely
true. The laid-back lifestyle, the concept of `Africa time' (no
deadlines), the general friendliness and genuine appreciation of help
and knowledge, and the vast expanse of open space are things I will
never forget.”
“Sometimes I despair about the future of the world,” added
trustee Leebron-Clay. “There is too much to do and the problems seem
too complex for any of us to solve. Traveling with this group of Mudd
Engineers for a Sustainable World not only gave me optimism that smart
and committed people can change the future, but a new vision of the
world through their eyes. If there is anybody reading this that doubts
the strength of the next generation, I suggest two weeks in Africa
with Mudders.”
Support for the HMC group and their solar distillation project was
provided by The Clay Foundation, founded by Leebron-Clay and
her husband Jim; HMC's Shanahan Student-Directed Project Fund; and the
HMC 2020 Strategic Vision Fund.
An online gallery of photos from the Kenya trip is
available.
—Original Story
by Gia Scafidi Leiva
2009 Mathematical Modeling Competition Results (2009-04-03)
The results of the 2009 International Mathematical Modeling Contest
have just been announced. HMC had another stellar performance with
one team earning the top honor of Outstanding (given to only 13 teams
out of 2049 entries worldwide!). This team was further distinguished
with the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) Award—an award
for distinguished writing. The report from the outstanding team will
be published in the Journal of Undergraduate Mathematics and its
Applications. Moreover, three teams earned the designation
Meritorious (top 19%) and one earned Honorable Mention (top 37%).
This is an incredible showing for HMC and a testament to the strength
of our core curriculum and academic program.
The MCM/ICM is analogous to an applied Putnam exam, in the form of
a grueling 96-hour competition. As Ben Fusaro, creator of the contest
in 1983, puts it: “Most problems that come up in business,
government, or industry are solved by teams, are likely to take many
hours, and would not be restricted to using only pencil and
paper. Moreover, the answer must be presented to an executive who
wants a clear, understandable response.” Thus, during the contest,
students work in teams of three and have 96 consecutive hours to
develop a mathematical model and write a formal paper describing their
work. The team's papers are judged not only on their scientific and
mathematical accuracy, but also on their clarity of exposition,
insight and creativity.
This year's problems concerned
- Designing a traffic circle
- Modeling energy cost of cell phone versus land-line phone usage
- Modeling management of a coral reef
Here are the winning HMC teams:
Problem A—Outstanding Winner & MAA Prize
- Aaron Abromowitz (Math '09)
- Andrea Levy (Math '11)
- Russell Melick (CS '11)
Problem A—Meritorious
- Richard Bowen (Math '10)
- Andrew Hunter (CS/Math '09)
- Hendrik Orem (Math '09)
Problem A—Meritorious
- David Zitter (Math '10)
- Rick O’Toole (Math '10)
- Jason Wyman (Math '10)
Problem C—Meritorious
- Ryan Muller (Math/CS '11)
- Neal Pisenti (Physics '11)
- Chandler May (Math '11)
Problem C—Honorable Mention
- Patrick Foley (Math '09)
- Steven Ehrlich (CS/Math '09)
- Tyler Wolf (CS '09)
Please join me in congratulating these Mudders on their excellent work.
For complete results, see
http://www.comap.com/undergraduate/mcm/contests/contests/2009/results/.
Rachel Levy
MCM Coordinator
HMC Putnam Competition Results! (2009-03-24)
The results of the nationwide 2008 William Lowell Putnam
Mathematical Competition have just been announced, and HMC had another
strong showing.
Forty-five HMC students spent a Saturday in December (2008-12-06)
taking this very hard six-hour exam, which requires a unique blend of
cleverness and problem-solving skills. Nationwide, 3627 students
competed, and this year the median score was 1 out of a total
of 120 points! But this year, three HMC students, Ted
Spaide '09, Palmer Mebane '12, and
Jacob Scott '11, placed eleventh in the Team
Category (out of 545 universities), with following scores and special
honors:
| Name |
Score |
Nationwide Rank
(out of 3627) |
Honor |
| Palmer Mebane '12 |
55 |
97.5 |
Top 100 List |
| Ted Spaide '09 |
53 |
104.5 |
Top 200 List |
| Jackson Newhouse '12 |
45 |
162.5 |
Top 200 List |
These three students will be receiving RIF
Prizes, which honor the top Mudd finishers in the Putnam each
year.
In the individual category, nine of our students placed in the Top
500; a great accomplishment given our school size. Only eight other
schools could claim more students in the Top 500.
The following six students made the Top 500 List:
- Steven Ehrlich '09
- Jennifer Iglesias '12
- Daniel Moore '11
- Aaron Pribadi '12
- Jacob Scott '11
- Ethan Sokol '10
We are proud of all 45 HMC students across all majors who
sacrificed their time, talent, and energies to represent the college
in this year's Putnam competition. Please join us in congratulating
all the participants!
—Nick Pippenger and Francis Su, Putnam Seminar coaches
Posted scores for participants can be found on the math department
bulletin board, and data on HMC's past performance is available at: http://www.math.hmc.edu/putnam/hmc_results.html.
