To:
November/December 2014 nanoletter
Dear UCCS Math Majors,
Hard to believe that Thanksgiving Break is upon us AND that the end of the semester is less than a month away.
Below is the Math majors’ nanoletter for (late) November & December combined.
- Final Exams’ week is Dec 15-18, 2014.
Commencement is Dec 19, 2014. Congratulations for those of you graduating this Fall!
- Spring 2015 course schedule: If you haven’t decided yet on which courses to take in Spring 2015, now is the time to do it.
If you still have questions about a particular course or about your progress towards your degree, contact one of the Math Department
advisors or your Student Success advisor.
- Distinguished Lecture and Colloquia Videos:
Did you miss the Oct 2014 Distinguished Lecture given by Dr. Jason Bell (U Waterloo) on the "Game theory and the mathematics of
altruism”? if so, you missed a great performance. But do not despair, we have captured it on video and you can watch it at your
leisure:
http://www.uccs.edu/math/math-events/distinguished-lecture-series.html
Not less impressive were our other Colloquium speakers this Fall; again, in case you missed any live action, you can still watch most
lectures on our Colloquium page http://www.uccs.edu/math/math-events/colloquium-series.html. We plan to continue offering this
video feature, so keep this in mind.
The Nov and December Colloquia are (check the colloquium page for more details):
Dr. Robert Carlson (UCCS Math): Myopic Models of Population Dynamics on Infinite Networks (Nov 6)
Dr. Karen Livesey (UCCS Physics): Nonlinear magnetization dynamics in nanoparticles and thin films (Nov 20)
Dr. Mark Hoefer (CU Boulder Applied Math): Experiments on Solitons, Dispersive Schock Waves, and Their Interactions
(Dec 4)
- New Courses coming Fall 2015
Math 4040 - Senior Math Seminar (1 credit hour) will be offered for the first time in Fall 2015. This is the capstone experience for the
students in the mathematics program. Students will give oral presentations on mathematics topics, and will actively participate in peer
presentations. It is required of all students who declared major this Fall. Even if this does not apply to you, taking it might be a great
idea, being designed as the new capstone for Math majors, as part of the campus-wide Compass curriculum. BEST OF ALL, it will
also satisfy the LAS College Oral Communication requirement!
CS 1120 - Computational Thinking with Beginning Programming This CS course, to be offered also starting Fall 2015, is a new
course designed with the non-CS major in mind. It explores the ideas behind computational thinking, the thought processes involved
in analyzing problems and formulating their solutions in precise, unambiguous ways. Topics include data collection, analysis, and
representation; algorithms and procedures; simulation; and others. Most problem solutions in the course are implemented as
computer programs. The Undergrad committee is considering replacing the CS requirement for BS majors from CS 1150 to CS 1120.
More on this in future newsletters.
- William Putnam Competition - coming up next week, Saturday, Dec 6.
Several UCCS math students have been training as part of the the weekly Math Incline seminar throughout the semester. They will
flex their ‘brain’ muscles in two 3- hour sessions on Saturday. Kudos to them for even trying to crack these tough problems.
- Math Contest in Modeling (MCM) - coming up in February.
If interested in participating or learning more about it, check out the website http://comap.com/mcm contact Dr. Cascaval.
- Math Club @ UCCS is now an active club, but it still needs enthusiastic members who want to become leaders/officers…
Contact the Math Club President, Allan Gardner, at math-club-at-uccs+owners@googlegroups.com to join!
- Spring Student Math Conference season is quickly approaching:
2015 PPRUMC - Feb 21st, 2015 at USAFA http://sections.maa.org/rockymt/2015_PPRUMC.html (early registration required)
2015 SIAM FRAM - Feb 28th, 2015 at CU Denver (http://amath.colorado.edu/content/siam-undergraduate-chapter - not yet updated
for 2015)
2015 CSURF - April 4th, 2015 at Colorado College (http://www.uccs.edu/~csurf/)
2015 Rocky Mountain MAA Sectional meeting - April 17-18, 2015 at Colorado College (https://www.coloradocollege.edu/other/maa/
-100th anniversary edition)
- Math in Movies website:
The website http://www.math.harvard.edu/~knill/mathmovies/ lists several movies where math is being featured, one way or another.
We do not endorse any movie in particular, but the list may come in handy during the cold weeks when school is not in session….
- Editor’s Book Choice:
"Love and Math - The Heart of Hidden Reality", by Dr. Edward Frenkel, Professor of Mathematics at Berkeley, is a personal story of
coming into being for a mathematician from the former USSR; if you want an extra incentive to consider this book, watch his recent
lecture “Mathematics as Hidden Reality”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnqQ-BWMHrE
Finally, keep an eye for the Departmental 2014 Newsletter (to be posted at http://www.uccs.edu/math/math-news/newsletter.html) as well as
the Spring 2015 Math Major Micro newsletter to be sent in mid January.
Happy Thanksgiving!!!