Past events in the Mathematics and Computer Science Department at Central College

Past events

This section provides information about the events that we have had in the recent past.

2006 Iowa Collegiate Math Competition

The 12th annual Iowa Collegiate Mathematics competition will be held at Luther College on Saturday, 3.4.06. The festivities begin at 10am and the fun lasts until 4pm

This year's competition is a bit different than in previous years. Along with the fun and challenging math problems to work on, there will also be some fun time for all of the students to interact.

The competing teams are encouraged to be mathematically creative and to prepare some sort of presentation to entertain the other teams. Some ideas of what groups could do include: a dramatic presentation of an original math poem or math song, a short mathematical skit or a mathemagical trick that the team could demonstrate to the audience.

Please contact Prof. G. at x7640 or via email at goodmanr@central.edu for more information.

Date: 3/4/2006
Time: 10am - 3:30pm
Location: Luther College, Decorah, IA
URL for more info: http://www.central.edu/maa/contest/
Contact: Dr. Goodman

2006 Iowa Collegiate Math Competition

Date: 3/4/2006
Time: 10am - 3:30pm
Location: Luther College, Decorah, IA
URL for more info: http://www.central.edu/maa/contest/
Contact: Dr. Goodman

A Career in Statistics: The Role of a Biostatistician

Central Math/CS alum, Dr. Jake Oleson, will speak at 11am in VSC 180 this Thursday, October 20.

Dr. Oleson is a faculty member at the U of I College of Public Health Department of Biostatistics and plans to describe what the fields of statistics and biostatistics are like and to describe their similarities and differences. He will then go into what types of biostatistics careers one can pursue with a masters degree or a Ph.D.

Additionally, Dr. Oleson will describe his program at the University of Iowa College of Public Health and will discuss some of the projects he and his colleagues are working on.

Dr. Oleson's presentation is available as a PowerPoint file.

Date: 10/20/2005
Time: 11:00am
Location: VSC 180
Contact: Prof. G.

Dining Etiquette

6 p.m.-8 p.m., Dining Etiquette, President's Dining Room, Central Market. Call Ann Fischer, ext. 5856, to reserve a seat by 5 p.m., Monday. Dress professionally for this event. This is part of the professional development series required for some majors. Questions? Ask Pat Joachim Kitzman, ext. 5271.

Seniors in particular are encouraged to attend.

Date: 10/7/2005
Time: 6pm - 8pm
Location: President's Dining Room, Central Market.
Contact: Ann Fischer, ext. 5856

Dining Etiquette

Dining Etiquette is Tues. Feb. 1, 6-8 p.m., President's Dining Room, The Central Market. Call Ann Fischer, ext. 5856, to reserve a space. Must dress professionally. This workshop is part of the professional development series required by some majors.

Date: 2/1/2005
Time: 6-8pm
Location: President's Dining Room

Envisioning Your Future

The Graduate College at The University of Iowa is hosting a campus visitation program Envisioning Your Future for prospective graduate students in all disciplines October 20 from 8:15-3:30 in the Richey Ballroom at the Iowa Memorial Union. See http://www.grad.uiowa.edu/ (under Events and Deadlines) for the program. There you can also find a registration form which the Graduate College would like students planning to attend to return by September 26.

In conjunction with this the Department of Mathematics is hosting some special activities for Heartland students interested in attending graduate school in Mathematics at Iowa. Some of the activities include attending a class you would likely take your first year (algebra, analysis, ODEs; sorry topology doesn't meet on Thursday), attending a class you would likely teach your first year, attending a seminar (possible ones on Thursday are differential geometry, logic, low dimensional topology, PDEs), having a free lunch with grad students and faculty, and attending our daily tea. You are free to pick and choose between our events and the Graduate College ones.

Please contact Prof. Hibbard if you are interested.

Date: 10/20/2005
Time: 8:15-3:30
Location: Richey Ballroom at the Iowa Memorial Union, University of Iowa
URL for more info: http://www.grad.uiowa.edu/EventsDeadlines/CampusVisit/index.asp
Contact: Prof. Hibbard

Fall semester seminar kickoff

Luke Bennett, Central math major in 2002 and currently finishing up his Ph.D. at the University of Iowa, will be presenting "Edge Index of Knots". He will introduce the idea of knots. Then he will look into the problem of how many straight edges it takes to make a knot.

Date: 10/3/2007
Time: noon
Location: VSC 141
Contact: Prof. Hibbard

Iowa Council of Teachers of Mathematics Annual Conference

"Algebra Is Elementary - Understanding Is The Key"

Sessions will be available for all levels of K-12 mathematics education.

Date: 2/24/2006
Time: All Day
Location: Valley Southwoods Freshman High School
URL for more info: http://www.iowamath.org/
Contact: Kristin Sturm, Greg Kapusinski, Wendy Weber

Midterm Ice-Cream Social

The Math/CS Department is going to have an ice-cream social at 7pm on Tuesday, October 25th. It's going to be in the VSC Lounge Area next to the VSC Reading Room.

Come and let the Math/CS Department ease your midterm studying with lots of ice-cream and **toppings**.

Date: 10/25/2005
Time: 7:00pm
Location: VSC Lounge Area
Contact: Prof. G.

Putnam Exam

This exam is a national "challenge exam" sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America. There are six problems in each of the two sessions (morning and afternoon). Typically, there is at least one problem in each session that can be solved using algebra, trigonometry, and calculus. The exam is hard, and if you can score at least one (1) point on it, then that typically places you in the top half of all students taking it. So if you like a challenge, please consider participating this year!

Date: 12/3/2005
Time: 9:00-12:00; 2:00-5:00
Location: VSC 180
Contact: Mark Mills

REU Presentations and Ice-Cream Social

Math/CS major Diana Carr and Math/Philosophy major Rusty From will present their experiences from their summer 2005 REU programs. REU = Research Experiences for Undergraduates. Diana participated in an REU at Cal State - San Bernardino while Rusty participated in the Grand Valley State University REU.

The presenters will speak for a combined total of 30 minutes and then there will be some time for Q&A.

Following the REU presentations, there will be a no-holds barred ice-cream social!

Rusty's presentation is available as a PowerPoint file.

Date: 9/19/2005
Time: 7:00pm
Location: VSC 180
Contact: Dr. Goodman

REU Presentations and Ice-Cream Social

Date: 9/19/2005
Time: 7:00pm
Location: VSC 180
Contact: Dr. Goodman

Speaker from ISU

Ryan Martin from ISU will be speaking at 3pm in VSC 180 on Tuesday, February 1. See link above for title and abstract.

Date: 2/1/2005
Time: 3pm
Location: VSC 180
Contact: Russ Goodman

Spring 2006 Ice-Cream Social

The Math/CS Department is going to have an ice-cream social at 7pm on Tuesday, April 11th. It's going to be in the VSC Lounge Area next to the VSC Reading Room.

Come and let the Math/CS Department ease your late-semester studying with lots of ice-cream and toppings.

Date: 4/11/2006
Time: 7pm
Location: VSC Lounge Area
Contact: Dr. Goodman

The Possibility of Impossible Pyramids

Dr. Tom Sibley from St. John’s University in Collegeville, MN, will take an intersting look at pyramids.

Answering a mathematical question is only the start. We need to question the answer as well. We’ll start with the question “When can six sticks form the edges of a pyramid?” Along the way we’ll find some surprising answers and interesting mathematics.

Date: 10/5/2006
Time: 4:00pm
Location: VSC 180
Contact: Wendy Weber

Univ. of IA Graduate College open house

As you may already know, the Graduate College is having its annual open house in 3 weeks (Oct 19 to be precise).

You can get full information, program schedule, and online registration at
http://www.grad.uiowa.edu/EventsDeadlines/OpenHouse/index.asp

Last year, the Math Department had a number of activities, some of which overlapped with the Grad College activities. This had mixed results. So this year, the Department will be participating, but will not schedule anything that conflicts with the Grad College schedule. As we discussed at the Heartland Partnership meeting in August, we hope to schedule on some other date a visit day that is specifically focused on Math (or Mathematical Sciences). At the same time, if your students are interested in the Grad Collge event (which offers broader perspectives), we want to make sure they are well-received and will be well

Prof. Dan Anderson, along with some of our current graduate students, will be available at the morning program and the lunch. After lunch, if any of your students want to visit the Math Department, the Department representatives can escort the students here. Students can explore the Math building (ok, CS is here too) and meet more of the current students. There may also be seminars or TA-run discussion sections that your students could visit.

If you are planning to come to the Graduate College Open House, please register (I think that's how they know who gets lunch, but there may be other reasons.) and please also send me (Prof. Hibbard) your name as well.

Date: 10/19/2006
Time: 8:15 a.m.-3:45 p.m.
Location: Richey Ballroom (Room 376), Iowa Memorial Union
URL for more info: http://www.grad.uiowa.edu/EventsDeadlines/OpenHouse/index.asp
Contact: Prof. Hibbard