Speaker Biographies
Texas Section, MAA Meeting
April 6-8, 2006
Midwestern State University
Wichita Falls, Texas
For a full schedule, see the 2006 Program.
Lowell
Beineke
Indiana
University-Purdue University Fort Wayne
Lowell Beineke earned his Bachelor's degree from Purdue University and
his Master's and Ph. D. from the University of Michigan. His entire
career has been spent at the shared campus of Indiana and Purdue
Universities in Fort Wayne, where he is currently the Schrey Professor
of Mathematics. His research has been in the area of graph theory, in
which he has written about a hundred papers and co-edited half a dozen
books. He is currently Editor of
The
College Mathematics Journal.
Dr. Beineke will present an Invited Address on Saturday 8 April 2006 at
10:30 AM in the Holiday Inn Ballroom.
Splendor in the Graphs
--
Graphs can often be used to provide solutions and insights to puzzles
and games, and in this talk we will discuss some of these connections.
Our examples will (probably) include Asteroid, Bridg-It, Curious Coins,
and Dots-and-Boxes, and others.
Andrew
G. Bennett
Kansas State University
Andrew Bennett received his Ph.D. from Princeton in 1985 under Elias
Stein and, after a post-doc at UT-Austin, joined the Department of
Mathematics at Kansas State University in 1988, where he is now
professor
and director of the Center for Quantitative Education. He has long been
interested in effective instruction using technology and currently
serves
on the editorial board of the MAA Journal for Online Mathematics and
its
Applications and is on the national MAA subcommittee on Curriculum
Reform
and the First Two Years (CRAFTY). He has received numerous teaching
awards, including the Commerce Bank Award for outstanding teaching in
the
College of Arts and Sciences at KSU. He has supervised the research of
five Ph.D. students and six undergraduates who have won national
Goldwater
Scholarships.
Dr. Bennett will offer the
Short
Course entitled
on Thursday April 6, 2006 from 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Holiday Inn Kell Room.
Soft Computing
--
Soft computing is sometimes defined as the study of algorithms for
solving
ill-posed problems. Standard techniques include neural networks,
support
vector machines, fuzzy computing, and cluster analysis. This is a hot
area
in computer science, statistics, and operations research, largely
because
of its connections to data mining. This course will give a brief
overview
of the subject with particular emphasis on cluster analysis.
Dr. Bennett will also present an
Invited Address on
Friday April 7,
2006 at 1:10 PM in the Fain Theatre (FA).
What Really Happens When
Students Work Online --
There are now many tools for teaching mathematics online, ranging from
interactive mathlets that illustrate a single idea to complete systems
of
online instruction and assessment. With most of these tools, students
work
outside the class and outside the view of the instructor. This talk
will
discuss how students really interact with some online tools in actual
course settings and how these interactions contribute (or fail to
contribute) to student learning.
Jerry
Dwyer
Texas Tech University
Jerry F. Dwyer (Ph.D. National University of Ireland) is an assistant
professor (outreach mathematician) in the Department of Mathematics
& Statistics at Texas Tech University. He has taught a wide
range of mathematics and engineering courses and has published mostly
in the area of applied mathematics with applications in mechanics. In
recent years he has organized numerous outreach and service learning
programs at Texas Tech University, the University of Tennessee and the
University of Colorado. He is active in presenting teacher workshops
and enrichment activities to K-12 students and assessment of college
faculty interventions in K-12 education is one of his current research
interests.
Dr. Dwyer will present the
Student
Forum on Friday at 11:00 AM in room BO 127.
Games and
Problem Solving in the Mathematics Classroom -- Several mathematical games will be presented.
Many of these have been used as motivational and enrichment tools in classrooms at all levels
from grade 1 to college. The connections between the games and the techniques of problem solving
will be described. The model of college faculty
(outreach mathematicians) presenting enrichment at the K-12 level will also be discussed.
Marvin
Harrell
Emporia State University
Dr. Marvin Harrell is a mathematics educator at Emporia State
University who oversees ESU’s elementary/middle school
mathematics programs. His primary interest is developing inquiry-based
activities for use in the elementary and middle school classroom. He
served as the director of ESU’s Science and Mathematics
Education Center for six years. For over 12 years he and Dr. Yanik have
co-directed ESU’s mathematics and science outreach programs
for young women.
Betsy
Yanik
Emporia State University
Dr. Elizabeth Yanik is a mathematician at Emporia State. Her interests
include issues involving mathematics education and interdisciplinary
studies at the undergraduate level. She is currently the national
director of the Women and Mathematics Network and president of Women
and Mathematics Education. Dr. Yanik is a recent recipient of the
Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and
Engineering Mentoring.
Drs. Harrell and Yanik will present an
Invited Address on
Friday April
7, 2006 at 11:00AM in room BO 100.
Encouraging Young Women
in Mathematics and Science
-- Drs. Harrell and Yanik will present a variety
of outreach programs designed
to encourage young women to continue their studies in mathematics and
science.
Programs to be discussed include both one day conferences and a summer
residential
program. Hands-on investigations from these outreach activities will be
shared with the
audience.
John
Quintanilla
University of North Texas
Dr. John Quintanilla earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from Stanford in 1992 and his Ph.D. from Princeton in 1997. He is an associate professor at the University of North Texas, where he has taught for the past ten years. With Neal Brand and Marvin Bittinger, he has co-authored the textbook
Calculus for the Life Sciences. He works extensively with UNT's Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science and was named an honorary alumnus in 2005. His research interests include the application of stochastic geometry toward problems in materials science.
Dr. Quintanilla is the Teaching Award Winner. He will present a talk on
Saturday 8 April, 2006 at 8:30 AM in the Holiday Inn Ballroom.
Inspiring Students Beyond Computational Proficiency - As instructors, we want our students not only to recognize when and how to perform mathematical computations but also to engage them in the process of mathematical thought. Different instructors use different points of emphasis in their courses, and it's good that students see a broad range of perspectives from their professors. In this talk, we discuss the use of applications --- both scientific and silly --- to motivate course content and impress upon students the utility, power, and beauty of our discipline. Specific sample topics that have been used successfully, either in lecture or as a group project, will be presented.
Panel Discussion
Building
Effective Student Groups
Saturday 8 April 2006 at 9:10 AM in the Holiday Inn Ballroom
Jennifer McCloud-Mann,
UT-Tyler
Jacqueline Jensen,
Sam Houston State
University
Carl Sequist,
Texas Tech
University
Pamela Roberson,
Stephen F. Austin State University
Moderator: Dawn
Slavens, Midwestern State University
Return to information about the Midwestern
State University meeting.
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Section Home Page
Document last modified February 20, 2006.