News from the 2010-2011 academic year
Summer Research in Full Swing
Summer 2011
It is summer and time for undergraduate research. Check out Austin Wagner's summer undergraduate research project, supervised by Professor Jody Sorensen hereProfessor Sorensen is also working on dynamical systems research with Mathematics Major Meghan Sutherland.
New news!
April 19, 2011
It's been a while since we've added news, but plenty has been going on. Check out the Augsburg Mathematics Photostream on flickr for pictures of Augsburg Mathematics in Action:- Pi Mu Epsilon Induction Ceremony (February 2011)
- Math Jeopardy (April 1, 2011)
Mr. Anthony Goes to Washington
April 13, 2011
Mathematics major Jeremy Anthony (‘11) presented his research “Wavelet analysis of ecosystem carbon uptake data” on April 13, 2011 on Capitol Hill for the annual Posters on the Hill event organized by the Council on Undergraduate Research. Less than 15% of the undergraduate students from around the nation who applied were selected to present at Posters on the Hill. While in Washington, D.C., Jeremy met with Sen. Klobuchar (MN), Sen. Franken (MN), Rep. Ellison (MN), and members of Sen. Milulski’s (MD) staff. Jeremy’s work is directed by his research advisor, John Zobitz, who accompanied Jeremy to DC.Pictures from the trip can be found at Augsburg Mathematics flickr photostream.
Pi Mu Epsilon Conference
April 8-9, 2011
Augsburg students Andrew Witte, Casey Ernst, Austin Wagner, and Megan Sutherland recently attended the annual Pi Mu Epsilon Undergraduate Research Conference at St. John's University in Collegeville, MN. Students had a great time at the conference and got to meet keynote speaker Professor Bill Dunham of Muhlenberg College. Professors Jody Sorensen and John Zobitz also attendend the conference. Thank you to URGO for providing funding for students to attend the conference.Pictured below are the students with Professor Dunham. (L to R: Andrew Witte, Casey Ernst, Professor Bill Dunham, Austin Wagner, Megan Sutherland).
This picture is the first in an ongoing series titled "Math Paparazzi":
First Annual Math Jeopardy Tournament
April 1, 2011
On April 1st, Augsburg hosted the first annual Math Jeopardy Contest. Teams from Augsburg, St. Thomas, and Macalester competed in a thrilling three-way match with St. Thomas coming from behind to take the prize. Augsburg held the lead through the first round and into the second round, when St. Thomas suddenly caught fire. All three teams made laudable showings, and all were in the running when double jeopardy ended and it was time for final jeopardy. Here is the final jeopardy question:Jill’s father looked at the money on the table. “You’ve quite a lot there,” he remarked. “I found two dollars on the sidewalk,” the girl explained. Her father laughed. “You were lucky. Now you’ve got five times as much as you’d have had if you lost two bucks.” How much did Jill have before her lucky find?
The standings at the end of Double Jeopardy stood at St. Thomas: 5,400; Augsburg: 4,500; and Macalester: 3,800 points. In Final Jeopardy, Macalester bet all their points, but missed the question, while both Augsburg and St. Thomas answered the question correctly. With their lead going in, and a larger bet, St. Thomas took the day. See pictures of Math Jeopardy at the Augsburg Mathematics flickr photostream.
Get Entangled
From Professor Su Dorée, showing her skill with Entanglement. Can you beat her score?
Happy Valentines Day!
From Professor Su Dorée, in honor of Planarity and MAT 271 Students:
Professors attend national mathematics meeting
January 11, 2010
Three Augsburg mathematics professors presented at the National Mathematical Meetings in New Orleans, LA, January 6-9.Prof. Su Dorée taught a workshop on "Getting mathematics majors to think outside the book: Course activities that promote exploration, discovery, conjecture, and proof" with colleagues from St. Olaf College and St. Peter's College of NJ. She also gave a talk about our MAT 105 class titled "Not your mother's college algebra course: rethinking how we prepare students for quantitative reasoning across the disciplines."
Prof. Jody Sorensen presented her collaborative research with Prof. John Zobitz on "The Real Story of Edward Lorenz."
Prof. Matthew Haines presented his findings on "Examples of Early 1900 Secondary Mathematics."
Congratulations to our colleagues!
Professor Sorensen Publishes New Scholarship
November 11, 2010
Kudos to Jody Sorensen, Mathematics, for an article published in this month’s College Mathematics Journal. The article, “Sprinkler Bifurcations and Stability,” was co-authored with Elyn Rykken of Muhlenberg College and grew out of work with undergraduates.Update from Kevin Sanft ('02)
September 1, 2010
I graduated from Augsburg in 2002 with a double major in math and
computer science. After working for a few years, I decided I wanted to
go to graduate school and in 2006 I enrolled in the PhD program in
computer science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. My
research is in the broad areas of computational biology and systems
biology. It involves a combination of applied mathematics, computer
science, and biochemistry.
Mathematical modeling and analysis is essential for understanding
biological processes. A good model allows scientists to study "what-if"
scenarios through computer simulation without the costs of conducting
physical experiments. For example, pharmaceutical companies use models
of human metabolism to predict the efficacy of new drug treatments for
type-2 diabetes (I worked on a research project that was funded by
Pfizer for a while).
Chemical reactions occur as a result of random collisions between reacting molecules. I work on simulation algorithms that account for this randomness. The images below show four individual simulations of a model (left) and the histogram distribution (right) of 100000 simulations (notice the bimodal distribution). These simulations are computationally expensive and we usually need many simulations to generate accurate statistics.
In my research, I
work on new algorithms
for making these simulations more efficient. My research group recently
released "StochKit2", a software package containing some of the fastest
stochastic simulation algorithms (download it here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/stochkit/).
If you want to learn more about my research, please visit the following
sites:
- My website: http://www.kevinsanft.com
- Linda Petzold’s (my advisor) research group page: http://www.cs.ucsb.edu/~cse/
- UCSB’s Computational Science and Engineering program: http://www.cse.ucsb.edu
Summer Fun for your Professors
Summer 2010
While students have been away for summer, your professors in the mathematics department have been active. Here are updates on their summer activities:- Professor Pavel Belik: Pavel worked on a research project with Mitchell Luskin, a collaborator from the U. of Minn., and submitted a paper for publication. Worked with student, Chue Xue Lee, on a research project partially sponsored by 3M. Attended the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh, PA, where students from a CSUMS group that Pavel co-advised presented their results.
- Professor Tracy Bibelnieks: In July, I hosted the MN High School State Mathematics League Coaches Conference at Augsburg. The Conference brought over 60 high school teachers from around the State together to work with Richard Rusczyk, the Art of Problem Solving guru, on discrete mathematics and problem solving for mathematically talented youth. As the Director of the MN High School Mathematics League, I was obliged to participate in the Pizza Toss, a between inning promotion during the Saint Paul Saints Game we attended as our social event. Of course my partner, the Math League Head Problem Writer, and I were successful in winning pizza coupons for our entire section of the stadium! Beyond Math League, I co-taught a professional development workshop for middle school teachers of mathematics from the St. Cloud and Elk River school districts with Matt Haines and Linda Stevens (mathematics education). When not attending to professional mathematics activities, my time was filled with kayaking rivers of northern wisconsin, camping, biking, and hiking with my family along with tending to our donkeys, goat, dogs and cat at our farm in Wisconsin.
- Professor Suzanne Dorée: In May, Su traveled to Tromsø, Norway to meet with professors at the University to discuss possible exchanges in mathematics and science. Tromsø lies 300 km north of the Arctic Circle, so during this time of the "midnight sun," the sun never sets. She also toured from Bergen to Olso. In August, Su traveled to a slightly less-exotic locale -- Pittsburgh, PA -- for this year's MathFest conference where she served on a panel for Project NExT faculty and attended various talks and committee meetings. In between, she also traveled to New York City to see famly; Newport, RI to see friends from college; and Washington, D.C. for reasons that can't be named. While at home, Su worked on a new edition of the MAT 105 Applied Algebra book and began thinking about "zero-forcing numbers" of graphs.
- Professor Matthew Haines: In July, Professor Haines along with Professors Tracy Bibelnieks (Mathematics) and Linda Stevens (Education) traveled to St. Cloud to work with 20 middle school mathematics teachers for a week-long exploration of Functions and Modeling as part of a Department of Education Mathematics and Science Teacher Partnership grant.
- Professor Ken Kaminsky: Ken got the second edition of his Financial Literacy book off to the publisher. He and Amy visited their son and daughter-in-law on Palau. While there, they swam in Jellyfish Lake, dove Blue Corner, German Channel, Big Drop, and New Drop. Ken played table tennis with Palau’s national team (which is coached by his son).
- Professor Katy Micek: In July, Katy successfully defended her thesis in applied mathematics, "Volume Transitions in Gels with Biomedical Applications: Mechanics and Electrodiffusion." She subsequently spent August relaxing and preparing for her first semester teaching here at Augsburg.
- Professor John Zobitz spent the summer working with 5 students: Jeremy Anthony, Jazmine Darden, Nicholas Hudson, Nghiep Huynh, and Nana Owusu. These students worked on various projects all focused on environmental mathematics. One of the highlights of the summer was bringing these students to Mathfest in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where the students proudly represented Augsburg by participating in Math Jeopardy and presenting their research. You will be able to read about their experiences on the websites for the college and the math department. John also traveled to Colorado in July, where he had the unique opportunity to see snowplows utilized after a mountain hailstorm, and spent a relaxing June weekend canoeing in the Boundary Waters with his brother.
Paul Bjorkstrand ('10) named Academic All-District by ESPN Magazine
June 2010
Math major Paul Bjorkstrand ('10) was named "Academic All-District" by
ESPN Magazine. You can read the full story here.
Congratulations Paul!
"Coloring and counting on the Hanoi graphs'' by Professor Dorée Published
June 2010
Danielle Arett (Augsburg '00) and Suzanne Dorée's paper ``Coloring and counting on the Hanoi graphs'' appears in the June 2010 issue of Mathematics Magazine, a leading journal of expository mathematics. The work grew out of a NSF funded research experience for undergraduates (REU) that Danielle attended at the University of Oregon in 1999 and her continuing undergraduate research project with Professor Dorée. Danielle had previously won an award for her poster on the project at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in January 2000.