|
Table of Contents
- Letter from Dave
Carothers, Department Head
- Statistics Major
- Peterson Visiting Professor in
Austria
- Grants
- REU
- Visitors to JMU
- 19th Annual Mathematical Contest in
Modeling
- Student Awards
- New Faculty Member
- High School Math Teacher of
the Year
- Statistics Picnic
- Contributions
- Alumni Info
- Alumni News
- Puzzle Corner
Greetings to all from the mathematics/statistics community at JMU.
Several milestones have been reached in the past year, but one
particularly significant one brings a dramatic mixture of emotions:
Professors Terry LePera and Charles Ziegenfus are retiring at the end of
this academic year.
On the one hand, we are happy that they will have new circumstances
allowing them to accomplish some things they have wanted to do.
On the other hand, many of us have been a little bit in denial in order
to mask our concerns about what the department will be like without
Terry and Zig as full time active faculty members.
Both have made an amazing number of contributions to mathematics at JMU,
and have enjoyed the respect and admiration of more than a generation of
students.
We will miss having them participate in all parts of the life of the
department, and we are still not sure how we will manage to do nearly as
well all of the things they did, but we are glad that they have agreed
to stay with us on a part time basis for at least a few years.
(In early April we hosted a banquet to honor Zig and Terry.
Some photographs
from the banquet are available.)
We have another outstanding graduating class this year.
Student awards are mentioned elsewhere in this newsletter, but I feel
that I should mention one special award: Mary Lee was named a
co-recipient of the College of Science and Mathematics Outstanding
Senior Award.
This is a well-deserved honor, based on a stellar academic record,
excellent research work recognized on a national level, and service to
the university.
Congratulations to Mary and all of the other members of a great senior
class.
Our next graduating class could very well include the first JMU
graduates earning a bachelors degree in statistics, as the program was
recently given final approval by the Board of Visitors.
Joining us in the fall will be new faculty members Elizabeth Brown,
Jason Rosenhouse, and Yuji Tomita. Elizabeth and Jason are completing
post-docs, Elizabeth at Dartmouth, and Jason at Kansas State.
Their interests are in mathematical logic and discrete mathematics,
respectively, and both have some background in working with computing
and computer science students.
Yuji is completing his doctoral program in statistics at the University
of Virginia.
We used to consider that the academic year did not begin until nearly
September, but in a few weeks, students will be arriving for the summer
research program in mathematics sponsored by the National Science
Foundation, and orientation programs for new students will not be far
behind, so it seems that in some ways a new academic year is already
beginning.
But whenever it begins, it appears that the new year is an especially
promising one for mathematics and statistics at JMU.
"Statistics are everywhere but Statistics is nowhere."
Now Statistics is at JMU: A New Major to Start in Fall 2003
About two years ago, Professor R. L. Scheaffer, then president of the
American Statistical Association (ASA) made the statement above,
complaining that although there are statistics (plural) everywhere,
there aren't many "good statisticians" and hence "the science of
statistics (singular) is nowhere."
As a result ASA started an initiative to promote undergraduate
statistics training.
Around the same time, the statisticians of the Department of Mathematics
and Statistics were in the process of preparing a proposal to start a
major in statistics.
Drs. Yasar Yesilcay and Rickie Domangue submitted a paper to the Joint
Statistical Meetings of ASA held in Indianapolis in August 2000.
The same paper was discussed at a department colloquium in April 2000.
Suggestions and comments of faculty as well as statisticians from other
universities improved the initial proposal.
There were many steps in the approval process.
After many drafts and discussions in the Statistics Committee of the
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, the proposal was sent to the
department's Curriculum and Instruction Committee.
After approval there it was discussed and approved by the faculty of the
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, then by the College of Science
and Mathematics' Curriculum and Instruction Committee.
Finally, the proposal reached JMU's Board of Visitors (BOV) on
January 10, 2003 and was approved there as well.
This summer another paper to the Joint Statistical Meetings of ASA will
be submitted by Drs. Rickie Domangue and Yasar Yesilcay discussing what
has been decided and will be implemented.
The BS program in statistics that has been approved has two tracks:
one in applied statistics and another one in mathematical statistics.
The former is aimed toward the students who plan to start working as
statisticians after graduation, whereas the latter is mainly for those
who plan to pursue graduate studies.
However, as there is much in common between the two tracks, students may
move from one track to the other and graduates of both programs should
find it easy to find employment after graduation or go on to graduate
studies.
Professors George Marrah, Yasar Yesilcay and Steven Garren are advisors
for the applied statistics track.
Professor Ching-Yuan Chiang, Rickie Domangue and Hasan Hamdan are the
advisors for the mathematical statistics track.
Although the statistics major will officially start on September 2003
we already have about ten students who have declared statistics as their
major, or as one of a double major.
We already have two candidates who should receive their BS degrees in
December 2003.
 Professor Gary Peterson spent May and June of 2002 as a visiting
professor at Johannes Kepler Universitat in Linz, Austria.
During these two months, he gave a 4-hour per week research seminar on
his area of specialty of endomorphism nearrings to mathematics faculty
and graduate students along with continuing hisown research in this
area.
His visit was a productive one (not to mention a fun one too in getting
to see some of sights of Austria including Vienna and Salzburg), which
likely will lead to more professional (and, of course, fun --
he and his wife left plenty of things to see) visits in the future.
- Smith awarded Jeffress Memorial Trust Research Grant
 In May 2002, Dr Caroline Smith was
awarded a Jeffress Research grant of $24,000 in support of a project
entitled "The Aeroacoustics of Turbulent Coanda Wall Jets".
Turbulent Coanda wall jets have become increasingly widely used in
a variety of industrial applications in recent years, due to the
substantial flow deflection that they afford.
A related characteristic of such flows is the enhanced turbulence levels
and entrainment compared with conventional jet flows.
This characteristic, however, is generally accompanied by a significant
increase in the noise levels associated with devices employing this
effect.
As a consequence, in many cases the full potential offered by Coanda
devices is yet to be fully realized.
This problem provides the impetus for the current research project,
namely a comprehensive investigation of the aerodynamics and
aeroacoustics associated with turbulent Coanda wall jets.
To date, some work has been done on developing a mathematical model of
the Turbulent Mixing Noise emitted by such a device.
However, in order to develop this basic model, it was assumed that the
surface adjoining the turbulent flow was essentially two-dimensional.
This study will investigate an extension to this fundamental model, in
which the wall is treated as a three-dimensional Coanda surface.
This will be achieved by means of a combination of mathematical modeling
and experimental (both acoustical and optical) work in an anechoic
chamber constructed especially for this research. The effect of a
variety of parameters, including nozzle configuration and jet exit
velocity will be considered.
An overall aim of the study is to determine ways of reducing or
attenuating the noise generated by such flow, whilst still maintaining
the crucial flow characteristics.
- Pruett awarded grant by the NASA Langley Research Center
 To devote more time to a NASA-supported
research effort, Dave Pruett had ``deep'' release time during Spring
semester 2003.
The grant, supported by NASA Langley Research Center, and monitored by
Dr. Thomas B. Gatski of the Computational Modeling and Simulation
Branch, is entitled: RANS, LES, and DNS--Toward Mutually Consistent
Formulations.
RANS (Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes Simulation), LES (Large-Eddy
Simulation), and DNS (Direct Numerical Simulation) are three
computational techniques for simulating fluid flows of engineering
interest.
The methods range from very accurate but excruciatingly expensive (DNS)
to relatively inexpensive but highly approximated (RANS).
Dave and co-workers, (Dr. Gatski, Prof. Chester Grosch, an
oceanographer at ODE, and Prof. William Thacker, a physicist at
St. Louis University) are seeking a single theoretical framework that
unites these three computational methodologies into one.
Results thus far are encouraging, having resulted in a conference
paper to be presented by Dr. Gatski in summer 2003 in Japan and a
journal article recently accepted for publication in Physics of Fluids.
Dave will also be giving a talk on this work in June at the
University of Stuttgart and University of Dresden.
The computations involved in this effort, have been carried out both at
JMU's Center for Computational Mathematics and Modeling and at NASA
Langley Research Center; the latter (DNS) require two-weeks of run time
for a single simulation! Dave Pruett wishes to thank the Department of
Mathematics and Statistics and his colleagues on the Applied
Mathematics Committee for their indulgence in allowing him a rare
opportunity to direct concentrated attention on a research effort that
hopefully will bear fruit.
JMU is now an NSF-sponsored Research Experience for
Undergraduates (REU) site in mathematics. The Math REU program
invites applications from students from across the country to
participate in an intensive, 8-week program in which students
work in groups of two under the direction of a faculty mentor.
During the summer of 2002, there were three research projects:
Steve Garren directed Elizabeth Hume (Longwood College) and Glen
Leppert (JMU) in projects entitled "Order restricted inference"
and "Beta-binomial models." Debra and Paul Warne directed Todd
Svitzer (JMU) and Jeff Evey (JMU) in a project entitled "An
accurate, efficient, and adaptable modified Picard-Pade
computational scheme for singular problems in nonlinear solid
mechanics" and Ethan Coon (University of Rochester) and Katie
Iwancio (Elon College) in separate projects involving asymptotic
analysis of the deformation of an anisotropic nonlinearly elastic
solid subjected to a tensile point load. (Iwancio's research was
funded by an NSF Materials Science (MATS) REU grant at JMU and
Evey's research was partially funded by the MATS REU and by the
Department of Mathematics & Statistics.) Leonard Van Wyk, the
Principle Investigator for the Math REU grant, directed Erin
Corman (Keene State College) and Rebecca Dolphin (Mary Washington
College) in a project entitled "Notes on the structure of
P-Sigma-n."
Corman, Dolphin, Coon, Svitzer, and Evey all traveled to the
Joint AMS-MAA Meetings in Baltimore to present their work. All
five students presented their results in the Special Session
"Research in Mathematics by Undergraduates," and Coon's research
and poster presentation garnered a best poster award in the
Undergraduate Research Poster Session Competition.
Corman and Dolphin's work has already been submitted as a
research paper to a refereed journal, and the other projects'
results are in the process of being written up.
During the summer of 2003, there will be four research groups:
Steven Garren (statistical genetics), Debra and Paul Warne
(applied and computational mathematics), Laura Taalman (knot
theory), and Leonard Van Wyk (knot theory).
- Peter Lax
The distinguished and prolific applied mathematician Peter Lax,
Professor Emeritus at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at
New York University was the Visiting Scholar at James Madison University
on Thursday evening March 20, 2003.
Professor Lax gave a talk entitled, "Mathematics and Computing".
The talk was enjoyed by all, especially the students some of whom had
their picture
taken with Dr. Lax.
One student wrote I admire his intelligence and his easy going
personality.
The previous evening Dr. Lax gave the lecture, "The Paradox of
Education" for the VVCTM (Valley of Virginia Council of Teachers of
Mathematics) on mathematics education.
It was enjoyed by all.
Professor Lax was a busy man during his visit to JMU.
On March 20 he also give a colloquium to the Department of Mathematics
and Statistics entitled "Degenerate Symmetric Matrices."
- Ezra "Bud" Brown
On the evening of Feb. 6, 2003, the department was privileged to
welcome Prof. Ezra (Bud) Brown of the Virginia Tech Mathematics
Department, who gave an extremely interesting (and extremely
entertaining) talk entitled
"Elliptic Curves from Mordell to Diophantus and Back."
Prof. Brown received his Bachelor's degree from Rice University, and his Master's and Ph.D. from Louisiana State University.
He has been at Virginia Tech since 1969, with sabbatical leaves at the
University of Munich and the National Security Agency, and various
summer stints at the Center for Communications Research in Princeton and
NSA.
In that time, he has authored over forty articles, mostly in number
theory, but also in graph theory and combinatorics.
Besides mathematics, he has been interested in music since college
days.
Among other things, he played piano for many years with the Virginia
Tech Jazz Ensemble, and currently sings with the Blacksburg Master
Chorale and the chorus of the Roanoke Opera.
This year, as last year the Department of Mathematics and Statistics
teamed with the Physics Department to recruit students to compete in the
COMAP Mathematical Contest in Modeling.
The contest began at 8 p.m. on Thursday February 6, 2003 and ended at
8 p.m. on Monday February 10, 2003.
Teams consisting of up to 3 members work on a problem during this time
and submit their solution for the problem to COMAP.
The solutions are judged by a panel and are rated as (1) Outstanding
(2) Meritorious (3) Honorable Mention (4) Successful or
(5) Unsuccessful.
Teams from colleges and universities from all across the world compete
in this prestigious international event.
The teams are given a choice of two problems to work on.
Each problem is judged separately.
Caroline Smith and James Sochacki from the Department of Mathematics
and Statistics and Dorn Peterson and Joseph Rudmin from the Physics
Department recruited 3 teams to compete in the contest.
All 3 teams decided to work on the following problem:
PROBLEM A: The Stunt Person
An exciting action scene in a movie is going to be filmed, and you
are the stunt coordinator!
A stunt person on a motorcycle will jump over an elephant and land in a
pile of cardboard boxes to cushion their fall.
You need to protect the stunt person, and also use relatively few
cardboard boxes (lower cost, not seen by camera, etc.).
Your job is to:
* determine what size boxes to use
* determine how many boxes to use
* determine how the boxes will be stacked
* determine if any modifications to the boxes would help
* generalize to different combined weights (stunt person &
motorcycle) and different jump heights
Note that, in "Tomorrow Never Dies", the James Bond character on a
motorcycle jumps over a helicopter.
One team had to drop out of the contest because the 3 members got the
flu during the contest. A second team consisting of seniors Sean Welsh,
Rick Wiita and Andrew Warner coached by Joseph Rudmin received a
Meritorious ranking and presented their results at the Mathematical
Association of America Maryland-District of Columbia-Virginia Sectional
Spring 2003 meeting held at Norfolk State University, Norfolk, VA,
April 11-12, 2003.
They received a cash award for their presentation.
The third team consisting of Jeff Evey, Simon Hale and Matt Watts
received an Honorable Mention.
For more on the contest and the results of the contest check the website
http://www.comap.com/undergraduate/contests/.
Every spring the department recognizes the achievements of some of our
outstanding students at an awards ceremony sponsored by the College of
Science and Mathematics.
The award recipients for 2003 were:
- J. Emmett Ikenberry Prize: Mary Lee (2003, B.S.)
Mary also
completed concentrations in Statistics and Computational and Applied
Mathematics. She has accepted a position at the National Security
Agency.
- Thompson Learning Future Teacher Award: Amy Tribble (2003, B.S.)
Amy also completed a Middle Education Minor.
- Undergraduate Research Awards: Mary Lee and Kelly Dickson (2003, B.S.)
Kelly also completed a concentration in Computational and Applied
Mathematics. She will be starting a graduate program in applied
mathematics at North Carolina State University in the fall.
- Metron Applied Mathematics Award: Matt Downey (2003, B.S.)
Matt also completed an Applied Mathematics concentration and a
Russian minor.
- Statistics Award: Mary Lee.
- ASQ Applied Statistics Award: Amanda Dowell (2003, Psychology)
Amanda completed a Statistics minor.
For more information about the statistics awards, or to see the names
of past winners of the awards visit http://www.stat.jmu.edu/jobawards/awards.htm
Arlene Casiple joined the mathematics department two years ago in
August 2001.
She received her undergraduate degree in statistics from the University
of the Philippines and a master's degree in mathematics education from
the University of Florida.
Before coming to JMU she taught at the University of Miami (FL), where
she taught her most famous student, Enrique Inglesias.
Though Harrisonburg is a big change from Miami, she said she enjoys
the region and enjoys teaching the students at JMU.
She also appreciates the friendly and supportive atmosphere of the
mathematics department.
For the past two years she has taught Math 220, but in this summer she
will be teaching Math 205 in the May session, and the first online
version of Math 220 in the June session.
After recently attending a four-day workshop on online course
development, she said she is excited to try out some of the technology
that she saw demonstrated.
During the spring semester, Ms. Casiple gave a talk with Dr. Hamdan at a
conference held in Tennessee on statistics education.
After the talk, Ms. Casiple and Dr. Hamdan had to respond to several
curtain calls as the auditorium resounded with shouts of "Bravo, Bravo,"
despite Dr. Hamdan's contention that Ms. Casiple had taken too much time
and consequently prevented him from showing his best overheads.
During her free time, Ms. Casiple enjoys cooking, baking, playing
tennis and volleyball, and eating-not necessarily in that order.
 King George High School teacher Michelle Gordon received the 2002 High
School Mathematics Teacher Award from the Department of Mathematics and
Statistics. The award was presented during a reception in the
department. Gordon is the seventh recipient of the award given to a
teacher who is nominated by a JMU student in recognition of a high
school math teacher's work.
Katie Rhodes, a biology major, nominated Gordon.
She wrote, "I have never had a better math teacher. She knew how to
explain and teach complex information in a way that every student could
comprehend.
She genuinely cared about making students understand and be successful.
She was taking classes to further her degree while teaching and still
made time to help even outside of class.
She always welcomed her students and never denied extra assistance.
Her care and genuine, sincere attitude toward her students and their
success, along with her amazing ability to teach the more difficult and
advanced math in simple easily understood and remembered ways make her
the greatest math teacher I have ever had."
Gordon's name will go on a plaque in Burruss Hall. She also received
a plaque of her own as the 2002 recipient.
Last year's recipient, JoAnna Sychterz, teaches in Shillington,
Pennsylvania.
Previous recipients of the award, all from Virginia schools, were:
Elizabeth Riddle of Alexandria, Robert Salewski of Fairfax, June Billings
of Yorktown, Martha Blakeney of Leesburg and Kathy Beatty of Clifton.
For the past several years, the Department of Mathematics and
Statistics has organized a picnic for faculty, staff and students to
commemorate the end of each academic year. This year, in addition,
statistics professors of the department organized a picnic for students
who have declared statistics as their major or minor.
The picnic was held on Sunday April 27, 2003. It was a beautiful, sunny
day (which have been rare lately!).
About 50 students, faculty and their families participated.
In addition to the usual picnic items on the menu, there were a
number of international dishes from far away places, such as Taiwan, the
Philippines and the Middle East as well as some exotic dishes from the
far north and the far south regions of USA.
Participants enjoyed the food, the weather and the nice view from the
deck at Dr. Yesicay's home.
Students and statisticians have decided to have more of the same and
are likely to have another picnic in the Fall.
How would you like to help support the programs in the Department of
Mathematics and Statistics? You can help by contributing to our student
scholarship fund, or by making an unrestricted contribution to the
department's JMU Foundation fund. Unrestricted funds can be used, for
example, to support student activities or to bring student-oriented
speakers to campus. Funds may be sent to: The JMU Foundation MSC 8501
James Madison University Harrisonburg, VA 22807 Mark the donation "Greater
University Fund" and designate it for the Department of Mathematics and
Statistics.
Tell us what you are doing! We'd love to hear from you. Fill out our on-line alumni
information form.
- Angela Neff Patterson (1986, B.S.) is a Statistician with General
Electric Global Research and a Visiting Associate Professor at Virginia
Tech in their Department of Statistics.
She writes "JMU alumni and former professors would remember me as
Angie Neff. Last year I married a wonderful man, Jeff Patterson. Jeff
and I live with our two dogs in Blacksburg, Virginia. I am employed
full-time as a Statistician with General Electric, as a telecommuter.
Additionally, I teach in the Virginia Tech Dept of Statistics, where I
received my doctorate in 1997.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation to
all of my former JMU professors, but a special thanks to Dr. Marrah and
Dr. Chiang, for developing my interest and knowledge in Statistics.
- Jennifer Sampson (1984, B.S.) is a Mathematics teacher with
Rockingham County School System. She will be starting her 20th year of
teaching and 18th at Spotswood High School.
She recently became the Math Department Head at SHS!
No solutions to last year's puzzle
were submitted by alumni!
Here's one that is a little simpler:
A rectangular sheet of paper is folded so that two diagonally
opposite corners come together. If the crease formed is the same length
as the longer side of the sheet, what is the ratio of the longer side of
the sheet to the shorter side?
Be the first mathematician on your block to submit a correct solution
to either of these puzzles!
The person who submits the best solution to each question will receive
a copy of The Mathematical Experience by Phil David and Reuben Hersh. Mail
your solution to Peter Kohn at the Department of Mathematics and
Statistics, or e-mail your solution to pkohn@math.jmu.edu.
|
|