CURM Second Meeting, 9/9/2008

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Agenda

  • Today we're hoping to make a choice of a research project
    • We'll be hearing from Dr. Jon Hastings today, of NKU's Biology department, about a project he's been working on concerning cicada-killing wasps. He will arrive at 3:40 or so, at which time he will present his work, and we'll discuss possible directions for research. Other possibilities included
    • Rabies Project - mapping, integral equations, GIS, etc.
    • Boyce alpine species mapping project - geostatistics, interpolation
    • Malaria modeling project - synchronization of fevers, PDEs
  • While we wait, we'll do two things:
    • Talk about progress on the wiki, latex, etc. fronts; and
    • Consider the Problem of the Week, to see what (if anything) we've discovered.
  • Let's talk about the first Problem of the Week:
    • First of all, these are not supposed to be burdensome (if they catch your fancy, you might pursue them; but ordinarily you'll probably just play with them while we're together for a few minutes, for "refreshment").
    • Now, did we make any progress?
    • I made some progress, especially with the two-god problem.
      • To access this problem, you need to be "enrolled" in the Problem-Solving class.
      • It's course 7, with key 0204
    • In fact, I believe that I've solved it in the case of three gods, too. How do we modify the argument of the two-god case? Turns out that it does generalize pretty well.
    • Another avenue to consider is numerical....
  • Dr. Hasting's presentation
  • Discussion of Research projects: which shall we do?
    • Do you need me to elaborate on some of those I touched on earlier?
    • I'd like you to each rank the projects, 1-4
  • Assuming that we've arrived at a research topic, I'd like to begin meeting one-on-one with you.
  • How are we doing on progress from last time? Continue these for next time:
  1. Visit the wiki, and play around (check out the sandbox)
  2. Google around for some latex "quick reference" materials, and see if you can practice some of that on the wiki.
  3. Write up a solution to our first "problem of the week" (on the wiki, if possible).
  4. Read about Career Options in Mathematics
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