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 technology first:
- Latex: have you found some good resources? If so, you can share those via the wiki.
- Speaking of the wiki,
- 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....
- Intermission -- distribute new problem of the week
- 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:
- Visit the wiki, and play around (check out the sandbox)
- Google around for some latex "quick reference" materials, and see if you can practice some of that on the wiki.
- Write up a solution to our first "problem of the week" (on the wiki, if possible).
- Read about Career Options in Mathematics