CURM Third Meeting, 9/16/2008

Agenda

• Today we're divying up the research projects:
  • Dr. Jon Hastings must have made a pretty good impression with his cicada-killing wasps: he had three #1 picks, and a #2.
  • The other project to receive a #1 pick was Boyce alpine species mapping project - geostatistics, interpolation.

• I would like us to focus on these two projects, with the following division of labor:
  • Wasps: Katie and Grayson
  • Mapping Project: Timothy. I'd hoped that Ted's interests would align more closely with the "odd project out", but he didn't show great enthusiasm for the mapping project.
  • I hope that Ted will kick in wherever needed.

• We'll get back to the projects in a few minutes. But first, how are things going:
  • Progress on the wiki, latex, etc. fronts; and
  • Let's chat about the problems of the week, so far.
    • Let's talk about the first Problem of the Week: did we make any progress toward the general solution?
      • 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....
  • Let's chat about the second problem of the week
    • I see that Grayson has made some progress....
  • No new problem of the week -- let's wrap up the old ones!;)

• Discussion of Research projects:
  • I want to meet with Timothy separately to get him started on the Geostatistics project.
  • So let's talk about the wasp project.

• Meeting one-on-one with you: I want to propose some times, and we'll see how these work:
  • Timothy: 10:30 Tuesdays
  • Katie: 12:00 Wednesdays
  • Grayson: 3:45 Thursdays

• How are we doing on progress from last time? Continue these for next time:

1. For those interested in the wasp project: Review the power point and data for further questions
2. Tim: set up a time to see me for further instruction in the Boyce project, but you may want to start by picking up what you can from the webpage link I gave earlier: Boyce alpine species mapping project