The minutes of the Math Club meetings for the current academic year appear below.

 

April 22, 2012

Leading the Meeting: Kraig Thomas, President

May Term Activities: We may do something over Mayterm for those of you that will still be here. We will send out a survey soon with possible options, if you have any suggestions or ideas for what you’d like to do, please let me know.

On Thursday, April 26 Blaise Mikels and Kraig Thomas will be giving their final presentations for Honors in Mathematics. Blaise will be presenting at 6 PM, and Kraig will present at 7 PM. There will be pizza in between the two talks, to celebrate the Math seniors so please be sure to attend!

Thank you to everyone who helped out with and came to MUMS last weekend!

The Discrete Dynamical Systems class that was going to be offered next semester is being replaced with a course called Great Moments in Mathematics which will be taught by Deb and offered at the same time. In this class, students will work in groups to study interesting things in math history and present the results of their studies to the class.

Elections:
President: Whitney Thompson
Treasurer: Heidi Scott

Elections for Vice President and Secretary will be held in the fall at the first meeting of the semester.

March 25, 2012

Leading the Meeting: Kraig Thomas, President

NEXT MEETING: Sunday April 22, 6PM –> We will elect President and Treasurer so please try to attend!

Upcoming Events:
Final Programming Session: MATLAB
-Tuesday April 10, 7PM in CS 312 so we can use the department laptops
-I will lead this session. If you would like to help, please let me know.

MUMS (Midwest Undergraduate Mathematics Symposium)
-April 13 and 14
-Friday: 6-7: Welcome and Pizza (look for signup outside CS 340)
7-8: Plenary talk by Dr. Joyati Debnath (CS 215)
8-8:30: Panel Discussion on REUs and Study Abroad opportunities
8:30-?: Games and social time
-Saturday: 8:30-8:50:Registration, check-in: Kelly Woodard, Ashley Klocke, and Clay Daggett will help
9-10: Plenary talk by Austin Calder (NSA)
10-4: Undergraduate talks, poster presentation, Panel with representatives from Graduate schools
Sign up sheet for lunch outside CS 340
-For more info visit: http://simpson.edu/math/events/mums.html

At the next Meeting:
-Will elect President and Treasurer
-Will discuss possible Mayterm activities
-Look out for Spellerberg’s Senior Party before graduation
-Possible Mathematica presentation

February 19, 2012

Leading the Meeting: Kraig Thomas, President

Thank you to everyone who participated in the MCM/ICM last weekend!

Pi Day Celebration: Wednesday, March 14th, 6:30 PM, CS 231 (most likely)

Next Meeting: Sunday, March 25th, 6 PM CS 340

T-shirts:

• For the design, see posters around Carver.
• They are Jade or gold with quotes from math professors on the back
• Kraig is collecting orders in person or in Unit 4129
• Ten dollars each
• Submit orders by Friday, March 2nd

Iowa Collegiate Mathematics Competition:

• Will be this Saturday, February 25th at the University of Iowa
• Looking for three people to be the second team
• Teams of three solve ten computation based problems in three hours
• It will be from approximately 8 AM to 6 or 7 PM
• The department is covering food and registration
• For more information see http://www.central.edu/maa/contest/
• If you are interested let Kraig Thomas or myself know as soon as possible.

Upcoming Programming Session:

• Tuesday, March 13th 7 PM CS 233
• Will cover Latex, a useful word processing tool that can be used for papers and presentations and is used commonly in math and science research.
• Will be led by Jill, and we are looking for one more person to help her lead it. Let Kraig Thomas or myself know if you are interested.

Constitution Change (Summary of Changes):

• Meeting time is no longer a specific time and day of the week.
• Officers were changed to President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer and the duties of each position were updated to reflect what each person does now.
• We will now elect President and Treasurer in the Spring instead of only President to make the transition smoother

Changes to the constitution were approved by a majority vote.

MUMS:

• Midwest Undergraduate Mathematics Symposium
• April 13-14
• See http://simpson.edu/math/events/mums.html for a detailed schedule and abstracts of speaker talks.
• Friday night will have a talk by a professor from Winona State University and a panel discussion about REUs and study abroad opportunities in mathematics.
• Saturday will have student talks and poster presentations, a talk from someone that works at the NSA, and a panel with graduate school reps and reps from different careers in math.
• Will need student volunteers to help with registration Saturday morning, Game night Friday night, and to moderate presentation sessions on Saturday.

Simpson Undergraduate Research Symposium:

• Symposium April 19th
• Intent to apply deadline is Friday, February 24th
• Submission deadline: March 2nd
• See http://simpson.edu/symposium/ for more information.

November 27, 2011

Leading the Meeting: Kraig Thomas, President

Next Meeting Date: Sunday, January 22, 2012 at 6PM, Carver 340

Upcoming Events:

Math program meetings:
The first one will be Tuesday January 24th at 7PM.
Kraig and Blaise will be leading a “seminar” on Maple, a basic introduction to the program and how to use it.
We will probably schedule one program meeting every three weeks.
If you are interested in helping with any of the programs (the others are MATLAB, Mathematica and Latex), let Kraig know.

MCM/ICM 2012:
February 9-13, 2012
A contest where teams of 3 undergraduates use mathematical modeling to present their solutions to real world problems.
Sign up in Murphy’s office if you are interested.

T-shirts:
In the process of getting them together.
They will have a quote from each professor and we would like to order them as soon as possible.
We still need quotes from Murphy and Deb, so email Kraig if you have any.
We will do two color options, yellow and aqua or light blue.
We will send the colors out once we confirm the design.
Please email Kraig size and color if you are planning on ordering a shirt. It will be between 10 and 15 dollars.

Thank you to everyone who helped decorate Carver for the holidays.  It turned out great, and we got a lot of compliments!

 

November 6, 2011

Leading the Meeting: Kraig Thomas, President

Next Meeting: Sunday, November 27th at 7:00

Program Series:

From the survey, the four most popular requests were Matlab, Maple, R, and Latex

We will try to schedule one before winter break, and see if we have time later to do more than the above four.

Math Day:

There will be pizza and games at 6:30 pm this Friday night (November 11th).

Talk to Professor Spellerberg as soon as possible if you are interested in hosting someone this weekend.

Blaise, Heather and Jessica volunteered to help with registration Saturday morning.

If you plan on coming on Saturday, sign up for lunch on the sheet outside Carver 340.

REU talk/ Holiday Party Night:

There will be a talk about what REUs are followed by the Math Club holiday party.

Friday, December 2nd – REU talk at 6:00, Holiday Party 6:30-7:30

Decorating the Atrium

Set-up: Sunday, November 27th, at 7:00. We will have a brief meeting and then decorate.

Take-down: Monday, December 12th. We will decide on a time when we put them up.

T-shirt Idea:

The design would consist of quotes from each of the math professors on the back

Look out for funny quotes from professors and send them to Kraig.

We would like to place the order as soon as possible.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Next Meeting: Sunday, November 6, 6:00pm, Carver 340

Leading the Meeting: Kraig Thomas, President

Things to look out for:

- Putnam Exam: December 3rd. A six hour test to take on 12 problems that generally range from really difficult to even harder Deadline to signup has passed, but we normally get a couple extra exams if you’re interested. Let Murphy know if you’re interested as soon as possible.

- Shirts: Send in shirt ideas as soon as possible to Kraig Thomas or Blaise Mikels or bring it to the next meeting so we can vote on them and have them ordered by the end of the semester.

- Throughout the year, anytime you go anywhere or do something wearing your math club tshirt, take a picture and send it in to us to show the awesome things Math Club people do! =]

- Math Day: Game Night November 11th; with students who attend math day, with pizza. November 12th: Math Day Fun Times. Remember to sign up in advance if you plan on attending so we know how much food to get.

- Internship Event in Fall Semester: People who had internships this summer will talk about how they got their internships, when you should apply, what they’re looking for, etc. If you are interested in organizing email Deb.

- Presentations of Different Math Programs: Workshops to go into basics of how to use it and introduce you to it, about an hour long. They would most likely be in the evening, spaced throughout the year (the schedule will be decided at the next meeting). We will probably do the five most popular programs out of the ones listed below, and will look for students who know them to help present them. If you know one of the programs listed, and would like to help others learn about it, please contact us. Suggested Programs: Matlab, Maple, R, Latex, Beamer, NetLogo, Geogebra, Geometers Sketchpad

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Next meeting: Sunday, October 9, 6:00pm, Carver 340

President Kraig Thomas leading the meeting:

1.  Introductions

2.  Elections for Executive Positions:

- Vice President: Blaise Mikels

- Description: Send out emails for events and meetings, lead meetings if president is absent

- Secretary: Laura Collins

- Description: Take notes during meetings, email minutes to Math Club members

- Treasurer: Heather Malbon

- Description: Handle finance situations, fill out SGA budget request form

3.  “Consider a Career as an Actuary at Nationwide Insurance” Talk – Eric Smith: Tuesday September 20th, Great Hall

- He will be discussing the basics of what it means to be an actuary, what skills and knowledge one needs to be a successful actuary as well as specifics about Nationwide insurance and why someone would want to consider a career with Nationwide.

- He will be collecting resumes for both internships as well as full time positions.

4.  Math Department Open House: Tuesday, September 27th

- If you have questions about what classes you should be taking or would like to talk with a math professor you should attend.

- Look for flyers for more information.

5. Summer Research Symposium: Wednesday, September 28th

6. Math Club Activities during the year:

- Iowa Contest in Modeling (IMMC): Saturday, October 29-30, 2011

- 24-hour competition at University of Iowa in Iowa City. Work in teams of three. Given two problems, pick one, solve it. Write one page summary, create and give presentation.

- Look for a sign-up page soon.

- Putnam Exam: Saturday, December 3rd, 2011

- an annual competition that always happens on the first Saturday in December.  The questions are tough, but if you are the type of student who likes to work on tough problems, this exam is for you.

- Mathematical and Interdisciplinary Contests in Modeling (MCM/ICM)  - February 9-13, 2012:

- Work in teams of three. Pick one problem out of three, solve it and write a paper.

- If interested, sign up in Murphy Waggoner’s office.

- Iowa Collegiate Mathematics Competition – A Saturday in the Spring

- Teams of 3 work for three hours to complete ten questions that are similar to those on the Putnam Exam.

- Math Day

- Superbowl Party

- Pi Day

- MUMS