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Volume 0.8 | Second Issue | Summer 1997 | Archived Issues

NSF grant lands computer lab!

From the Keyboard

Welcome!

Welcome to the second issue of the Integral found at: http://aslan.wheatonma.edu/~integral

July is quiet on Wheaton's campus, except for the not so occassional Java bug. The trees outside include the newly planted tree in fkollett's memory and the trees inside include whiteboard remnants from a graph theory lecture.

Thank you for your responses to our premier issue. I've organized comments with your names and URL's in a quick table for now. In this issue, we feature Marcia Coleman Williams '72. We caught up with Marcia during her Commencement & Reunion visit.

Our current students are holding down jobs at various places ... sharing great stories over the net as they work. This summer, we introduce you to Harmony Gosbee, class of 1999. Harmony represents the kind of student who flourishes in Wheaton's liberal arts environment. A theatre major and computer science minor, she has just completed her first year of C++ programming ... and with smashing potential. We let her web page do the intro ....

The faculty have switched into research gear: Bill Bloch, Tommy Ratliff and Norman Johnson are writing, Norman on his about to appear new book, Uniform Polytopes. Rochelle Leibowitz is developing new curricula for the Concepts in Mathematics course for math ed students. I'm learning Java and techniques for keeping my fishing lure out of the branches.

In this issue, we point you to Dr. Tommy Ratliff, our newest faculty member.

Send us an email ... we'd love to hear from you. Enjoy v0.8 of the Integral!

News Bytes

In May, Dr. LeBlanc and Dr. Ratliff were awarded a $51,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to equip a new computer lab. The project entitled "Student-Managed Web Servers and the Delivery of Quantitative Results -- Redefining Computer Literacy for the 21st Century" extends until July 1999, just before the year 2000 date problem! The vision is to expose introductory general education students in Universal Machine (COMP 106) to the server side of the client-server paradigm, in particular the serving of their own quantitative (homework) results and discussion of those results.

Early shopping plans are for WindowNT machines, many partitioned to run linux and possible Oracle server(s). Students in COMP 106 will learn to program in JavaScript as a programming language. Upper level computer science students will experience a state-of-the-art lab for their spring course in Operating Systems (COMP 345).

Dr. Janice Sklensky joins the department again this coming year in a half-time position. Janice earned her Ph.D. in Mathematics at Northwestern University and taught at Kenyon and St. Olaf Colleges before coming to Wheaton. Welcome Janice!

The department's new 36-seat "smart classroom" (A102) is blurring the definition of lecture and lab. The benefits of teaching in this space include an ability to "let everyone try that technique now". With the new NSF-lab (see above), our department space now includes a classroom (20+ seats) with coffee(!), a seminar room for upper-level classes (15 seats), a smart classroom (36 seats), a computer lab (18 seats) and student lounge.

Are you coming to Wheaton for AutumnFest97? Let us know so we can tour you around.

Two new titles have been added to the list of courses offered in computer science and include:

  • COMP 345 - Operating Systems
  • COMP 355 -- Artificial Intelligence

These courses had been taught as independent study courses in the past but now exist as part of the regular program in computer science. More complete details of the program can be found at our department site.

Faculty Highlights

Tommy Ratliff is the most recent tenure-track hire in the department. He started at Wheaton in the fall of 1996 after having visiting positions a Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio (1992-1994) and St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota (1994-1996). Tommy received his PhD in 1992 from Northwestern University in algebraic topology working in elliptic coholomology. His recent research has been in the stable splittings of certain finite p-groups.

One of Tommy's real passions is the teaching of undergraduate mathematics. He has been developing writing projects for his calculus classes for several years (which you can find on his writing page), and he has experimented with ways to encourge calculus students to read the text before class. His most successful experience was this spring in his Calculus I class when the students emailed their answers to the reading questions before the class meeting.

Tommy already feels like the department is family. After all, he is married to Janice Sklensky (also a MathCS faculty member) and their two children (Kenny, age three and a half, and Nikki, eight months) seem to find their way to the basement of the Science Center on a regular basis.

Our department staff currently numbers 5 full-time members and one half-time member, all PhD's. Web pages for each member are also available from the department web page, http://www.wheatonma.edu/academic/academicdept/MathCS

Bill Bloch

Assistant Professor of Mathematics
bbloch@wheatonma.edu

Norman Johnson

Professor of Mathematics
johnson@wheatonma.edu

Mark LeBlanc

Assistant Professor of Computer Science
mleblanc@wheatonma.edu

Rochelle Leibowitz

Professor of Mathematics & Department Chair
rleibowi@wheatonma.edu

Tommy Ratliff

Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science
tratliff@wheatonma.edu

Janice Sklensky

Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics
jsklensk@wheatonma.edu

Meet the Alumnae/i

Marcia Coleman Williams '72

Marcia shares:
"I have been on the faculty of Bellevue Community College (BCC) for over 20 years." (BCC is located in the beautiful and thriving Puget Sound region of Washington state. BCC, Washington's most comprehensive community college, is the third largest of the state's 48 public and private post-secondary institutions). "I have chaired the DP/CIS/IT program (we keep evolving and changing our name) as well as the Technical Support program. Right now I'm working on an NSF grant dealing with IT curricula for eight IT career clusters (software engineer, technical writer, networking, database, programmer/analyst, tech support, digital media specialist)."

"Our grant just completed evaluating web sites for educational content. Mathmania won our award for the best math or science site. URL: http://www.csc.uvic.ca/~mmania/ It's out of Canada."

A Call for Participation

Are you interested in coming to campus to meet our students and present a talk on your work? We welcome your involvement and the students greatly appreciate hearing the advice from professionals in the field. Let us know.

On this note, are you coming to AutumnFest '97 weekend this year? If yes, let us know if you'd like a personal tour of the department, especially our new smart classroom and NSF-funded lab. Look for details in mailings from the Alumnae/i Office, phone (508.285.8207) or email (alumnae/i@wheatonma.edu) the Alumnae/i Office for details.

We are starting a page with a list of MathCS alumnae/i email addresses and links to personal and/or company web pages. The site will offer our current students a chance to meet (virtually) some of our previous graduates, as well as provide alumnae/i with a place to match old names with new links. Please send us your URL and/or email address so we can make you a part of this page.

The Integral

Integral v0.8 - Summer 1997

Archived Issues | Computer Science | Mathematics

Wheaton College
26 East Main Street
Norton, Massachusetts 02766
Phone: 508.286.3970
Fax: 508.285.8278

Editor: Mark LeBlanc, Assistant Professor of Computer Science
mleblanc@wheatonma.edu | website

Graphics Design: Glen Aspelagh, '00
gaspesla@wheatonma.edu

Transition Design: Nick Ralton, '07
nralton@wheatonma.edu

 

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