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Volume 4.0 | Sixth Issue | Summer 2002 | Archived Issues

From the Keyboard

Mathematics and computing ... are everywhere. In every device, transaction, experiment, and domain. The implications are exciting and highlight the serious responsibility that comes with teaching today's scholars and tomorrow's leaders. They are new leaders that will problem solve, prove, and discover on a pace far beyond our present cable-modem/cell phone lives. And they will do all this in the context of what will appear to be a much smaller globe. It is the stuff that fuels our passion to teach.

Welcome to the 2002 (palindromic) issue of The Integral. This year in our Department of Mathematics and Computer Science:

  • we graduated a record number of students (18)
  • Tommy Ratliff earned tenure and the rank of Associate Professor and
  • two new faculty join us:
       Lisa Michaud, computer science
       Michael Kahn, mathematics/statistics
    .
Our students get the lead slot for this issue. Collectively, they are one impressive group of graduates for that smaller globe. Next, we share how our department faculty continue the trend of securing new grants, publishing their research results and pedagogical innovations, and generating undergraduate research opportunities. And last, we introduce you to Michael Kahn and Lisa Michaud, our two new faculty members.

Thank you for your responses to our previous issue. Send us an email ... we'd love to hear from you. Enjoy v4.0 of The Integral!

News Bytes

Tommy Ratliff, Associate Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science, earned tenure in early 2002. Tommy leads an active student research group in Voting Theory, has new publications in both his research and pedagogical innovations with writing in calculus, and he has recently taken on the job of "project shepard" for the future science building construction. Congratulations Tommy! Check out more of Tommy's work.

Gregory Rawlins, associate professor of computer science at Indiana University, Bloomington and author of Moths to the Flame and other works, spoke to a packed science center auditorium on Napster and intellectual property at the Norman Johnson Lecture Series.

Two of our top graduates, Melissa Kimball and Karen Stolfer, received our highest awards:

Fred Kollett Award in Mathematics and Computer Science

Melissa Kimball, (double major) Mathematics and Computer Science
 Melissa (Missy) is a classic student of the liberal arts for the 21st century. Her wide range of scholarship and work outside the classroom make her a delightful recipient of the Kollett award. From her double majors in mathematics and computer science to her minor in music, she has completed (with flair!) one of the most demanding academic schedules a Wheaton student can face. From her leadership of the Whims acappella singing group to her work with children at the Boston Museum of Science, she is a model of community service. Driven, talented, and downright fun to be with, Missy Kimball has raised the standard for scholarship and service at Wheaton.


Madeline Clark Wallace Prize in Mathematics

Karen Stolfer, Mathematics and Computer Science
Karen scored consistently highest across her upper-level mathematics classes. She has been quiet in speech but speaking volumes in her output. Karen is a classic mathematics and computer science student, taking even more than was required.

Class of 2002
Wheaton Mathematics and Computer Science Majors
(a departmental record 18 graduates)

Trevor AgnittiComputer Science
Katie AngeloniMathematics
Ken BabbyComputer Science and Economics
Jamie BonneyMathematics
Iliesh ChristensonMathematics and Economics
Liane CurrierMathematics and Computer Science
Anthony DoranMathematics
Meghan FoleyMathematics and Economics
Steve HayesMathematics and Computer Science
Emily HowesMathematics and Economics
Melissa Kimball double major in Mathematics and in Computer Science
Annie MacHaffieMathematics
Alison MosherMathematics and Computer Science
Ryan O'SheaMathematics
Jorge RomeroComputer Science
Andrew ScozzafavaComputer Science
Chris SeamanMathematics
Karen StolferMathematics and Computer Science

Some of their smiling faces:
Liane Currier, Alison Mosher, Andy Scozzafava, Ken Babby, Steve Hayes

More details of student talks, research projects, groups and abstracts are available at the student's computer science web page ( http://cs.wheatoncollege.edu ) and our department web page.

Meet the Faculty

Our department staff currently numbers 8 full-time members and one half-time member, all PhD's. We share some of our faculty highlights:

  • Tommy Ratliff

    Publications:
    "A Comparison of Dodgson's Method and the Borda Count", appeared in Economic Theory 20 (2002) 2, 357-372.

    "How we get our students to read the text before class'', with Matt Boelkins, in FOCUS, the newsletter of the MAA, Vol 21, Num 1 (2001), 16-17. A longer version appeared on the MAA website at www.maa.org/features/readbook.html

    Presentations:
    "Some Startling Inconsistencies When Electing Committees'', at the Public Choice Society Meetings, San Diego, California, March 2002 and also at the The Sixth International Meeting of the Society for Social Choice and Welfare, Pasadena, California, July 2002.

    "Thousands of Candidates and a Handful of Voters -- An Application of Voting Theory from Pharmaceutical Development'', at the Second Tutorial and Workshop on Bioconsensus, Rutgers University, October 2001.

    "A Geometric Comparison of Dodgson's Method and Kemeny's Rule'', at the Institute for Mathematics in the Behavioral Sciences at the University of California at Irvine, May 2001.

    "Cycles Do Matter! Elections with Thousands of Candidates and a Handful of Voters'', at the Public Choice Society Meetings, San Antonio, Texas, March 2001.

    "Geometric Decompositions in Voting Theory - Understanding Why Different Methods Give Different Rankings", to a research group at ArQule, a pharmaceutical development firm in Woburn, Massachusetts, September 2000.

    Other Professional Activities:
    Local Organizer for the Hudson River Undergraduate Mathematics Conference. Four students attended this year, including Anthony Doran (Class of '02) who presented a talk.

    Member of the Program Committee for the Spring Meeting of the Northeastern Section of the MAA at Williams College, June 21-22.

  • Bill Goldbloom-Bloch

    Grants:
    Multilevel Dynamics of Conditional Control Mechanisms, Collaborator, October 2002. Part of team application; grant awarded by the National Institute of Health.

    Presentations:
    "The geometric structure of typical boundaries of manifolds." American Mathematical Society Eastern Sectional Meeting, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada, May 3, 2002.

    "On Borges' The Library of Babel," Faculty Lunch Series, Wheaton College, Norton, MA, March 6, 2002.

    "The Geometric Structure of Typical Boundaries," International Conference on Partial Hyperbolicity, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, June 1, 2001.

    Upcoming Publications:
    "Typical sets and meager spaces," to appear in Topology and its Applications.

    New Courses:
    Differential Geometry--a true melting pot that throws together a little bit from every undergraduate course in Mathematics.

  • Mike Gousie

    Student Research:
    Three of Mike's students, Trevor Agnitti '02, Nick Doolittle '03, and Greg Williams '02, presented "Building a Surface Reconstruction Research Environment" as a poster and published an extended abstract in the Journal of Computing for Small Colleges.

    Mike was a judge for best paper at this years regional computer science conference and serves on the conference board for this coming year.

    Presentations:
    Mike gave an invited talk on his Surface Reconstruction work at the Williams College CS colloquium on April 5.

  • Mark LeBlanc

    Grants:
    Jan 2002 ≠ June 2003: NSF DUE 0126643
    With Betsey Dyer (Biology), "Two Workshops for Professors teaching Undergraduate Biology or Computer Science with an interest in incorporating "Genomics" (the analysis of DNA sequences) into their curricula."

    Student Research in Genomics:
    Wheaton Genomics Group (http://genomics.wheatoncollege.edu) implements version 2.0 of the Motif Lexicon (DNA Dictionary) for C.Elegans.

    Two students funded as Mars Fellows, Martin Baron '03 and Patrick Sagui '04, programmed for the Genomics Group this past summer.

    Presentations:
    "The effectiveness of structured labs in CS1" at The Consortium for Computing in Small Colleges - Northeastern Region, Worcester State College, April 19, 2002.

    "(biology + algorithms) = (undergraduate research in genomics)", with Betsey Dyer at Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL) Faculty for the 21st Century National Assembly, Madison, WI, Oct. 20, 2001.

    Teaching:
    This fall, Mark's students from Algorithms (and DNA) will again "link" with Biology students from Betsey Dyer's Cell Evolution. Students from both classes have been funded to attend the 14th International Genome Sequencing and Analysis Conference in Boston, MA in October. There they will see their professors and peers presenting the Motif Lexicon in an electronic poster session:

    LeBlanc, M., Baron, M. 03, Christoforou, A. 01, Doolittle, N. 03, Kimball, M. 02, Villa, A. 03, Williams, G. 02 and Dyer, B. (2002). "The DNA Motif Lexicon -- cataloguing and annotating genomes." To be presented at the 14th International Genome Sequencing and Analysis Conference, October 2 - 5, 2002, Boston, MA.

  • Shelly Leibowitz

    Grants:
    Co-author, Site Director, and Instructor at 2001 Summer Content Institute, "Partners in Discrete Mathematics", funded by Massachusetts Department of Education and the National Science Foundation for $45000; Institute dates: July 31-August 3, August 6-9, October 20, December 8, 2001 (10 days). (Partners: Wheaton College, Rutgers University, and local schools).

    Co-author, Site Director, and Instructor for "Mentoring in Discrete Mathematics", 2002 Eisenhower Professional Development Program grant for $45,689, September 2001-December 2002. Institute dates: March 16, April 6, May 4, August 20 - 22, October 26, December 7, 2002 (8 days).

    Conference Organizer for "Reconnect 2- and 4-Year College Faculty to the Mathematical Sciences Enterprise", funded by the National Science Foundation, held at the Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science (DIMACS), Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, Conference dates: August 11 - 17, 2002 (7 days).

    As part of the "Mentoring in Discrete Mathematics" Institute, Shelly Leibowitz and Vicki Bartolini (Department of Education) are hosting a Mini-Conference for K-8 teachers and administrators on Saturday, December 7, 2002 at Wheaton. The conference is free but space is limited and pre-registration is required. If you are interested in attending, please email Shelly for more information.

    Presentations:
    "Patterns of Counting, Counting of Patterns" at the K-8 conference "How to Make Math Count", sponsored by Nassau County Mathematics Teachers Association and Nassau County Association of Math Supervisors, Molloy College, Rockville Centre, NY, January 9, 2002.

    Professional Development Module Presenter: 5 Discrete Math workshops to math middle school and high school teachers in Norton School District, Fall 2001.

    "Some of My Favourite Problems" - a workshop on problem solving, presented to area elementary and middle school teachers, Vela School, Umtata, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, July 3, 2002.

    "How to Win at Lotto (Tata Ma Chance, Tata Ma Millions)" - a workshop on counting and probability, presented to area elementary and middle school teachers, Vela School, Umtata, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, July 3, 2002.

  • Janice Sklensky

    New Course:
    Janice is spending lots of time on her new course 'Math Thought: Voting, Conflict, and Power'. The course is both sufficiently mathematical to warrant the M/L designation yet sufficiently interesting that students who don't like math are willing to put in the time. Janice is also exploring new options for teaching with faculty in the Art Department.


    WELCOME TO OUR NEW FACULTY

    Lisa Michaud
    Lisa and her husband Dennis are native New Englanders returning home after ending their many years of "exile" in graduate school at the University of Delaware. Lisa completed her dissertation in the fields of Computational Linguistics and Human-Computer Interaction, working on the implementation of an intelligent writing tutor program for deaf students. Enjoying her warm welcome into the Wheaton community, she looks forward to student participation in future projects involving tutoring systems, and anticipates being active in the recruitment and retention of female Computer Science students.

    Michael Kahn
    Michael Kahn joins us after having been at St. Olaf College (Northfield, MN) for most of the last 12 years. (He also spent a year and several summers working in the Biostatistics section at the Mayo Clinic.) Michael was the Director of the Statistics concentration at St. Olaf. His main area of interest is the teaching of Statistics at the undergraduate level. Michael hopes to increase student (and faculty!) awareness and interest in the area of Statistics where there are many exciting opportunities to work with scientists in a wide variety of areas, as well as numerous graduate school opportunities. Michael will also be the Director of Quantitative Analysis in the new College Learning Center. He moved to Norton this summer with his wife, JoRean, who is also a statistician and his three sons, Levi (6), Aidan and Jared (4-year-old twins).

    Web pages for each member are also available from our department web page

    http://www2.wheatoncollege.edu/academic/academicdept/MathCS

    Bill Bloch

    Assistant Professor of Mathematics
    bbloch@wheatoncollege.edu

    Mike Gousie

    Assistant Professor of Computer Science
    mgousie@wheatoncollege.edu

    Michael Kahn

    Associate Professor of Mathematics & Director of Quantitative Analysis
    mkahn@wheatoncollege.edu

    Mark LeBlanc

    Associate Professor of Computer Science & Department Chair
    mleblanc@wheatoncollege.edu

    Rochelle Leibowitz

    Professor of Mathematics
    rleibowi@wheatoncollege.edu

    Lisa Michaud

    Assistant Professor of Computer Science
    lmichaud@wheatoncollege.edu

    Tommy Ratliff

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

    Janice Sklensky

    Assistant Professor of Mathematics
    jsklensk@wheatoncollege.edu

    The Integral

    Integral v4 - Summer 2002

    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, Associate Professor of Computer Science & Department Chair
    mleblanc@wheatoncollege.edu | website

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

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

 

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