May 2012 - Mount St. Mary`s University

What’s ν?
News from the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Mount St. Mary’s University
Emmitsburg, MD 21727
Issue No. 8
May 2012
Contents
What I Do . . . . . . . . . . . .
Student Activities and Awards .
Barbara Levy Retires . . . . . .
PME and UPE Induction . . . .
CS in 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
MAA Student Chapter Report .
Service-Learning . . . . . . . . .
NCTM Conference . . . . . . . .
NCTM – A Student’s Perspective
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A few puzzles . . . . . . . . . . . .
Mount Math Madness . . . . . . .
Smalltalk . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Math in 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2012 SPARC Festival . . . . . . . .
Ann Czapski’s Honors Project . . .
Operation TEACH . . . . . . . . .
An Interview with Professor Weiss
2012 Seniors . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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14
15
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18
18
21
What’s ν? 2012
What I Do
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By Amir Kazmi, Class of 2003
Amir Kazmi
We often hear that life is short but don’t always know how it translates to our personal
situation. I believe that it is our obligation to make the greatest contribution we can make
in everything we do. In order to make that impact in our careers, it is imperative to choose
roles that excite us and align to our passions. Steve Jobs said it best: “Your time is limited,
so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living
with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown
out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and
intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is
secondary.”
When I graduated from MSM, I wanted to apply my Computer Science/Political Science
(minor) background on new systems that support national security. I was fascinated with
new technical products that disrupt terrorism at the national and local level. With this
goal, during senior year, I focused on interviews with Defense companies. I was fortunate to
get selected into Lockheed Martin’s Engineering Leadership Development Program (ELDP),
which was a 3-year rotational program. This program was focused on providing technical
assignments on varying projects across the corporation. My first assignment, as a Java
programmer, was supporting the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearm (ATF) agents. In October
2002, there were sniper murders throughout the DC beltway area, which included my community of Manassas VA. The ATF had been key in solving that serial murder case and I
was excited to support such a group.
My next assignment involved programming to support a global messaging system used by
the Department of Defense. One of my focus areas was to develop auto-install scripts for
remote users with low bandwidth, such as deployed troops. For my third assignment, I
was given a stretch role to lead the Modeling & Simulation team to support the capture of
an approximately $1B new business. My team’s focus was to show our customer what the
future product would look like. We developed network topology models for a future global
communication system. The effort paid off and we successfully won this contract.
My final ELDP rotation took me to our corporate headquarters’ to support the Chief Technology Officer for the corporation. This was the first time in my career that I was exposed
to the other divisions of the corporation. I supported technical reviews of large programs
such as F-22. My travels took me to innovative places like Skunk Works, which is known for
very advanced research. Life was busy at this stage because we just had our son and I was
in the midst of my thesis for my MS in Systems Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
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After graduating from ELDP, I took a Project Management position to consolidate 30%
of our labs. My team was responsible to analyze over 80 labs across the United States and
develop a quick approach to consolidate and virtualize the hardware in 24 of them. I learned
a ton about leading a remote and geographically dispersed team. This experience came in
handy when I developed and led a new Leadership Development Program focused on cyber
security. I noticed that many employees offered great ideas and expertise that could assist
products in various parts of the corporation. Being a large corporation, the organization
structure didn’t always allow for all employee crowd sourcing. Since the greatest asset
of any company is its people, I saw an opportunity to make an impact. This led to a
product concept to allow employees to provide creative ideas towards business challenges
and growth across the corporation. The thought was that irrespective of an employee’s
seniority status within the company, if their idea was the best one for a solution then it
should get selected and recognized. We felt like we made a significant impact when we
received funding to develop this idea into a product and implement it. My leaders and
peers really rallied around the product and supported the vision. As we all know, life has
its share of surprises. I got one such surprise when I received the national Most Promising
Asian American Engineer of the Year award, which was the most humbling moment of my
career.
My current assignment is focused on new product evaluation and predictive analytics for one
of our divisions. Lockheed Martin invests significantly in internal research and development,
which produces new technical capabilities. We evaluate these technical capabilities for
potential new products. As an example, the Worldwide Integrated Crisis Early Warning
System (W-ICEWS) provides analysis of real time instability around the world. It also
forecasts geopolitical crises. You can read more on ICEWS in this recent article from
the Economist (http://www.economist.com/node/21553006). My focus is to conduct an
evaluation of the technical capability for potential new products in other industries. With
ICEWS, we are focusing on the financial and media industries that may use it for specific
investment decisions, global risk management and news analysis. For me, it is exciting to
develop an entirely new business with a new product.
One thing I learned over my 9 year career with Lockheed Martin is the importance of never
getting ‘comfortable’ and to always continuously challenge oneself. For me, especially being
in a large corporation, new assignments bring fresh challenges. One of my new passions is
the opportunity to be a product entrepreneur. I am doing that within Lockheed Martin by
leading a new product into a new market. I find that new passions emerge with time and
it’s important to pursue them so we can make the maximum impact in our lives.
By the way, if you are on LinkedIn please feel free to connect. I live in NYC with my wife
and son. If you are in town, we would enjoy meeting you.
Student Activities and Awards
By Brian Heinold
The fall semester started with the annual picnic, where a team of students defeated the
Math and CS faculty in volleyball. A little later in the semester we had a puzzle contest
with puzzles created by Professor Weiss. The team of Maria Marinelli and Annamarie Baer
defeated several other student and faculty teams. In the spring semester we held our third
programming contest, which was won by Mike Mugno. Dylan Bernard finished second and
John Martin finished third.
The ACM/MAA Lecture Series brought four speakers to campus this semester. In the fall
Glen P. Forney of NIST spoke about modeling fire and Cecilia Diniz Behn of Gettysburg
College spoke on the mathematics of sleep. In the spring Luis Melara of Shippensburg
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The student and faculty volleyball teams from the annual picnic
University gave a talk about applications of differential equations to butterfly migrations
and smog. Elizabeth Adams of James Madison University closed out the year with a talk
on tessellations and quilts.
At the SPARC festival, sophomores Maria Marinelli and Amy Strosser gave a lightning
talk on two-person, zero-sum games. Junior John Martin gave a lightning talk on some
networking code he wrote, and junior Mike Mugno talked about overclocking CPUs. Seniors
Ann Czapski, Erin McKavitt, and Raven Andrews each gave poster presentations on their
work with Markov Chains. Ann looked at Monopoly, Erin analyzed the stock market, and
Raven examined the NCAA Tournament. Also at the festival, Ann presented her honors
project, 2 + 2 = 5? How Anxiety Affects Students in the Math Classroom.
Teams hard at work at the puzzle competition
Freshman Michelle Rose earned a spot in the ESP-REU at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.
Michelle was one of only 12 students chosen out of more than 150 applicants. The REU is
a six-week program where students work on problems in imaging, graph theory, or discrete
optimization. Michelle’s room and board is paid for and she receives a $3500 stipend.
Ann Czapski was given the department’s McGraw and McCullough awards at Honors Convocation. Ann, Erin McKavitt, and Raven Andrews will all be participating in Operation
TEACH next year. Through this program they will earn their master’s degrees from the
University of Notre Dame in Baltimore, while teaching at an Archdiocese of Baltimore
school.
What’s ν? 2012
Barbara Levy Retires
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By Brian Heinold
Barbara Levy
Barbara Levy, who has been the department’s administrative assistant since 2001, retired
after the spring semester. Barbara is originally from northern Virginia. She married an Air
Force career man and lived in Hawaii for 10 years before coming to the Mount. She actually
started working here in 1998, for Catholic Education Ministries.
I asked Barbara about her memories from the department and this is what she had to say:
I have enjoyed my many years in the Math/computer science department. From
the campus college bowl tournaments with Prof. Weiss to the first “research
festival” with Dr. Portier in 2006, there are many happy memories. I feel blessed
to have had contact with all the young adults that have passed through this
department, as well as many interesting and enjoyable professors and adjuncts.
It has been a good ride!
Barbara’s plans for the future include gardening traveling, lots more bike trips, maybe some
ukelele lessons, and just having fun.
PME and UPE Induction
By Luca Petrelli
On March 11, 2012 we held our second joint Pi Mu Epsilon (PME) and Upsilon Pi Epsilon
(UPE) induction ceremony. The PME Math Honor Society was at its seventh annual ceremony while it was the third time our UPE Computer Science and Information Systems
Honor Society inducted members. Inducted in PME were juniors Zachary Eick, Emily Gordon, and Rebecca Thiem, and sophomores Rachel Baranoski, Keri Barnes, Taylor Frock, and
Amy Strosser. UPE inducted junior Zachary Eick, two professors, Fr. Elias Yelovich and
Dr. Brian Heinold, and 2008 alumni Emilio Arocho, Paul Donovan, Caitlin Fitzsimmons,
and Matthew Litvinas.
The ceremonies were held in the O’Hara room. Helping with the PME ceremony were
Ann Czapski and Erin McKavitt, the officers of our Maryland Eta chapter, while the UPE
ceremony was held by Joseph Gannon, Joseph Perry, and Alex Mejia.
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Left: PME inductees Rachel Baranoski, Zach Eick, Rebecca Thiem, Emily Gordon, Taylor Frock, Amy
Strosser, and Keri Barnes
Right: UPE inductees Dr. Brian Heinold, Zach Eick, and Fr. Elias Yelovich
As usual following dinner the highlight of the evening was our guest speaker talk. This
year Dr. Laura Taalman of James Madison University delivered a talk on Sudoku. Her talk
focused on current research on Sudoku. She explained what mathematicians are interested
in finding and how are they doing it. Among topics of research are the minimum number
of clues necessary to have a Sudoku with a unique solution and the number of essentially
different Sudoku puzzles.
To join us next year simply contact me at [email protected] or Scott Weiss at
[email protected].
PME members at the ceremony – left to right we have Raven Andrews, Dr. Brian Heinold, Rachel Baranoski, Ann Czapski, Zach Eick, Professor Scott Weiss, Rebecca Thiem, Dr. Luca Petrelli, Emily Gordon,
Taylor Frock, Amy Strosser, Erin McKavitt, Keri Barnes, Dr Melanie Butler, Fr. Elias Yelovich, and Dr.
Jonelle Hook
CS in 5
By Fred Portier
CS in 5 is a short note on computer science that you can read in about 5 minutes.
On June 23, 2012 we will celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the birth of Alan Turing,
often referred to as the Father of Computer Science. Turing is known for three different
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contributions, each significant in its own way.
• Turing defined the theoretical foundations of computer science. He answered questions
such as What is computing?, What can be computed?, and Are there things which cannot be computed ? (the answer to that last question is yes). He did this by developing
a mathematical description of a computer (now called a Turing Machine).
• Turing played a pivotal role in breaking the Nazi Enigma code in the second world war.
He designed the bombe, a electronic/mechanical cryptanalytic machine, which took
probable encoded text and produced likely settings for the Enigma device. Breaking
the Enigma code probably ended the war two years early.
• Turing did early work in Artificial Intelligence. He stated that a computer could be
said to think if a human would be unable to tell the difference between the computer
and a human through conversation. This Turing Test is a topic of interest by both
computer scientists and philosophers. After more than 50 years no computer has
passed the Turing Test.
Turing committed suicide in 1954 after being convicted of indecency and electing chemical
castration as an alternative to incarceration. His homosexuality came to the attention of
authorities in Manchester, England, after he reported his home being burglarized. In 2009
the British Government posthumously apologized for prosecuting him as a homosexual.
Today the Turing Award is the most prestigious award given for contributions to computer
science.
Note: Leonardo DiCaprio is reportedly going to star as Alan Turing in a bio-film called The
Imitation Game. The film is in development and no release date has been made public.
Joey Gannon goes for the spike over Dr. Petrelli at the annual picnic
What’s ν? 2012
MAA Student Chapter Report
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By Ann Czapski
Throughout this year the Mount’s chapter of the Mathematical Association of America
sponsored many of the traditional club events, while also introducing a few new ones. The
members of the club met monthly to discuss and prepare for these events. For Halloween
and Valentine’s Day, we did our annual campus-wide candy counting contest, awarding
various holiday treats to the Mounties who guessed closest to the correct amount in the
jars. Our biggest event this year was our Pi Day celebration. We sold mini six-inch pies
from the local Baugher’s Orchard and delivered them on campus on Pi Day, March 14th.
We also “pi-ed” three staff members in honor of Pi Day. After six recognizable individuals
of the Mount community agreed to participate, the two week voting period began. With a
monetary donation, votes could be cast to choose the top three candidates most “deserving”
of a pie in the face, with the winners being Dr. David Rehm, Provost, Jeff Abel, Director
of the Office of Social Justice, and Barry Titler, Director of Public Safety. On the day of
the “pi-ing,” students, faculty, and staff came out to the McGowan Center Patio to watch,
and maybe even be one of the lucky people to do the actual pie throwing. The money
raised from these activities was used to help send five of our MAA members to the National
Council of Teachers of Mathematics national conference in Philadelphia in April.
Dr. Rehm and Barry Titler get “pi-ed” to celebrate Pi Day and raise money for MAA members to attend
the NCTM conference
To end this exciting year for the MAA, we had the honor of being nominated for Club of
the Year at the Student Government Association’s Student Leadership Awards. We also
took the opportunity to share our achievements and some fun math activities at the closing
celebration of the SPARC Festival. It was a great year for our chapter of the Mathematical
Association of America, and we hope for continued success next year!
Service-Learning
By Melanie Butler
In the 2011-2012 academic year, mathematics students were again involved with servicelearning projects. Math majors in Foundation of Geometry, in Fall 2011, designed an
“Around-the-World”-themed math night for elementary and middle school students. This
project involved constructing several math activities related to various countries. A passport
with prizes would help the participants track their progress. Unfortunately, the math night
was not able to run (various logistical issues came up – the students tried hard!). However,
designing the activities and trying to work through the organizational hurdles was a learning
experience for everyone. In addition, the Mount appreciates the students’ willingness to
reach out to the local community.
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Jeff Abel gets “pi-ed”
Also in Fall 2011, students in one section of statistics partnered with the Adams County
Literacy Council, a partnership that had been very successful in the past. The Adams
County Literacy Council tutors students in mathematics and other subjects to help them
prepare to enter a GED program. The Council identified the following as their needs:
fundraising, recruiting participants, recruiting volunteers, and helping to educate the tutors
about math learning disabilities.
We took a field trip to the Council, met with the director and tutors, and heard the stories
of some of the students who were receiving help from the Council. After this we split into
groups. The fundraising group did a change collection and a raffle. Another group worked
to advertise on campus to help recruit tutors. A third group wrote and recorded a radio
ad to help recruit participants. The students worked to air the ad on the Mount radio and
local radio stations. The final group researched math learning disabilities and prepared a
brochure for the tutors who work at the Council.
Research into the service projects was also conducted to learn about the effects of such
projects on student attitudes toward mathematics. The statistics course that completed the
service project was compared with a control class, using pre- and post-surveys. It was found
that students who completed the service project felt more positively about the importance
of mathematics. (Contact Dr. Butler for more information on the study!)
All students completed reflections on the service projects, and the service projects continue
to be meaningful experiences for everyone involved. I look forward to more projects in the
future!
NCTM Conference
By Melanie Butler
Professor Jarvis and I traveled to Philadelphia on April 26th to 28th to attend the National
Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) national conference. Seniors Ann Czapski,
Erin McKavitt, and Raven Andrews and sophomores Taylor Frock and Rachel Baranoski
accompanied us. The students were able to attend sessions and receptions aimed at new
teachers.
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Dr Butler with graduating seniors Taylor Beebe, Raven Andrews, Jen Semler, Erin McKavitt, and Ann
Czapski
On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, we all attended many sessions and workshops on topics
such as “Communicating Mathematically through Interactive Writing,” “Engaging Activities and Ideas for Teaching Discrete Mathematics,” and “Which comes first the science or
the math?”. We also visited the exhibit hall to see new technology and new books that are
available. We were able to enjoy some local Philadelphia restaurants.
The students, through the Mathematical Association of America student club, fundraised
to help them attend the conference. We are thankful to the Mount, the Mount community,
and the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science for helping us take this trip.
The conference will help us improve and enrich our teaching!
Dr. Butler, Ann, Erin, Raven, Taylor, and Rachel in Philadelphia
What’s ν? 2012
NCTM – A Student’s Perspective
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By Erin McKavitt
This past April, a group of MAA (Mathematical Association of America) student members
joined Dr. Melanie Butler and Prof. Christina Jarvis in Philadelphia for the National
Council for Teachers of Mathematics national conference. Ann Czapski ’12, Raven Andrews
’12, Erin McKavitt ’12, Rachel Baranoski ’14 and Taylor Frock ’14 made the trip from the
Mount to the Philly Convention Center where over 1,000 speakers gave talks about math
education over a span of three days. The focus of the talks ranged from an elementary to
high school concentration covering everything from classroom management to homework
techniques. Additionally the conference offered workshops where attendees were taught a
skill, craft, or idea that they could apply directly to their classrooms. These workshops
were extremely beneficial, especially for the future teachers from the Mount. The group
also enjoyed exploring the sights of Philly, including Love Park and Chinatown. It was an
incredibly rewarding trip for everyone who attended!
The group in Chinatown
A few puzzles
By Brian Heinold
Here are a few puzzles from this year’s student Math Jeopardy competition, from the spring
sectional MAA meeting. The answer to each is hidden in the clue itself.
1. Francis Bacon, versed in the rules of logic, knew this term.
2. That workhorse Cantor studied sets and maybe also this trigonometric function.
3. This simple object can be found all over texts on graph theory and geometry.
4. I assumed Ian Stewart, the popular mathematics author, would have known this statistical term.
5. The geometry professor liked to concoct agonizing problems involving this shape.
The answers are upside down on the last page.
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Maria Marinelli and Annamarie Baer, winners of October’s puzzle competition
Mount Math Madness
By Jonelle Hook
This spring semester marked the second Mount Math Madness bracket challenge. On Mondays, for the first six weeks of the competition, three problems of various levels of difficulty
were posted worth 100, 200, and 300 points. Students accumulated points and the elite eight
were placed in a bracket for head-to-head competition. The three bracket rounds consisted
of one problem per round and the first student of each pair to submit a correct solution
advanced in the bracket.
This year, we had a weekly drawing for a $15 iTunes gift card among students with correct
solutions. Each hundred points earned one entry in the drawing. The weekly winners were
Patrick Kratz, Nathan Poetzsch, Stephen Sternik, Rose Krakowiak, Michael Mugno, and
Anna Hnizda.
There were 5 upsets in the bracket challenge with a championship match between the 7 and
8 seeds. Fred Watts won the tournament with Emily Wells as runner up. Both winners were
presented with a certificate and an Einstein bobble head. Fred was awarded a $75 gift card
to Amazon.com. Emily was presented with a $25 Amazon.com gift card and a $15 iTunes
gift card.
Runner-up Emily Wells and winner Fred Watts
Here are a few problems from the contest:
1. What is the value of the ones digit of 32013 ?
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2. Given the set of letters below, you are to spell the word MOUNTAINEER by starting
at the top of the rhombus and moving down through the letters. At each level, you
must move to a letter which is below and to the immediate left or below and to the
immediate right of the current letter. In how many ways can you spell out the word
MOUNTAINEER starting from the top letter and ending at the bottom letter?
M
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3. There were 50 women at a super bowl party of over a hundred people. The game
was so boring that every single woman fell asleep once (only once). At the end of the
game, two men make the following statements.
Giants Fan: During the game, there was at least one moment in which eight
or more women were asleep simultaneously.
Patriots Fan: At the party, there is a group of at least 8 women in which
no pair of women slept simultaneously.
Although we cant say which man, we do know that at least one of them is telling the
truth. Why?
Answers are upside down on the last page.
The elite eight bracket
What’s ν? 2012
Smalltalk
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By Brian Heinold
This was the fourth year of Smalltalk, our more or less weekly informal colloquium. Talks
are limited to 30 minutes in length (hence the name Small talk). Here’s a list of all of this
year’s talks:
Fall
Scavenger Hunt - Melanie Butler
A Million Dollar Problem - Brian Heinold
Beyond Sudoku - Jennifer Szczesniak
Factoring large numbers - Mike Mugno
Under the Hood of Website Creation - Joey Gannon
Chaos Theory - Maria Marinelli & Amy Strosser
Basics of IP Addressing & Subnetting - Luis Beltran
FIRST Robotics: Inspiring Youth in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math - John Naylor
The expanding roles of I.T. in modern businesses - Joe Garcia
Prolog: An Exercise in Recursion - Julian Ptak
Virtualization - William Escalante
Spring
Creating Interactive Fiction with Inform - Scott Weiss
Python Game programming with Pygame - Dylan Bernard
Rubiks Cubes - Brian Heinold
Counting Pennies - Fred Portier
Building a Computer - John Schultz
How a Processor Works - Michael Hamilton
Overclocking - Mike Mugno
Checkmate! - Julian Ptak
Mount St. Mary’s Virtual Tour - The Game - Dylan Bernard
Hashing - Eric Sandman
Artificial Intelligence Project Presentations - The CMSCI 449 class
Professor Jarvis, Dr. Petrelli, and Dr. Butler at the picnic
What’s ν? 2012
Math in 5
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By Fred Portier
Math in 5 is a short note on mathematics that you can read in about 5 minutes.
This article presents a quick way to multiply 2 digit numbers up to 20 × 20. I’ll start with
an example and do it the normal way. Here is how we compute 15 × 17.
×
1
1
2
1 5
1 7
0 5
5
5 5
You start with 5 × 7 which is 35. Write down the 5 and carry the 3 and then 7 × 1 + the 3
and you have 10. First row is 105. Then shift to the left one place and repeat. Finally add.
The fast way is to add the 15 on the first row to the 7 on the second row, giving you 22.
Multiply by 10, now at 220, and then add 7 × 5 = 35. So we have 220 + 35 = 255. Whoa,
what was that again?
Here is a second example: 13 × 15.
• 13 + 5 = 18
• 18 × 10 = 180
• 180 + 5 × 3 = 180 + 15 = 195.
Why does this work? We are computing (10 + a) × (10 + b). We know this is the same as
(10 + b) × (10 + a) =
10 × (10 + a) + b × (10 + a) =
10 × (10 + a) + b × 10 + b × a =
10 × (10 + a + b) + b × a
Using our first example. We have 15 × 17 = (10 + 5) × (10 + 7) =
(10 + 7) × (10 + 5) =
10 × (10 + 5) + 7 × (10 + 5) =
10 × (10 + 5) + 7 × 10 + 7 × 5 =
10 × (10 + 5 + 7) + 7 × 5 =
10 × 22 + 35 =
255
Give it a try. What is 15 × 19, 172 , 13 × 14? The method works only for numbers less than
20 although there are slightly more complicated schemes for other cases.
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UPE members Joey Gannon, Joe Perry, Professor Weiss, Dr. Heinold, Zach Eick, Dr. Portier, Fr.
Yelovich, and Tom Mahony
2012 SPARC Festival
By Fred Portier
The Mount held the 3rd annual SPARC Festival on April 17, 18, 19. SPARC is an acronym
for Scholarship. Performance, Art, Research, and Creativity. The festival highlights the
accomplishments of Mount students from all academic disciplines, including accounting,
biology, communications, computer science, mathematics, English, foreign languages, history, philosophy, political science, psychology, and sociology. Opening ceremonies were on
Tuesday afternoon featuring welcoming comments by President Powell, the distinguished
faculty address by Dr. John Schwenkler, and a performance by MSMU Chorale. Poster
sessions, lightning talks, keynote speaker Elliott Wood, and a theatrical performance were
on Wednesday’s schedule. Senior honors students presented their research in four sessions
scheduled over the three day festival. The festival closed on Thursday with an outdoor
celebration of music, performance, and student community service and leadership.
Lighting talks are short 15 minute talks. Here are few titles:
• Pirates, Nationality, and the American Revolution
• Irish Travel Narratives
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• Taking the Computer Past its Limits
• Overclocking: Taking the Computer Past its Limits
• Understanding Foreign Cultures Through New Media
Students in Poster Sessions create a poster display of their work and are present to answer
questions. A few examples are listed below.
• Violence and Videogames: A Study of the Effects of Violent Videogames on Children
• Learning Strategies Used by College Students with Asberger’s Symptoms
• The Effect of Territory Size on Aggression in Male Siamese Fighting Fish (Betta
Splenden)
• Markov Madness: Looking at the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Using Markov
Claims
Students in the honors program present the result of an extensive research effort. Examples are:
• 2 + 2 = 5?: How Anxiety Affects Students in the Math Classroom
• Finding the Art in Truth: An Exploration in Creative Nonfiction
• Blessed: A Collection of Family Memoirs
• Conditions for the Emergence of a Third Party in American Politics
There were 65 poster projects, 16 Lightning Talks, and 40 honors presentations. The department of Mathematics and Computer Science had three students participate in the poster
presentations, three students give Lightning Talks, and one student present their honors
research.
A scene from the annual picnic
What’s ν? 2012
Ann Czapski’s Honors Project
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By Melanie Butler
In Fall 2011, Ann Czapski did her teaching internship at an area middle school. Working
with two sixth grade Honors Sections, Ann investigated the effects of math anxiety and test
anxiety on student achievement. Along with reviewing current research literature on these
subjects, Ann completed a research project comparing the two sections on the same assignments, which alternated being emphasized as worksheets and quizzes. Students completed
surveys before and after these assessments which measured test anxiety and math anxiety.
After collecting data on the students for four such lessons, Ann analyzed the data, including
looking at differences in gender and initial anxiety. Ann concluded that, in her study, test
anxiety affected student performance, but math anxiety did not.
Operation TEACH
By Raven Andrews
On July 2, 2012, recent Mount graduates, Raven Andrews, Ann Czapski, and Erin McKavitt
will begin taking classes at the Notre Dame of Maryland University located in Baltimore,
MD to further their education as post-graduate students. The program through which they
will be doing this is Operation TEACH (Teachers Enlisted to Advance Catholic Heritage).
This innovative, two-year service commitment allows its participants to earn one of the
several master’s degrees in education offered while teaching full-time at a Baltimore-area
Catholic school and living in community with one another. Although candidates for Operation TEACH come from a variety of undergraduate academic majors, Raven, Ann, and
Erin will all be teaching mathematics in the schools they’ve accepted offers from. Raven
will be teaching at the Institute of Notre Dame, an all-girls high school in Baltimore City,
while Ann and Erin will both be teaching middle school math, Ann at St. John Regional
Catholic School in Frederick and Erin at Immaculate Heart of Mary located in Towson. All
of the girls are extremely excited to embark on this new stage in their lives and educations
and are happy to have the support of the Mount community.
An Interview with Professor Weiss
Professor Scott Weiss
By Brian Heinold
What’s ν? 2012
Where are you from?
I was born in Houston, Texas and moved to Rhode Island and Virginia, but I
mostly grew up in Long Island. I moved there when I was about 8.
What did you do for fun as a kid?
I did a lot of the same things I do now. I read a lot, did a lot of puzzles, played
on the computer, played games.
How did you get interested in computer science?
My dad was, and still is, a database manager for a health insurance company.
He did a lot of work on the computer and he took me to work sometimes. I got
a Commodore 64 when I was 12 or 13. I typed in the code from those computer
magazines where you had to type in the code. I also got a book about making
computer games. It would say to add in a monster or change it a bit. It was
cool to do that. I took BASIC and Pascal and was one of the first students to
take the AP exam, which I now grade.
Where did you go to school?
Carnegie Mellon. I graduated there in 1992 and then went to Johns Hopkins,
where I got my master’s. I started here right after that.
Professor Weiss presides over this year’s puzzle competition
What do you like most about computer science?
It’s cool that you can make computers do pretty much anything you want them
to do if you just figure out the right algorithm, the right way of doing it. It’s
very satisfying when the programs do what you want in the end.
What projects have you worked on here?
The biggest project here is the major itself. I came in 15 years ago and it was
really the second year of the major. Dr. Portier and I have been working together
to shape the major – what courses should be in it, the transition from Pascal to
C++ to Java to Python, and adding in courses like Graphics, Algorithms, and
Architecture. I ended up teaching at some point every computer science course
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that is not cross-listed in math, except the assembly language course. Otherwise,
I’ve spent some time the last few years working on creating an online course in
Python [for Art of Problem Solving] and game programming. I am working now
on another course in Java and data structures.
What’s an average day for you?
During the semester I spend a lot of time with the kids, taking them to school
or extracurricular activities or playing with them. When I’m not doing that,
I’m doing school work, either reading up for class, grading, or teaching class. In
what little time I have left, I do a crossword or two or watch Jeopardy!.
Professor Weiss with a well-known game show host
Tell me about when you were on Jeopardy!
That was a wonderful experience. It happened a little over five years ago. It
took about a year between the time I took the online test to getting the call to
go to California and then having the show air. It was just a great time to be
there, even before playing at all, just being in the studio and standing on the
set and pushing the buzzers and playing the practice games and meeting the
contestants and the contestant coordinators, who were really great people.
And of course winning at least one game was great. They tape five shows a day.
Mine was the last of the morning session and then we had lunch. And it was
like ‘Wow! I’m a Jeopardy champion!’ I was bouncing around all during lunch.
I won my second game after lunch and the third was the one that ended in the
three-way tie, which was of course supercool having the luck of everything work
out to do that. I’ve been watching the show for years and years, probably since
it started, and I’ve seen possible situations for a tie to come up. I thought I’ll
just do that, and it was very easy to realize mathematically what would happen.
Jamie and Anders were nice enough to get it right and we all came back the next
day for the taping. I’m sorry the fourth show didn’t work out for a win for me,
but it was still a great experience. To lose to someone I became more friendly
with was nice. I still get people commenting to me about it. When I went to see
a taping in DC a few weeks ago, the contestant coordinators still remembered
me and said how they still talked about the 3-way tie occasionally.
You also go to the national crossword tournament.
The nice thing about the national crossword tournament is finding a group of
people that enjoy the same things. I don’t go so much for the competition
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as for meeting friends, hanging out, and talking to various like-minded people.
[Professor Weiss finished 12th this year.]
What type of puzzles do you like best?
I like all sorts of puzzles. I like ones that have an interesting little twist that’s
not standard. I like puzzle hunts that are a bunch of interconnected puzzles that
lead you to a grander thing. I specifically like crosswords and cryptic crosswords.
I do almost any kind of puzzle. I’m not that stingy.
I’ve heard that you proposed to your wife with a puzzle.
My original thought was to get it on Will Shortz’s Sunday NPR segment. I knew
him from crossword tournaments and he was interested in doing it, but in the
end, the timing didn’t work out. I emailed the puzzle out to another puzzler
friend and asked if he would email it out to the puzzle list claiming it’s from him.
The idea was Susan and I would do the puzzle together. But by the time she
got to her email it was really late and she wanted to go to bed. I said, let’s look
at the email, and we went through it and solved it together, which was tough
because I already knew the answers and she was tired. And then when we went
through it, she didn’t see the hidden message in the puzzle. I said,‘Look, your
name’s in there.’ And at this time I was really nervous and shaking; she thought
I was sick! Eventually it dawned on her what the message was. She said yes, so
that was nice.
What else do you do?
Another big thing is the AP grading, where I go off to Cincinnati for a couple
of weeks to help grade the exams that the high school students take. It’s been a
fun experience, more fun than you’d think it would be to go off and do that.
What future projects do you have in mind?
I would like to see more interaction between Computer Science and other departments. I’d like to see the interactive fiction tournament get off the ground
at some point. It’s about time for changes to the major as well. I would like to
be doing more puzzle writing. I taught a games course here a while ago and it
would be nice to do that again. And I’ll be getting ready for the new Math 111
course. That will be a different thing for me to be teaching.
2012 Seniors
By Chris Jarvis
Three of our graduates, Ann Czapski, Raven Andrews, and Erin McKavitt, have accepted
positions in the Operation TEACH Program at Notre Dame of Maryland University. During
the next two years, they will be pursuing a Master of Arts in Leadership in Teaching STEM
and teaching at an Archdiocese of Baltimore school. Ann will be teaching middle school
math at St. John’s Regional Catholic School in Frederick, MD; Raven will be teaching
Answers to Math Jeopardy puzzles: 1. converse, 2. secant, 3. vertex, 4. median, 5. octogon
Answers to Mount Math Madness problems:
1. 3
2. 252
3. If the Giants fan is telling the truth, we are done. If the Giants fan is lying, then no group of 8 women can be asleep
at the same time. Suppose there are 7 beds for the women who are asleep simultaneously. The next woman to fall asleep
would have to wait for someone to wake up before she can fall asleep in that bed.
Let w1 be the first woman to wake up from women 1 through 7. Then the eighth woman can take her bed. Let the beds
fill with women 8 through 14. Let w2 be the first woman to wake up from this group. Then let the beds fill with women
15 through 21. Let w3 be the first woman to wake up from this group. And so on...
The group w1 , w2 , w3 , w4 , w5 , w6 , w7 , and woman 50 (the last woman to fall asleep) is a group of 8 women. Since
each wakes up before the next one falls asleep, no pair of women in this group is asleep at the same time. This means
the Patriots fan is telling the truth.
Raven Andrews
Annamarie Baer
Taylor Beebe
Ann Czapski
Erin McKavitt
Jen Semler
Dylan Bernard
Other graduating seniors include Annamarie Baer, Jen Semler, and Taylor Beebe.
Dylan Bernard is spending a week at the beach with friends in Ocean City, Maryland. After
that he has a job lined up with a company called Intelesys Corp located in Elkridge, MD.
They specialize in government software engineering projects.
high school math at the Institute of Notre Dame in Baltimore; Erin will be teaching middle
school math at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Baltimore. Ann, Raven, and Erin will
be living in community housing with the other operation TEACH candidates. Their salary
covers tuition, books and living expenses.
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