Archive for 2009
Mandelbrot sets. Up close and 3D
Recursive algorithms are pretty to look at alone based on their simplicity and power. Fractals drive this home on a visual level, though historically they’ve focused more on how to fit every color of the rainbow and less on the intricate forms within. All this has changed thanks to this stunning site which reveals incredibly high [...]
Dobler Receives Faculty Service Award
Gustavus President Jack Ohle presented Professor Carolyn Dobler, Chair of the Mathematics and Computer Science Department, with the Faculty Service Award at today’s Founders Day ceremony in chapel.
A Survey of Discrete Calculus Plus Gronwall’s Lemma
MCS Seminar by Prof. John Holte Wednesday, 21 October 2009 11:30AM Olin 321 I have long been interested in the parallels between “continuous” calculus and discrete calculus. Finite difference formulas look a lot like familiar derivative formulas–with the right tweaking and summation formulas likewise resemble familiar integration formulas. Furthermore, Newton’s interpolating formula based on higher differences can be [...]
MCS Almuna To Receive First Decade Award
The Gustavus Alumni Association Board of Directors has named Tammy (Williams) VanDeGrift to be the 2009 female recipient of the First Decade Award for early career achievements, which will be presented at the 10th anniversary class dinner on October 9th. Congratulations to Tammy, who has made quite a name for herself in computer science [...]
Dahlkes’ “Hands for Harvest” Makes News
The Mishnah tells us that “These are the things that have no measure: The portion of the field allocated to the poor, … acts of kindness, and the study of the Torah.” Two Gustavus Computer Science graduates, Travis and Nathan Dahlke (classes of 2000 and 2002) seem to have started with 1/3 acre as the initial [...]
Erik Tou (2002) Publishes on Arithmetic Lattices
Erik Tou, an honors math major from the class of 2002, recently published an article on “Explicit constructions of arithmetic lattices in SL(n,R)” in the International Journal of Mathematics and Computer Science, along with Lee Stemkoski of Adelphi University. Erik received his PhD from Dartmouth in 2007 and is on the faculty at Carthage [...]
British PM’s Apology Regarding Alan Turing
The British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has released a statement apologizing for the “appalling” treatment of Alan Turing. Turing made many important contributions as a mathematician, including laying some of the major foundations of the field of computer science. Brown’s statement shortchanges these accomplishments by focusing only on Turing’s role in breaking German cyphers during [...]
Three-Dimensional Surface Reconstruction and Measurement of Placentas
MCS Seminar presented by ChenYu Yang, Gustavus mathematics major Tuesday, Sept. 15 at 3:30PM Olin 321 Cookies will be served. The goal of the project is to reconstruct three-dimensional shape of placentas, and provide shape characterization for exploring the relation between placental shapes and fetal growth. We investigate two types of surface reconstruction methods: implicit and explicit methods. Our [...]
Prof. Kaiser elevated to Provost’s Office
Barbara Kaiser will spend the next three years largely away from the MCS department, serving as Associate Provost and Dean of Academic Programs.
Prof. Hvidsten in China, Blogging
Mike Hvidsten is spending a sabbatical year at United International College (UIC) in Zhuhai, China, along with his wife and son. The three of them are maintaining a blog of their experiences.