1995 K-State Undergraduate Lecture Series in Mathematics
Lectures by two distinguished visiting mathematicians, a K-State mathematician, five alumni, a K-State mathematics major, and a business representative were the highlights of our Undergraduate Lecture Series at Kansas State University in 1995.Doris Schattschneider, a distinguished mathematician from Moravian College, visited Kansas State and gave an undergraduate mini-course on The fascination of tiling. Doris described many beautiful tilings of the plane and their geometric secrets. Vera Pless, a distinguished mathematician from the University of Illinois at Chicago, visited K-State and gave an undergraduate mini-course on Error correcting codes. Vera described the basic concepts of coding theory and how codes are used to correct errors on transmission channels caused by noise. These two mini-courses were very well received, attracting visitors from Lawrence, Topeka, and Wichita.
Robert Dressler, a K-State mathematics faculty member, gave a presentation entitled The Conway algorithm for finding the day given the date. Gary Schmidt, a 1971 K-State mathematics alumnus, gave a presentation entitled Why are people in mathematics today? Gary received a Ph.D. in education from Kansas State in 1973. He is now teaching mathematics at Washburn University and runs Barr-Schmidt, Inc. a computer consulting firm in Berryton. David Ewing, a 1984 K-State mathematics alumnus, gave a presentation entitled Geometry, computers, and me. David used Geometer's SketchPad to demonstrate teaching geometric principles. He is on the faculty at Central Missouri State University in Warrensburg. Paul Laugesen, a 1983 K-State mathematics alumnus, gave a presentation entitled Mathematics in the Air Force. After graduation, Paul was a cryptologic mathematician at the National Security Agency, and he now is a systems architect for the migrations systems branch of the Air Force. He received an M. S. In applied mathematics from John Hopkins University in 1985. Rick Un, a 1995 K-State mathematics alumnus, gave a presentation entitled Mathematics and computer jobs. Rick is a computer consultant for IBM Corporation in Dallas. Kenneth Boyd, 1992 K-State mathematics alumnus, gave a presentation entitled Role playing games: choosing a weapon. Keneth is now a graduate student in mathematics at K-State. Jonathan Winkler, a mathematics-physics-English triple major, described his summer research experience studying Hodgkin-Huxley in the Research Triangle.
Wayne Peeler, representing Farmers Alliance Mutual Insurance Company of McPherson, presented a talk on The actuarial field.