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Saint Louis University
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Mathematics & Computer Science Club
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Club Meetings
The Math/CS club meets every Wednesday at 4pm in the Ritter Hall Lobby. Students and faculty are welcome to attend - refreshments are provided.
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News
Congratulations to next year's officers, Melissa Kathman (President), Bryan Psimas (Vice President),
Molly Hanley (Treasurer), and Nehemiah Dacres (Secretary).
Congratulations to the 2008 SLU math team, which took 7th and 9th place in the Missouri Collegiate Math Contest. The two teams were Brandon Curry, Zhizhong Pagn, Rehan Refai and Travis Andrews, Hua Hua, and Neil Munjal.
Pictures.
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Special Events for Spring 2008
Thursday, May 1, 4:10pm
Kelley Auditorium
Math and Computer Science Department Award Ceremony
Dr. Jonathan Schaeffer
Department of Computing Science, University of Alberta.
Computer (and Human) Perfection at Checkers
In 1989 the Chinook project began with the goal of winning the human
World Checkers Championship. There was an imposing obstacle to
success -- the human champion, Marion Tinsley. Tinsley was as close
to perfection at the game as was humanly possible. To be better than
Tinsley meant that the computer had to be perfect. In effect, one had
to solve checkers. Little did we know that our quest would take 18
years to complete. What started out as a research project quickly
became a personal quest and an emotional roller coaster.
In this talk, the creator of Chinook tells the story of man versus
machine for supremacy at checkers.
- Wednesday, Jan. 30. Paper folding puzzles and origami math.
- Wednesday, Feb. 6. One Laptop Per Child and the XO laptop.
- Wednesday, Feb. 13. Stacking blocks off the edge of a table.
Block stacking is a classic math problem connected to infinite series, and
has recently seen exciting new developments.
(Picture of a nice stack)
- Wednesday, Feb. 20. How does parallelism speed up computations?
Dr. Michael Goldwasser, SLU Math/CS. Multiprocessor computer systems are built around the premise
that they can outperform a comparable single processor. While
this is clearly true when there is independent work that can
be divided among the processors, it is not so obvious when
trying to use the processors together to solve a single problem.
This week, we will explore the underlying issue by seeing
if our audience can work together to perform some basic
tasks more quickly.
- Wednesday, Feb 27. Why you need a meteorologist to know which way the wind blows. Dr. Robert Pasken, SLU Earth & Atmospheric Sciences.
- Wednesday, March 12. Elect new officers for 2008-9.
- Wednesday, March 26. The four color map problem. Dr. Nathan McGregor, SLU Math/CS.
- Wednesday, April 2. Mathematical Card Tricks. Dr. Blake Thornton, Washington University of St. Louis
The First Math/CS Club Film Festival
- Wednesday, April 9. Movie night: 21. Join the club to see the new
movie '21'.
- Wednesday, April 16. Movie night: The Story of 1.
A humorous, Monty-Python-esque account of the history of Hindu/Arabic numerals. 60 minutes.
- Wednesday, April 23. Movie night: Flatland. Journey to the 4th dimension with Martin Sheen and Kirsten Bell in this 60 minute adaptation of the 19th century victorian novel.
- Wednesday, April 30. Boeing Information Technology Business Systems Capabilities. Mary Ann Gates, Boeing, Director Information Technology Enterprise Travel & Expense Systems. Hear about IT at Boeing, and career opportunities. A joint event with the SLU Information Technology Management (ITM) Club.
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Billiken Challenge
The Billiken Challenge is a problem solving contest for SLU students. It's
in need of a student to help Dr. Clair create problems and run the contest. If you are
that student, please contact the club.
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Officers 2007-2008:
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Rich Barmeier
President
(barmeier@slu.edu) |
Molly Hanley
co-Vice President
(mhanley3@slu.edu) |
Melissa Kathman
co-Vice President
(mkathman@slu.edu) |
Nehemiah Dacres
Secretary
(dacresni@slu.edu) |
Bryan Psimas
Treasurer
(bpsimas@slu.edu) |
Faculty Advisor:
Dr. Bryan Clair (bryan@slu.edu)
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The club is the local student chapter of the
Mathematical Association of America,
and part of the MAA Missouri Section.
Are you an undergraduate interested in mathematics? Then join the MAA!
This professional organization is great for career ideas, undergraduate
research, and interesting mathematics. Student memberships through this
chapter are only $25, with two magazine subscriptions included. Write
to the club officers for details!
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The club is the SLU chapter of the
Pi Mu Epsilon honorary national mathematics society.
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