Math Instructor Lauded for Outstanding Job — Again

One of our favorite guest lecturers, Dr. Paul Stanford, was recently recognized for his work teaching college algebra, applied calculus, matrices and vectors, calculus and linear algebra.

The Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award, which Stanford received in the category of contingent faculty, carries a $15,000 stipend.   Nominees are selected through a rigorous campus-based process beginning with deans and department chairs, relying heavily on student and peer faculty evaluations within academic departments, and then progresses through various stages of evaluation up through the university, resulting in a recommendation from the campus president. The selection committee evaluates annual reviews, evidence of continuous improvement, commitment to high quality undergraduate education, and other factors.

We look forward to having Dr. Stanford share his great talents with the Metroplex Math Circle again in the 2009-2010 season.

AwesomeMath (Texas) Begins!

AwesomeMath Summer Camp has emerged as one of the premier problem solving experiences, drawing top students from around the country and around the world.  This year AwesomeMath has expanded to two campuses, UT Dallas and UC Santa Cruz.

The Texas session will begin tomorrow and several Metroplex Math Circle students will be attending this year.  While separate programs, both AwesomeMath and MMC were founded and are directed by Dr. Titu Andreescu.

Congratulations and best of luck to all of the local and global students selected to attend AwesomeMath 2009.

February 24-25 – ChessFest at UTD

ChessFest Making Some New Moves This Year

Expanded Schedule Includes Seminar and Supersize ‘Grande’ Demos

Feb. 5, 2009

This year’s expanded ChessFest schedule includes the debut of a Chess and Education seminar as well as “Chess Grande” demonstrations of games and moves using a supersized board and pieces.

The festival, which will also feature a lecture and presentation of the annual Chess Educator of the Year Award, is Feb. 24 and 25 on the UT Dallas campus.

ChessFest was created seven years ago by the university’s McDermott Library and the UT Dallas Chess Program.

See the UTD website for more information.

January 17, 2009: Statistical Natural Language Processing

Please come join us for the first Metroplex Math Circle of 2009.  On January 17 we will have Dr. Vincent Ng from UT Dallas talk to us about an exciting new field of applied mathematics as well as a new Olympiad with national and international competitions.

Statistical Natural Language Processing and the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad

Abstract:
People have long believed that technology will eventually produce a machine that can speak to us. Natural language processing (NLP), one of most fascinating subfields of artificial intelligence, is devoted to enabling computers to use human languages both as input and as output. However, more than fifty years have passed since the inception of artificial intelligence, and we still have not been able to construct such a “talking machine.” In the first part of this talk, we will examine why NLP is so difficult, and take a look at how statistics have revolutionized the way computers understand human languages.

In the second part of the talk, we will give an overview of the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad (NACLO), an international contest that aims to stimulate high-school students’ interest in natural language processing by having them solve linguistic puzzles. A local contest will be held at the University of Texas at Dallas on February 4, 2009.   Interested high-school students can now register through the NACLO website (www.naclo.cs.cmu.edu).

Fall 2008 Recap

This last semester marked some significant milestones in the first 3 years of the Metroplex Math Circle hosted by the University of Texas at Dallas.

Participation

Attendance for all Math Circle sessions was particularly high with at least 50 students, parents and teachers participating in each session.  This compares very favorably with many other math circles around the country.

Two of our sessions were particularly well attended.  The first session of the semester with Richard Rusczyk filled our regular room to capacity with over 104 attendees.  The special MMC event with Dr. Arthur Benjamin set a record with over 340 attendees from the local community.

Lecture Content and Speakers

As with all successful MMC semesters, Fall 2008 offered a great variety of pure and applied mathematics as well as new and returning speakers.

Topics this semester included:  combinatorics, cryptography,  math and finance, number theory, and Dr. Andreescu’s expert coaching for AMC 8, AMC 10 and AMC 12 preparation.

We were very glad to have returning speakers like Alicia Prieto Langarica, Dr. Paul Stanford, and of course Dr. Titu Andreescu.  We were also fortunate to have new speakers travel from around the country to share their knowledge with us including Chengde Feng, Richard Rusczyk, Dr. Bennette Harris, Simion Filip and Dr. Tanya Khovanova.

News and Events

An important paper, Cross-Cultural Analysis of Students with Exceptional Talent in Mathematical Problem Solving was published by Dr. Andreescu and his colleagues.  This paper set off a global debate in popular media including The New York Times,  Reuters India,  and Newsweek about the role of American culture in discouraging math achievement particularly among young women.

Metroplex Math Circle was also very happy to see a local math contest return to the Dallas area sponsored by the Malayalee Engineers Association of North Texas (MEANT).  Their event was very well attended by math circle participants who distinguished themselves in the contest.

Online Presence

Metroplex Math Circle has been very successful in supporting its local community in alignment with the goals and aspirations of the University of Texas at Dallas.   But we have also attempted to serve the global community and to promote the reputation of UTD through electronic media.

Since its launch in August, the new Metroplex Math Circle website has had over 8,600 unique page views.

The Yahoo Group currently has 97 members and is used to distribute information on upcoming events and to support discussions by students, parents and faculty members.

Metroplex Math Circle is also interconnecting to the global problem solving community through The Art of Problem Solving and the MSRI Math Circle Directory.

In 2009 we will continue to experiment with new media including an outpost on Facebook.

This semester was only successful due to the following contributions:

• Generous sponsorship from the University of Texas at Dallas
• Speakers willing to invest significant time to prepare lectures and travel great distances to share their love of problem solving
• Parents sufficiently committed to the education of their students that they are willing to sacrifice a significant fraction of their weekends
• Students who are willing to be attentive throughout the lectures and who are inspired to work on problems and ideas raised by math circle
• And of course none of this would exist were it not for the original inspiration and continuing direction of Dr. Titu Andreescu

Creation of Tier One Universities in Texas

UT Dallas has been very generous in supporting Metroplex Math Circle which invests in the multi-year achievement and enlightenment of our students.  I read with great interest the the University of Texas at Dallas is also committed to a multi-year plan with the goal of become a Tier One Research University.

These twin investments will converge over the next 10 years as some of our most talented students are given the option to work with the world’s best faculty and students here in North Texas.  UT Dallas President, Dr. David E. Daniels makes the good point that this is not the case today and that our region suffers from it:

In Fall, 2006:

• Texas sent 10,163 high school students to doctoral granting universities in other states
• Texas attracted 4,358 high school graduates from other states to doctoral-granting Texas universities
• Texas had a net brain drain of 5,815 high school students to universities in other states in 2006
• The problem is worsening –the loss increased 54% from 2000 to 2006.

Following are some more documents from UT Dallas describing their plan to elevate the campus from an already leading research university to a true Tier One.

What is Tier One?

Texas is home to three outstanding Tier One universities: Rice, Texas A&M, and UT Austin. Maintaining the strengths of these institutions relative to the best universities in the nation is vital. But this will not be enough to keep Texas competitive in the face of what has become a global contest for talent, ideas, home-grown advances, and economic development. Texas must develop more top-tier universities, particularly in the major population centers of the state. Texas lags states such as California and New York in this area, and pays the price. read more

Tier One Proposal, Executive Summary

Thoughts on the Creation of Tier One Universities in Texas

Presentation on Tier One (Slideshow | Printable)

President David E. Daniel is interviewed about Tier One on KERA-FM

MMC Special Presentation – Arthur Benjamin

Metroplex Math Circle is very pleased to announce a special presentation by Dr. Arthur Benjamin, November 19th, 2008 at 7:00 PM in the TI Auditorium, room 2.102 in the Engineering and Computer Sciences building (ECSS) on the campus of the University of Texas at Dallas.

Dr. Benjamin is a very distinguished mathematician at the prestigious Harvey Mudd College who has authored multiple books and scholarly papers.

But he is also very well known as an entertainer and “mathemagician.”  Dr. Benjamin’s program should be inspiring and entertaining for adults and students of all ages.

Following are just some of the accolades that Dr. Benjamin has received from reviewers and audiences:

“He talks like a peformer, acts like a magician, and multiplies faster than a calculator.”
— The Los Angeles Times.

“Someone you can count on!”
— People Magazine

“Please allow me to express our sincere thanks for your amazing performance at the 2008 Archer User Group Summit in Orlando, Florida. Your gift for mental calculation is truly astounding. The technology, risk management and compliance professionals who attended the Summit were completely captivated by your presentation, and we appreciate the excitement that you brought to our event. You had the complete attention of everyone in the room throughout your entire presentation, and your feats of mind were a major point of discussion for the remainder of the Summit. We would wholeheartedly recommend your presentation to any organization planning an event for professionals who like a good mental challenge. You inspired us all to use our brains a little bit more, and we will never forget your incredible show.”
— Alex Bender, Vice President of Marketing, Archer Technologies, 2008

“Doctor Benjamin’s presentation ranks among the very best. He is able to entertain, motivate, stimulate, and educate simultaneously, a rare ability that helps to bring the joy of math and science into the lives of his audiences.”
— Dr. Steven Murov, Director, Modesto Area Partners in Science

“Parents, teachers, and children, with multiple layers of math phobia, related easily to your imaginative style of storytelling and theater that brings math to a ‘Wow!’ level.”
— Sarah Orleans, Director of Programs, The Franklin Institute Science Program

“Dr. Arthur Benjamin made two presentations at Millersville University as part of the 21st annual Brossman Science Lectureship. The audience for the afternoon presentation consisted of 5th through 9th graders. The audience for the evening performance consisted of children through adults including university students and faculty. There was standing room only for both presentations (750 each). These were the largest crowds to ever attend the Science Lectureship. Dr. Benjamin appealed to all ages. His presentations were energetic and humorous as well as being informative. He had people excited about mathematics. One teacher stated: ‘Dr. Benjamin was a fantastic lecturer and truly inspiring to the students.’”
— Dr. Lyman Rickard, Millersville University

“Arthur Benjamin, the `mathemagician,’ wowed the crowd with his demonstration of lightning calculation. It’s hard to believe that watching someone do math would be entertaining, but Arthur is a knockout.”
— Magic Magazine, November 2007

“That was one of the most incredible finishing acts we’ve ever had!”
— Carmie Henry, Vice President, Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas, 2008

September 20th Photos

Following are some pictures of the first MMC meeting of the 2008-2009 season.

As you can see we have an excellent facility thanks to the generosity of UT Dallas. What is harder to see is that we filled every seat in a room with capacity >100.

UT Dallas

Participants in the Metroplex Math Circle are very grateful for the extensive support they receive from the University of Texas at Dallas. Some of UTD’s founding principles help to explain why it is such a perfect home for one of the country’s leading Math Circles.

In 1969 the University’s founders argued that “to grow industrially, the region (Texas) must grow academically; it must provide the intellectual atmosphere which will allow it to compete in the new industries dependent on highly trained and creative minds.” With this charge in mind, UT Dallas’ mission statement charges the university to serve “the Metroplex and the State of Texas as a global leader in innovative, high quality science, engineering, and business education and research.”