Faculty News
Bob Eslinger has returned to the department from his
position as Associate Provost. Bob will be on sabbatical
during the fall but will be back in the department in the
spring teaching calculus and our introduction to theorem
proving.
Ze'ev Barel will endure his third year as chair of the
department and looks forward to possibly chairing searches
in both mathematics and computer science.
Dwayne Collins continues his segue into computer science. After his sabbatical year at Acxiom Corporation
Dwayne began taking computer science graduate courses at
the University of Memphis. This year, for the first time, he
will teach more computer science than mathematics.
David Sutherland has traded places with Bob Eslinger and
has accepted a position as Associate Provost. He will continue
to teach one mathematics course each semester.
Duff Campbell starts his fourth year at Hendrix. He spent
his summer as Associate Director of PROMYS for Teachers,
an intensive six-week course in Number Theory at Boston
University.
Gabe Ferrer begins his second year and is looking forward to
his new robotics course.
Sadly we have to say goodbye to Ali Kooshesh who has
accepted a teaching position at Sonoma State University. Ali
single-handedly transformed the computer science program
from a minor in computer science to a major in computer
science. Ali was a wonderful colleague and we will miss
him. We wish him the best of luck in California.
We also continue to use adjuncts from local industries to
help in computer science. This year we have Dr. Doug
Hoffman and Dr. Mike Clark from Acxiom.
Karen & Gabe Ferrer with Denice & Bob Eslinger
Robotics
This fall Gabriel Ferrer is team-teaching a new course entitled
Robotics Explorations Studio
with physics professor Ann
Wright.
The new Hendrix core curriculum requires every student to take
two natural science courses from different departments with at least
one a laboratory course. With no science prerequisites, the Robotics
course will enable non-science majors to meet this
requirement.
The course will provide an introduction to classical mechanics,
computer programming, and the basics of artificial intelligence, using
robotics as a unifying theme. Students will build their robots using
Lego Mindstorms kits and program them using a special Java library.
The focus of Dr. Ferrer's research is the development of algorithms
for autonomous robot control. Dr. Wright has extensive experience in
building robots as part of the FIRST robotics competition.
Computer science senior Kyle Rimkus assisted them this summer
in developing the course and continues to work with students during
the course.
2003 Seniors
Computer Science majors above from left to right: Jeff Fendley,
Patrick Cowan, Craig Falls, James Horey, Don Porter, Tim
Morey. Mathematics majors below from left to right: Dane
Dormio, Jared Williams, Greg Spencer and Carter Price.
Another Goldwater
Junior mathematics major Peter Horn was named a Goldwater Scholar
for the 2003–2004 academic year. The scholarship will cover the
cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board up to a maximum of
$7,500 per year. The Goldwater Scholars were selected on the basis
of academic merit from a field of 1,093 mathematics, science, and
engineering students who were nominated by the faculties of colleges
and universities nationwide. Peter makes the 16th Hendrix
Goldwater Scholar since 1989. Three of the last five Hendrix Goldwater
Scholars were mathematics majors.
Student Publications
During the past year three graduating seniors have had research
papers accepted for publication.
Computer Science student Don Porter's paper from his NSF REU
program last summer at Hope College appeared in the proceedings of a
SIGCSE meeting in Reno, Nevada last winter. The paper Using Java
to Teach Networking Concepts with a Programmable Network Sniffer
was co-authored by Professor Mike Jipping (Hope College) and students
Agata Bugaj and Lilyana Mihalkova. [SIGCSE is the special interest
group in computer science education of the Association of Computing
Machinery.]
Mathematics student Jared Williams' paper Exploring Finite-
Time Blow-Up
appeared in the Spring 2003 issue of The Pi Mu
Epsilon Journal. Co-authored with Duff Campbell, the paper grew out
of a question posed by Jared as a sophomore in Duff's differential
equations class.
Mathematics student Dane Dormio's paper Analysis of Subtangent
has been accepted by The Pi Mu Epsilon Journal and should appear
soon. His paper was motivated by a homework question about the
subtangent from freshman calculus.
Putnam Exam
For the first time since 1985 the department will be displaying
the plaque for the highest score in the Arkansas-Oklahoma region of
the Mathematical Association of America on the The Putnam Exam.
Senior Jared Williams' name joins that of Gary Thacker from 1985,
Scott Roberts from 1984 and Michael Tieffenback from 1975 and 1976.
CS Students Compete
For the first time ever, computer science students from Hendrix
College competed in the ACM [Association of Computing Machinery]
Mid-Central USA Programming Contest.
The students competed in two teams. The first team included senior
Craig Falls and juniors Jed Daily and Billy Autrey. The second team
included seniors Don Porter, James Horey and Patrick Cowan. Of the
approximately 100 teams, the first Hendrix team placed 25th and the
second team placed 48th.
Ze'ev's Puzzle Corner
Two circles externally tangent to each other at A, one of radius 3,
the other of radius 1, have a common tangent line BC (B and C are the
respective points of tangency). Find the exact area of the "triangle"
ABC bounded by the line and the two circles. Note: The area can be
written as a rational function of pi and the square root of 3.
E-mail your solutions to Ze'ev by December 1 to have a chance at
winning a Hendrix mug.
Nap M. Smith ('40), J. Ralph Reed ('54), and Shiloh Harder ('98)
won Hendrix mugs for solving Ze'ev's puzzle in the last newsletter.
Faculty
Ze'ev Barel
Duff Campbell
Dwayne Collins
Bob Eslinger
Gabe Ferrer
David Sutherland