Eileen Seely Jurgenson Scholarship awarded to Harrison Quick.
Mankato Associates Mathematics Scholarships awarded to Dane Benes and Ashley Rand.
James A. Anderson Mathematics Scholarships awarded to Abidhussein Esmail, Mildred Lau and Ashley McCall.
Gary and Wendy Rockswold Mathematics Scholarships awarded to Angela Kampa, Lindsay Knodel and Stacy Richter.
Francis Hatfield Mathematics Scholarships awarded to Benjamin Roberson and Sarah Westman.
The 34th Annual MSU High School Mathematics Contest was held on April 18, 2007, at Minnesota State University, Mankato. About 140 high school students competed representing 9 high schools from Minnesota and Iowa. Individual awards and team awards were given to the top performers. Also honor certificates were awarded to students scoring in the top 15%, and merit certificates were awarded to students in the 16 - 30 percentile.
| First Place | Shuo Zhang | Iowa City West High School |
| Second Place | Jeffrey Chenhall | Iowa City West High School |
| Third Place | Darren Look | Iowa City West High School |
| First Place | Iowa City West High School | Curie Ahn Nicholas Allendorf Jeffrey Chenhall Paul Hlebowitsh Shuo Zhang |
| Second Place | Mounds View High School | Frank Li Jae Chang Xing Li Hari Narayanan Vanck Zhu |
| Third Place | Highland Park High School | Marie Desharnais Abram Jopp Cameron Marcott Ben Mayhew Benjamin Weitz |
We have four new faculty in mathematics this year. Dr. Jonathan Harper joins us in developmental mathematics. Dr. Yea-Ling Tsao joins us in mathematics education. Dr. Hongxia Yin joins us in applied mathematics (optimization). Ms. Eryn Stehr joins us in a fixed-term position.
Title: Semidefinite Programming Approximation Bounds for Quadratic Optimization with Applications to Wireless Communication
Speaker: Zhi-Quan Luo, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Minnesota
Time: 4:00-5:00pm, Tuesday, March 25,2008.
Room: WH 286A.
Abstract: In this talk, we present the semidefinite programming (SDP) relaxation techniques for nonconvex quadratic optimization, and discuss their applications in multicast downlink beamforming. We identify several cases when the SDP relaxation is tight and present the worst case performance bounds for several NP-hard nonconvex quadratic optimization problems arising from multicast multigroup beamforming in wireless communication.
Refreshments will be available in WH 291 at 3:30PM.
Title: Robust Optimization Technique for Problems with Uncertainty
Speaker: Hongxia Yin, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Minnesota State University Mankato
Time: 4:00-5:00pm, Thursday, March 6,2008.
Room: WH 286.
Abstract: Robust Optimization (RO) is a modeling methodology, combined with computational tools, to process optimization problems in which the data are uncertain and is only known to belong to some uncertainty set. In this talk, we survey the main results of RO and its relation with second order cone (SOC) and semidefinite programming (SDP). For a stochastic linear optimization problem with correlated uncertainties related to a causal ARMA process, we propose a tractable robust counterpart. This explicit treatment of correlated uncertainties under a time series setting in robust optimization is in contrast to the independent or simple correlated uncertainties assumption in existing literature. We establish probabilistic guarantees for the feasibility of the robust solution under some reasonable assumptions. We also provide a numerical method on the selection of the parameters which controls the tradeoff among the tractability, the robustness and the optimality of the robust counterpart.
Refreshments will be available in WH 291 at 3:30PM.
The MSU Math Club meets on Tuesdays at 5 pm in Wissink 291. The Math Club will look at problems introduced by the members and prepare teams for the MAA/NCS Contest. Everyone is welcome to join us. For more information contact Dr. Dan Singer (email: dan.singer@mnsu.edu, phone: 389-1424, office: Wissink 268). Last year our team of Harrison Quick, Chad Vidden and Eric Raymer placed in the top third of the teams for the MAA/NCS Contest. Click to see sample problems from past MAA/NCS contests and MAA Putnam Competitions. For more information go to Math Club.
The Student Association for Mathematical Experiences in Research exposes students to research in mathematics through interaction with faculty. SAMER meets regularly throughout the academic year. For more information contact Dr. In-Jae Kim (email: in-jae.kim@mnsu.edu, phone: 389-5908, office: Wissink 248) or go to SAMER.
Free walk-in tutoring for Math 098, 110, 112, 113, 115, 121, 122, 127, 180, 181, 201, 202, and 223 is available in the Center for Academic Success ML 0132. Hours are 9 am - 8 pm, Monday-Wednesday, 9 am - 4 pm, Thursday, and 9 am - 2 pm, Friday. Check their website at www.mnsu.edu/cas/ or call 389-1791.
Departmental tutors are available on a walk-in basis in Wissink 344 many hours of the week Monday through Thursday with more limited hours on Friday. Check the departmental office's bulletin board for the most up-to-date schedule.
Completion of a college level math course (at MSU or another institution) in Category 4 of the general education requirements does not necessarily mean a student has met the prerequisite requirements for the courses below.
A student must satisfy one of the following three prerequisites in order to enroll in
Math 112, College Algebra
A student must satisfy one of the following four prerequisites in order to enroll in
Math 113, Trigonometry
A student must satisfy one of the following three prerequisites in order to enroll in
Math 115, Precalculus
A student must satisfy one of the following four prerequisites in order to enroll in
Math 121, Calculus I
A student must satisfy one of the following three prerequisites in order to enroll in
Math 201, Elements of Mathematics I
