VSU Hosts 13th Annual Mathematics Conference Feb. 22

VALDOSTA - The Department of Mathematics and Computer Science will host the 13th annual Mathematics Technology Conference from 2-6.30 p.m., Friday, Feb. 22, at Valdosta State University in the Education Center.

The conference will be devoted to the theme “Teaching Mathematics with Technology,” which will offer presentations on “Empowering Students as Computational Science Professionals: Applying Mathematics and Computer Science to Important Scientific Problems” and “Ten Projects with Undergraduates: From Documentaries to Patents.”

Angela Shiflet, professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at Wofford College, Spartanburg, S.C. will speak about empowering students with the aim to encourage students of science majors to know how to use computation in their fields, which can be applied into modeling and simulation of significant scientific problems. The lecture will also include coursework and internship recommendations from "Undergraduate Computational Science and Engineering Education," a report from a Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) Working Group of which Dr. Shiflet is a member. Dr. Shiflet is known as being one of the instrumental personalities in development of one of the first undergraduate computational science programs in the United States.

“Ten Projects with Undergraduates: From Documentaries to Patents will be presented by Tom Manning, associate professor of Chemistry at Valdosta State University. The presentation will focus on research projects of undergraduate students in the VSU Chemistry department, including the first successful production of several marine natural products in a microbial broth, a textbook co-authored by students and written in collaboration with faculty of University of Havana (Cuba) and a 30-minute documentary produced, written and filmed by VSU students.

For more information about the conference, please contact David Boyd at 333-5788 or by his e-mail: dboyd@valdosta.edu.