Scholars Culture Points

Call for Proposals

Wartburg College is hosting the Upper Midwest Regional Honors Conference this April 24-26, 2014.  This is your chance to talk about anything from a research project to a service learning experience.  Check out our web site and sign up to give a talk or a poster.  You can use the same poster that you print out for RICE Day.

Job/Internship Fair

Brush up and print off your resume, the Big Job/Internship Fair is tomorrow 11:30-2:30.  Just go.  I am serious.

Math Symposium at Simpson College

Midwest Undergraduate Mathematics Symposium

Friday and Saturday, April 11 and 12, 2014

Simpson College - Carver Science Center - Indianola, Iowa

You, your students, and your colleagues are invited to attend the 11th annual Midwest Undergraduate Mathematics Symposium (MUMS).  The purpose of MUMS is to promote, share, and celebrate student engagement in the mathematical sciences.  In addition to the contributed presentations, there will be two plenary talks and two panel discussions.  This year the plenary talks will be given by Dr. Jitka Stehnova from Mount Mercy University and Dr. Kathryn Leonard from California State University Channel Islands.

Undergraduate students and faculty are invited to present 10-15 minute talks or posters from any area of mathematics.  Possible topics for presentations include, but are not limited to:

·         results of class projects;
·         solutions to contest problems (Putnam Exam, modeling competitions, etc.);
·         results from undergraduate research projects (summer programs, capstone courses, etc.);
·         expository talks on interesting topics in mathematics;
·         papers on the history of mathematics;
·         mathematics education projects; and
·         independent work in mathematics, statistics, computer science, or related disciplines.

Abstracts are due by Friday, March 28.  Student travel stipends are available; they will be awarded in order received and as funding allows.

More detailed information can be found on the MUMS 2014 website (simpson.edu/math/mathematics-events/midwest-undergraduate-mathematics-symposium/) and in the attached call for presentations.  Have questions?  Contact the symposium directors, Dr. Heidi Berger (515-961-1837) and Dr. Bill Schellhorn (515-961-1321) at MUMS@simpson.edu.

Funding for MUMS 2014 is provided by NSF grant DMS-0846477 through the MAA Regional Undergraduate Mathematics Conferences program (maa.org/RUMC).  Additional funding is provided by the Simpson College Mathematics Department (simpson.edu/math).

We hope that you are able to attend!

2014 Geothermal Student Competition

Dear Colleagues:
The US Department Energy’s Geothermal Technologies Program and Oak Ridge Institute for Science Education are pleased to announce the 2014 Geothermal Student Competition. The Geothermal Student Competition seeks students interested in building and showcasing scientific research, communication and leadership skills to promote geothermal energy as a player in the nation’s renewable energy future. This year’s event focuses on a non-technical barrier to geothermal development: public communications.  Energy production can be a complex topic to explain to a broad public audience, and describing energy that comes from a subsurface environment—difficult to visualize for many—amplifies the challenge of explaining geothermal energy, how it works, and how it can benefit consumers. 

The Challenge:
This year’s Competition focuses on a non-technical barrier to geothermal development: public communications. Students are asked to develop a cutting-edge geothermal communications tool that integrates accurate, technical information with a graphical visualization infographic. Students will also create an outreach plan to disseminate the infographic to local middle and high schools.

Who Should Apply?
Teams may consist of undergraduates and/or graduate students. High school seniors are encouraged to apply.

Where do I Apply?
The Competition application, guidelines, and further details can all be found on the Competition website:  http://orise.orau.gov/geothermal

Semi-Finalist Awards
The five most compelling and competitive applications will receive a total award of $2,500, where $2000 is expected to be used as project development funds (stipend) and $500 is to develop an outreach presentation for middle and high school students.

Key Dates:

·         Feb. 21: Application page opens

·         March 25: Kick-off Call with prospective Student Teams

·         April 5: Round 1 deliverables due: Project plan, Communications and Education Strategy, and Infographic mock-up due

·         NLT April 16: Five finalists are notified and invited to submit full application packages

·         June 14: Final packets due

·         NLT June 27: First, second, and third place teams are notified

·         September 28-October 1: GRC Conference: Five finalists attend the GRC conference in Portland and winners are announced. Additionally, GRC attendees will have the opportunity to vote for a “People’s Choice Award,” the winner of which will be announced at GRC’s conclusion. 

For more information please contact Dr. Desmond Stubbs, Program Manager by Email: Desmond.Stubbs@orau.org
We look forward to receiving highly competitive and innovative ideas from your students!
 

Controversial Coffee Conversation

Salutations!

We are planning our next CCC for Saturday, 2/22/2014, at 3 PM in either the Den or the K-dit.  We know it's short notice, but if you're available to come or know someone who would be interested, feel free to join us!

Thanks!

First Year Scholars

Graduate Internship Opportunities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Graduate Internship opportunities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The Computational Data Analytics Research Group (CDAG) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has multiple openings for Graduate Interns in the field of Data Analytics Research. https://www3.orau.gov/ORNL_TOppS/Posting/Details/516

The Computing and Computational Science Directorate (CCSD) at ORNL oversees ORNL’s store of computing power and its talented staff of computational scientists and mathematicians. CCSD has multiple Graduate Internship openings in the fields of: High-Performance File Systems and Storage; Communications Middleware; HPC Languages and Tools (programming languages, compilers, runtimes, and tools for high-performance computers); Large-Scale and Data-Intensive, Collaborative, Scientific Applications.  https://www3.orau.gov/ORNL_TOppS/Posting/Details/515

Wartburg Career, Internship & Graduate/Professional School Fair - Thursday, Feb. 27, 2014 - 11:30 am - 2:30 pm - The "W" Hall of Champions

It is important that you attend a Career Fair as soon as possible.  Especially, if you are not confident about your major, it is this experience where you can talk to real employers and real graduate school recruiters to help you find out what your future might be.

Career Services & the Center for Community Engagement are pleased to partner with faculty to support our students’ success. We offer a variety of innovative resources and events that can support developed coursework, or that can be integrated in to your curriculum as a homework assignment or class activity.  

Please encourage students in your courses to attend the upcoming Career, Internship and Graduate/Professional School Fair on Thursday, Feb. 27^th, 11:30 am – 2:30 pm in the W – Hall of Champions.  Currently, 50+ organizations are registered; the attachment highlights those attending.

Career fairs provide:

• A chance for students to network with employers in their industry/major and make contacts for future learning or research endeavors
• A chance for you to personally recommend students to an employer
• A way to say hello to former students. Organizations will often send Wartburg grads to represent them at the career fair.

Questions about Student Interdisciplinary Research Panels (SIRP) at NCHC in Denver

Friends & Colleagues:

Kate Bruce and I usually receive a number of questions around this time about submission procedures for the Student Interdisciplinary Research Panel strand, which will take place at next fall’s NCHC meeting in Denver. The deadline for proposals is Monday, March 3, so I thought I might cut a few of those questions off at the pass.

Students submitting SIRP proposals follow the same proposal guidelines as everyone else: they use the conference proposal website to enter their personal data and submit a 50-word description and 150-200 word abstract.  The only difference is that SIRP proposers follow up that initial submission with a completed copy of their research paper uploaded by April 8. The selection committee bases its decisions on those completed papers, all of which are read in full.

The SIRP procedures appear here: http://nchchonors.org/annual-conference/proposal-guidelines/#sirp

Samples of SIRP panels from previous conferences appear here: http://nchchonors.org/annual-conference/sample-sirp-panels/

The conference submission portal appears here: https://nchc.confex.com/nchc/2014/cfp.cgi

SIRP submitters will typically receive a decision on their submissions in late April/early May.  Please feel free to forward this note to your students who might enjoy discussing their research in Denver.

Cheers, Richard

Capital Semester in Washington

*****************************************************

Capital Semester in Washington, DC

www.DCinternships.org/CS
Fall: August 27 – December 12, 2014
Spring: January 14 – May 2, 2015

*Guaranteed Internships - Courses for Credit - Housing in DC

*Fall Semester Early Deadline: March 1, 2014

*Generous Scholarship Funding Available

Spend a semester in Washington, DC making an investment in your future that will help set you apart after college.  This comprehensive program sponsored by The Fund for American Studies includes a guaranteed internship placement, courses for transferable credit, and furnished housing the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

EXPERIENCE

We’ve been creating academic internship experiences for over 40 years and guarantee all participants an internship placement. Your options are endless – we work with over 300 different federal agencies, policy groups, international affairs organizations, media outlets, public affairs firms, government relations offices, and nonprofit organizations.

CONNECTIONS

Who you know does matter - especially when it comes to your future job search. Our programs are designed to allow students to make valuable professional connections and practice networking skills in a real-world setting. You can participate in a mentor program, as well as roundtable discussions and networking receptions with program alumni.

LOCATION

Washington, DC is the perfect place to explore a variety of career paths while enjoying a vibrant arts and culture scene. Take advantage of the free Smithsonian museums, many musical and theatre performances, as well as sports events. You can explore DC and meet fellow program participants through program-planned social activities including a guided tour of the monuments, a day trip to Mt. Vernon, ice staking at the national sculpture garden, and outing to the National Zoo.

COURSES FOR CREDIT

Earn 12 academic credits from the DC Metro Area’s George Mason University. Mason was recently ranked #1 Up and Coming University by U.S. News and World Report. Capital Semester has a curriculum that is designed to complement the internship experience.

BACKSTAGE PASS

You will have a front row seat to a variety of exclusive briefings and uniquely D.C. events, allowing you to further explore your career field, make important professional connections and have fun while doing so.

You will have the chance to attend once in a lifetime tours and hear from leaders within such powerful institutions as the State Department, U.S. Congress, White House, World Bank and the Pentagon.

APPLICATION INFORMATION

Students will be accepted on a rolling basis until the final deadline of June 1, 2014. Applicants are encouraged to apply for the early deadline of March 1, 2014 in order to receive preference in admissions and scholarship consideration, as well as a 5% tuition discount.

The early application deadline for Spring 2015 is October 1. Applications for spring will be accepted until the final deadline of November 1.

There is a substantial amount of scholarship funding available, and awards are made based on financial need and merit.

For more information and to be begin an online application, please visit www.DCinternships.org/CS. Questions may be directed to Dana Faught at dfaught@tfas.org or 202.986.0384.

Applied Math REU in California

UC Merced Applied Mathematics 
2014 Summer Undergraduate Research Program
June-August, 2014

[Click here for flyer]

The Applied Math Summer Undergraduate Research Program at UC Merced is called the ARCHIMEDES Summer Program, and it stands for Applied ResearCH In ModEling and Data-Enabled Science. The objectives of the program are to:

1. Introduce students to scientific computing to strengthen programming skills,
2. Use mathematical models to solve real-world problems,
3. Apply computational tools to research level problems, and
4. Analyze results using data and translate into scientific context.

The ARCHIMEDES Program will run for 9 weeks. In the first week, students will participate in a computational "bootcamp" designed to develop fundamental computational skills, preparatory to doing research during the rest of their summer program. The students will then work intensely for the remaining eight weeks, inteams of four and with a faculty mentor, on projects with strong computational and modeling components. Students will actively participate in weekly workshops and presentations to practice and improve their oral communication skills. They will also produce a technical report and a poster, and present at a public research symposium at the end of the program.

PROJECTS

1. Sensitivity Analysis of a Mathematical Model of Blood Coagulation. Blood coagulation is a large network of biochemical reactions that produces an enzyme necessary to clot formation and the cessation of bleeding. Mathematical models have been developed to better understand blood coagulation and to predict outcomes of perturbations to the reaction network. Assessing the predictive capability of such models is crucial if they are to be used to inform clinicians. In this project, students will first learn the biology of blood coagulation, basic theory of ODEs and methods to solve them using MATLAB, and core methodology of sensitivity analyses. They will incorporate cellular-surface binding into a current mathematical model of coagulation, perform sensitivity analysis of the model to its kinetic rate constants, and determine the predictive capability of the model. They will compare results from the mathematical model with those from other models and experiments published in biological literature.Project Mentors: Prof. Karin Leiderman and Prof. Suzanne Sindi.

2. Optimization Methods in Imaging. With the advent of cheaper cameras, large volumes of data in the form of images are generated everyday. To process such data, fast, robust, accurate, and scalable computational methods are needed. This research project will focus on optimization methods for extracting information from noisy and inexact observations from imaging. In particular, we are interested in applications where a sequence of measurements are obtained, such as videos. These problems are high-dimensional. Thus, large-scale optimization methods are needed to solve these problems. For this project, students will (1) model how the signal is projected onto the observed data, (2) solve the recovery problem using large-scale optimization algorithms, and (3) analyze the results and compare them to known data to evaluate the model and the optimization methods. This project will consider different types of approaches for optimization, such as first-order methods and matrix-free methods.Project Mentor: Prof. Roummel Marcia.

APPLICATION
Applications will be due on March 1, 2014. They will consist of the following:

1. Application form (download here)
2. One letter of recommendation from a faculty member (download form here)
3. Transcript from current institution (non-official transcripts will be acceptable).

Email application forms and transcripts to archimedes at ucmerced dot edu. All applicants must a United States citizen or permanent U.S. resident.

All qualified undergraduate students are encouraged to apply to this summer program. Particular emphasis will be placed on broadening the participation of members of groups historically underrepresented in science and engineering: women, African Americans, Alaska natives, American natives, Hispanic Americans, Native Pacific Islanders, and persons with disabilities.

CONTACT
If you are interested in this program, send an email for further information:
Program Director: Prof. Roummel Marcia (rmarcia at ucmerced dot edu)
Program Co-Director: Prof. Karin Leiderman (kleiderman at ucmerced dot edu)