Graduate Seminar

Spring 1999

Tuesdays, 3:30-4:20; BUSN 305

Instructor: Dr. Art Duval

Please feel free to come by my office any time during scheduled office hours. You are welcome to come at other times, but in that case you might want to make an appointment, just to make sure that I will be there then. You can make an appointment simply by talking to me before or after class, by calling me at my office or at home, or by sending e-mail.

You may also ask any questions directly via phone or e-mail. If I'm not in when you call, please leave a message on the voice-mail or answering machine with your name, number, and a good time for me to call you back. I will try to repond to your phone or e-mail message as soon as possible.

Expectations:

Your primary assignment for this class is to give a 45-minute talk to the rest of the class on a topic of your choosing, and write a related short paper.

Your topic could be a problem from your research, a particularly interesting problem from a class you are taking (you might have to go above and beyond what was assigned to make it rich enough for a 45-minute talk), or just some problem or idea you want to pursue. The results you present can be the product of a literature review, gathering and organizing data to formulate a conjecture, proving a theorem, or some combination of these elements.

In your talk, be sure to include enough background material so that everyone in the class can understand what you are doing, carefully taking into account the diversity of interests and experiences of your classmates. Be prepared for questions both during and after your talk.

Your paper should be about five pages long, clearly written, neatly typeset, and cover approximately the same material as your talk. It will probably have more detail than your talk, but could have fewer examples. (We'll discuss in some more detail in class the differences between mathematical papers and mathematical talks.) It is due the same day as your talk, so that you can hand out copies to your classmates.

I will be happy to help you with your talk and/or your paper outside of class.

Schedule:

For the first few weeks, until we start the series of talks that the students in the class (you!) will give, I will present some information on Mathematica and LaTeX, and tips on giving mathematical talks.