News Archives - 2000-01
Chen is a citizen!
Professor Ming-Hui Chen became a U.S. citizen on Thursday, August 24. Ming is shown with a congratulatory cake at a department celebration in his honor on August 25.
WPI and Mass Academy students attend MAA/PME meeting
The annual summer meeting of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) and Pi Mu Epsilon (the National Mathematics Honor Society) took place on the campus of the University of California at Los Angeles.
A special feature of the conference was MAA/PME student paper sessions providing students from all across the country the opportunity to interact with each other, exchange research ideas and results, get the attention of leading mathematicians and listen to featured plenary lectures. WPI was represented by 3 students, Yakov Kronrod (CS/MA, '02), Jonathan Moussa (MA/PH, '02) and Irma Servatius ( Massachusetts Academy of Mathematics and Science, located on the WPI campus).
Yakov Kronrod and Jonathan Moussa were also invited as finalists of the Problem Solving Competition in which each contestant was required to solve 7 problems in 45 minutes. Yakov and Jonathan received T-shirts and medallions for their successful participation. The student conferences ended with the PME Banquet, at which Yakov Kronrod and Irma Servatius received best paper awards. The mathematical excitement of the students was enhanced by a walk on the beach and a glimpse of Hollywood.
Vernescu, Vermes obtain Sloan Foundation grant to develop "professional" MS degrees
Bogdan Vernescu and Domokos Vermes have obtained a grant from the Sloan Foundation to develop "professional" master's degree programs. The Sloan Foundation conceives these as programs that provide preparation for jobs outside academia and are heavily oriented toward coursework, normally requiring a full-time student two years to obtain. With this grant, WPI will join a small number of universities funded by the foundation to develop "model" programs of this type based in mathematics and science departments. It is expected that these programs will ultimately be self-sustaining on the basis of tuition, like MBA programs.
Two programs targeted for initial development under the grant are MS degrees in Industrial Mathematics and Financial Mathematics. It is likely that at least one more program will be targeted for development in the next year or two.
The grant will provide $290,000 from the Sloan Foundation over three years, to be matched with $267,055 from WPI. These funds will support, among other things, three master's-level teaching assistantships in the department in each of the three years.
New high in external funding reached in 1999-2000
External awards to the department received in 1999-2000 reached a new high of $787,093. The previous high was $564,382, reached in 1998-99.
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