{"id":1112,"date":"2020-01-07T10:46:46","date_gmt":"2020-01-07T15:46:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/capitalcurrents\/?p=1112"},"modified":"2019-12-13T10:49:30","modified_gmt":"2019-12-13T15:49:30","slug":"ams-education-and-science-policy-activities-at-the-joint-mathematics-meetings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/capitalcurrents\/2020\/01\/07\/ams-education-and-science-policy-activities-at-the-joint-mathematics-meetings\/","title":{"rendered":"AMS Education and Science Policy Activities at the Joint Mathematics Meetings"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Each year at the JMM,\u00a0the AMS Office of Government Relations<\/a> organizes four events. I look forward to greeting you at all of them.<\/p>\n

We host the\u00a0Congressional Fellowship Session<\/strong>\u00a0on Friday, January 17, 4:30 pm \u2013 6:00 pm in the Colorado CC, Room 203<\/strong>. This one-year fellowship provides a public policy learning experience, demonstrates the value of science-government interaction and brings a technical background and external perspective to the decision-making process in Congress.\u00a0Learn more about this program and speak with current and former AMS Fellows. Panelists this year are the current AMS Congressional Fellow Lucia Simonelli, who is serving in the Office of Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, and Jennifer Pearl (PhD mathematician and Director of the Science & Technology Policy Fellowships Program at the American Association for the Advancement of Science). You can read about this fellowship (and other DC-based opportunities for PhD mathematicians and students) in the right-hand column \u201cLearn how we support mathematics in DC\u201d<\/a> on the AMS Government Relations website. Application deadline for the 2020-21 AMS Congressional Fellowship is February 15, 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our office, which since the summer of 2019 includes the AMS Department of Education, works with two of the AMS policy committees\u2014the Committee on Education and the Committee on Science Policy. Each of these holds a session at the JMM each year.<\/span><\/p>\n

This year the\u00a0Committee on Education<\/strong><\/a> panel discussion<\/strong> (<\/strong>Thursday, January 16, 1:00 pm \u2013 2:30 pm in the Colorado CC, Room 203<\/strong>)<\/strong> is titled \u201cNext Steps:\u00a0Mathematics Departments and the Explosive Growth of Computational and Quantitative Offerings in Higher Education.\u201d<\/em> Katherine Stevenson (California State University, Northridge) and Katherine Kinnaird (Smith College) designed and will lead the discussion. They will be joined by panelists Henry Adams, (Colorado State University) and Mario Banuelos (California State University, Fresno). Here is the description:<\/span><\/p>\n

New computational and quantitative majors, minors, specializations, and certificates are flourishing in all sectors of American higher education. Examples include Certificates in Computational Intelligence and Linguistics, Bachelors degrees in Data Science, and Masters degrees in Financial Engineering. This reflects the increasing demand for quantitative competence in the workplace. What is certain is that student demand for<\/span> these quantitative offerings is robust and departments that offer them typically seek and sometimes receive an increased number of faculty lines to respond to that demand.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

There is little research on the role that mathematics departments play in these new computational and quantitative offerings. This panel explores current departmental practices worthy of attention in shaping computational and quantitative education writ large across the curriculum, and is a follow-up to the fall mini-conference hosted by the AMS Committee on Education. During this session, we will explore the role of mathematics in these computational courses and programs, practical ideas for implementing new modules in your existing courses, as well as methods for building new computational and quantitative courses in your department.<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0Committee on Science Policy<\/strong><\/a> panel discussion\u00a0<\/strong>(Friday, January 17, 2:30 pm — 4:00 pm in the Colorado CC, Room 203<\/strong>) is titled \u201cA Call to Action \u2013 Grassroots Advocacy for Our Profession\u201d<\/em>. Francis Su (Harvey Mudd College) will moderate. Panelists include:<\/span><\/p>\n