by Derek Smith
I often find myself exchanging small snippets of LaTeX through email while working on problem sets. A few weeks ago I lamented the lack of typesetting within my mail client of choice, Gmail. A colleague tipped me off to the browser plug-in GmailTeX. It uses MathJax, the same JavaScript library which powers MathOverflow.
What handy tools have you run across, lately?
by Diana Davis
If your math department is like mine, accepted students are just beginning to visit our department and decide which graduate school they will attend. Let’s help them to make that difficult and important choice. (Also see last year’s post.) How did you choose your grad school? Please add your advice in the comments!
Mathematical considerations:
Professors in your field: Some grad schools are known for their algebraic geometry (or another field). If you are sure you want to do algebraic geometry, then you should strongly consider going to such a school. If you’re not sure what you want to do, you may want to go to a school with professors working in many different areas.
Continue reading
This is an interesting game that was created by Craig Huneke. As the title suggests, it is tic-tac-toe with a gambling component; you have to bid to play. Here are the rules:
1. Each person has a set amount of money, say $1000 each.
2. The players then bid for the next move.
3. The loser of the bidding gets to make the first bid on the next move.
4. The game is over when one player has three in a row.
Here is an example of how the game might be played: Continue reading
By Brian Simanek
I recently had a conversation with a colleague and former classmate of mine in the computer science department at my university. He described his work to me as “basically conformal geometry,” a field in which I am not an expert, but nonetheless one I find interesting. After discussing research some more, we both decided that our respective departments could benefit from increased communication. We discussed possible ways to increase communication such as attending seminars and classes in other departments, but the bulk of the discussion centered around how to structure a presentation – however brief or informal – for an audience outside our own field and with different motivations. Continue reading
by Tyler Clark
I hope everyone is having a great semester. This semester has been incredibly busy for me, as I am sure it has been for most students.
Lately, I have been thinking about how lucky I am to have had such an amazing mentor during my undergraduate education. I first met Dr. Tom Richmond when I had a multivariable calculus class with him. The Honors College at WKU required me to do an augmentation project for the class. This really was my first time to get to know Dr. Richmond. We worked projecting a trig identity onto the z-axis. Upon completion of this project, he encouraged me to present it at the annual WKU Mathematics Symposium. Continue reading
