Announcements

CALL for ABSTRACTS - Abstracts for talks at the Fall 2010 MAA-NCS Meeting at the University of Sioux Falls. The deadline for submission is Friday, October 8th at 5pm. You can find instructions for electronically submitting your abstracts by following the link.
CALL for NEWSLETTER SUBMISSION - Submissions for the Fall Newsletter can be sent directly to Shawn Chiappetta. NOTE: An email went to the liasons available. If your department did not receive an email, please email and the liason will be added to the emailing!
More information regarding the Fall Meeting will be posted as they become available. You can follow the link as the date gets closer for information regarding registration, lodging, lunch and directions.

Congratulations to Tim Peil (Minnesota State University-Moorhead) and Jennifer Galovich (College of St. Ben/St. John's University) on being awarded the 2010 MAA-NCS Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics and MAA-NCS Meritorious Service Award, respectively. (Citations can be found by following the link.)
Also a Congratulations to Joseph Gallian who was the Section's nominee for the MAA National Meritorious Service Award. (Citation can be found by following the link.)
The MAA-NCS Spring 2010 Meeting was held on April 23-24 at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. Information from the meeting can be found by following the links below.
- Writing Workshop (led by Ivars Peterson and Paul Zorn)
- Teaching and Service Award Citations
- Program
- Newsletter
- Business Meeting Minutes
- Executive Committee Meeting Minutes
- Pictures from Meeting
The MAA-NCS Fall Meeting will be held at the University of Sioux Falls, October 22-23.
The problems and solutions for the 13th MAA-NCS Team Competition are posted. Team results and the report are now available!
Congratulations to the three teams tied for first place with perfect scores of 100. They are the Carleton College team CARL-B, with team members Linghao Chen, Shunji Li, and Sen Zhao; the UMNTC team Burgundy, with team members Minna Chen, Nathan Fox, and Guangcong Luo; and the UMNTC team Loons, with team members Peter Lofgren, Matthew Coudron and Xin Jin.

Spring 2010 Speakers and Abstracts

Newton's Clock: Chaos in the Solar System

Ivars Peterson (bio)

Director of Publication and Communications at the Mathematical Association of America

Abstract: With astronomical questions inspiring new mathematics, the remarkable insights of Johannes Kepler, Isaac Newton, and Henri Poincaré paved the way to celestial mechanics and modern notions of chaotic dynamics. The result is a new picture of a solar system less placid and predictable that its venerable clockwork image would suggest.

Many Phases of the Strogatz Dyadic Love-Hate Model

Danrun Huang (bio)

St. Cloud State University

Abstract: In addition to classical applications, this semester, I was looking for a class project that not only links the basic "dots" of a typical ODE course, but also contains room for imagination and further developments; a project in which one uses both theory and technology and that is fun even to math-apathetic students. Finally, I found the Romeo-Juliet love-hate model initiated by Steven Strogatz and a play written by McDill and Felsager. By analyzing and generalizing this model in different directions, the project has brought students many expected and unexpected benefits. People might be amazed by the students’ creativity in this project, such as how do the moons (yes, more than one), or drugs affect the relationship, and how to we design a love affair that is more chaotic than Tiger Woods’,...