News and Events - Mathematics

Hole Presents 'Finding Jung in the Symposium'

norrisma1 — Tue, 07 May 2013 13:40:27 +0000

Author:

Laurie Kaiser

Published Date:

May 7, 2013

George Hole, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of philosophy and humanities and interim chair of mathematics, will examine love in its many forms during a reading at the C.G. Jung Center, 408 Franklin Street, on Wednesday, May 8, at 7:30 p.m.

“Finding Jung in the Symposium” examines the transformative nature of love and the constant search for the “other half” as demonstrated in Plato’s famous text.

“In Aristophanes’s speech, what you see is a longing for wholeness, where people recognize in some fashion that they are wounded, humiliated, and incomplete,” Hole said. “What is interesting is that these are Jungian concepts.”

Hole also noted that the dialogue is a “hero’s journey” and that he is delving into what archetypes may be present, the expressions from the unconscious, and the Socratic complex.

“Finding Jung in the Symposium” will be like “going on a bear hunt together,” explained Hole, who encourages participates to contribute to the discussion.

Hole's three-part reading session began May 1 and will conclude on May 15.

“Most participants have read the Symposium, but it is not necessary,” Hole said. “We discuss key passages, and as a group, explore it.”

With a Ph.D. in philosophy and a bachelor’s degree in physics, Hole has taught a wide range of philosophy courses at Buffalo State including "Zen Buddhism," "Love and Sex," "Existentialism," and "Philosophy as Therapy."

Mark Warford, associate professor of Spanish and foreign language education, who recently joined the board of the Analytical Psychology Society of Western New York (APSWNY), invited Hole to lead a session at the center, which the APSWNY oversees.

“Recently, in keeping with Carl Jung’s multidisciplinary approach to understanding the human mind, the center has made inroads with a variety of area groups, including instructors from Buffalo State and other area institutions of higher education whose scholarly work ties in with Jung’s archetypal perspective,” Warford said. “I’m very enthusiastic about more offerings in the 2013–2014 program that feature Buffalo State faculty.”

The sessions are open to the public. Tickets for each session are $5 for students, $8 for Jung Center members, and $10 for the general public.

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Alumna, Product-Design Entrepreneur Speaks to Economics Students

norrisma1 — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 13:58:13 +0000

Author:

Laurie Kaiser

Published Date:

March 20, 2013

Kathy Moskal, alumna and co-founder of HUE Hosiery, will speak to economics and finance students about business start-ups, Thursday, March 21.

Moskal, ’66, now president of the fashion bag manufacturing company OKOKO, will discuss her life as a product designer and serial entrepreneur.

A New York City resident, Moskal made her mark in 1978 co-founding HUE Hosiery along with friend Sandra Chilewich. HUE was the first company to make opaque hosiery a fashion accessory, to put lycra in tights, and introduce trouser socks and leggings. With offices in the U.S. and Europe, Moskal and Chilewich sold the multimillion-dollar company in 1991. Today, HUE continues to thrive as an internationally recognized brand.

Economics and Finance Professor William Ganley invited Moskal to speak to students in the Undergraduate Economics Club as part of the “Women and the Economy” series.

“I was fascinated by Kathy’s stories of starting a business from scratch,” said Ganley. “Her story is inspirational for students about to graduate. She has been a success in the real, competitive world of business and, as an alumna of Buffalo State, is a role model for our students.”

Moskal’s other companies have included VEREGOODS, a line of high-end totes, and VERE, one of the first all-dark artisanal and sustainable chocolate companies in the United States.

After graduating from Buffalo State with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, Moskal earned a bachelor of fine arts and a master of fine arts from Yale University.

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M&T Bank Provides Fund for Science and Mathematics Complex

norrisma1 — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 20:35:45 +0000

Author:

Laurie Kaiser

Published Date:

March 6, 2013

M&T Bank has established a $250,000 endowed fund for SUNY Buffalo State’s new Science and Mathematics Complex. The gift, distributed in $50,000 increments over five years, will go toward the repair and replacement of science equipment for the new building.

“The M&T scientific instrument maintenance and repair endowment will provide a dedicated source of funding to keep these newly equipped laboratories running smoothly,” said Mark Severson, dean of the School of Natural and Social Sciences. “We are grateful to M&T Bank for this very important gift that will allow student learning and research to move forward without interruption.”

The $100 million complex—a 224,000-square-foot, three-story facility—will house the Biology, Chemistry, Earth Sciences and Science Education, Mathematics, and Physics departments and the Great Lakes Center.

The first phase opened at the beginning of the spring semester. The second phase, scheduled for completion in 2015, will include a complete renovation of the existing Science Building's north wing. Phase three of the project will create a new state-of-the-art planetarium, greenhouse, labs, classrooms, and lecture halls.

Severson said he hopes the new complex will raise Buffalo State’s profile for the natural sciences and attract more students interested in pursuing careers in medicine and biotechnology.

The Science and Mathematics Complex gift is just one of numerous examples of M&T Bank’s generosity toward Buffalo State. M&T sponsors the Burchfield Penney Art Center’s “Second Friday” events, the Performing Arts Center at Rockwell Hall’s “Great Performers Series,” and guest speakers at Buffalo State. M&T is sponsoring a lecture from Olympic speed skater and gold medalist Apolo Ohno at Buffalo State in April. Ticket information will be announced at a later date.

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March 7, 2013

Professionals Challenge Students with Real-World Problems

norrisma1 — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 19:36:08 +0000

Author:

Mary A. Durlak

Published Date:

February 25, 2013

It's time for Matthew Nagowski, a vice president at M&T Bank and quantitative modeling manager for its Treasury Division, to put on his lecturer’s hat. Nagowski is currently teaching a five-week course in Markov Chain Models in Credit Risk Management.

"I really enjoy teaching it," said Nagowski. "I like working with the students and imparting a professional tool kit to those who will soon be entering the work place."

Students can take the class in addition to the 18 required one-credit courses in the professional applied and computational math (PACM) master’s program. Despite the fact that many PACM students are working full time, they are still willing to add electives like Nagowski's course to their workload.

"Students tell me my course is a lot of work, but it's one of the most valuable courses they've had in their academic career," Nagowski said. "That's because they’re getting hands-on experience and applying the concepts they’ve learned to real-world problems."

In the course, students learn to program in SAS, a statistical software package widely used by businesses, to complete a project. "It's not simply a math problem to be solved using a prescribed process,” said Nagowski. "It's much more open-ended, with a world of possibilities, just like the workplace."

Lorena Mathien, assistant professor of mathematics, coordinates the PACM program, which is recognized as a professional science master’s (PSM) degree program by the Council of Graduate Schools. She teaches the "plus" courses—the courses that teach business skills such as communication and project management. Students must complete a total of 30 credit hours to graduate.

"The idea in PSM programs is that students complete the required math or science studies, plus additional business courses," said Mathien. One such course, PSM 601 Project Management for Math and Science Professionals, is available completely online.

Many of the program’s graduates return to the classroom as guest speakers. "They want to come back and contribute," said Mathien, "and they bring their own work experience and insights to our students."

The program benefits from an advisory board made up of faculty members and representatives of area businesses, including executives such as Nagowski. "The program does have active and honest engagement with local employers," he said. "One of my former students is now an employee on my staff."

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February 27, 2013

Math Grads in High-Demand Program Obtain Jobs before Graduating

norrisma1 — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 18:44:49 +0000

Author:

Mary A. Durlak

Published Date:

November 27, 2012

Students in the Professional Applied and Computational Math (PACM) program are landing jobs even before they graduate. The PACM is a professional science master’s degree program offered by the Mathematics Department.

"Professional science master’s programs are growing," said Lorena Mathien, assistant professor of mathematics and coordinator of the program. "It's like the growth in MBA programs that began 80 years ago." The number of PSM programs offered nationally has almost doubled since 2009.

What’s driving their growth? According to Mathien, one reason is the increasing emphasis on developing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) programs in higher education to meet the needs of today's economy. For PSM programs in mathematics, the sheer quantity of data available is creating a need for specialists who can make sense of the data.

"Often, companies don't understand what our program offers," said Mathien. "Any business that has a database, and that has any need for forecasting or that maintains a quality assurance program, can benefit by hiring our graduates."

Miroslav Rakic is a manager of the trend analytics team, one of four groups that make up Informatics Analytics Services at Independent Health. Rakic, who already holds a master's in math, is graduating from the PACM program in December 2012.

"I enrolled in this program because I thought it would be an asset to my career," said Rakic, "and I wanted to be part of a young program that's still maturing." PSM programs combine a technical discipline (in this case, applied and computational math) with a business curriculum. Two business modules that Rakic found especially useful were project management and communication. He also appreciated the opportunity to learn different math software. "I had to step out of my comfort zone," he said.

Rakic proposed an internship program that allowed students to work in Informatics Analytics Services at Independent Health last summer. Of three interns who took part in it, two are now employed there. One of the two, Raul Del Hierro, is responsible for assisting with corporate financial trend reports; the other, Michelle Rua, is a fraud and abuse analyst. (The third intern returned to teaching.)

Rua was surprised to learn the breadth of opportunities available in the health insurance industry. "Many different teams need mathematicians for analysis, forecasting, and other statistical procedures," she said.

Rua said that the internship was extremely useful, in part because it was very meaningful, thanks to the program’s requirements and Rakic's interest in developing talented people. "The internship gave me a lot of confidence when it was time to look for a job," she said.

Mathien explained that mathematicians know how to pull meaningful information from a database. "Spreadsheets are very limited," she said. "But if you can write a program to extract information, or create a model for forecasting, you can develop ways to make sense out of data using many complex variables. It’s much more like a real-world scenario."

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November 28, 2012

M&T Executive's Students Present Class Projects

norrisma1 — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 16:33:14 +0000

Author:

Mary A. Durlak

Published Date:

April 11, 2012

Thanks to a unique collaboration between the private sector and the world of academia, students in the professional applied and computational math (PACM) graduate program are mastering the application of complex mathematical principles.

For example, on Wednesday, April 11, students taking Markov Chain Models in Credit Risk Management (ACM 653) will present their class projects to faculty from the Mathematics Department, management from M&T, and other members of the advisory board for the PACM program. The course is taught by Matthew Nagowski, a vice president at M&T Bank and quantitative modeling manager in their Treasury Division.

A Markov chain is a mathematical concept that consists of a finite number of states and some known probabilities. Nagowski has a great deal of experience in applying that concept in the financial sector.

"In the PACM program, we take advantage of the valuable experience that industry leaders can bring to our students," explained Joaquin Carbonara, professor of mathematics and coordinator of the PACM program. "PACM merges industry and academia by combining the talent and experience from industry with the academic rigor provided by our faculty."

Nagowski and others from M&T became involved with the PACM program when the applied math faculty invited them to give a presentation on the role of applied mathematics in banking and finance. Thanks to flexibility built into the 30-credit-hour PACM program, experts such as Nagowski can serve as adjunct faculty members for one-credit, five-week courses that focus on a specialty.

"Finance and banking requires more than just accounting," said Nagowski. "Mathematical modeling plays a crucial role in the decisions that all financial institutions make—from whether or not to extend credit to a borrower and figuring out how to best charge our customers to understanding the interest rate sensitivity of our deposits and the stability of our funding sources. Applied mathematicians and statisticians are essential to the industry, and will only be more so in the future."

Other specialized courses include Empirical Model Building, Eigenvalue Problems, and Logistic Regression. "The five-week, 1-credit-hour classes enable the program to be nimble and responsive to industry’s demands," said Carbonara. The courses demand extensive prerequisites, including, in one case, linear algebra; statistics I and II; introduction to programming; and, preferably, intermediate microeconomics and intermediate macroeconomics.

The PACM program is recognized as a professional science master’s (PSM) degree by the Council of Graduate Schools. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation funded the development of the program, and funds for tuition and stipends are available on a competitive basis from the National Science Foundation for full-time students.

PSM programs prepare students to pursue scientific and mathematics careers in the business sector as scientists, mathematicians, and managers. In addition to providing in-depth exposure to the application of complex scientific and/or mathematics principles, graduates have studied project management, business communication, and operations management.

"We are very excited to offer this program to the Western New York area at a time when so many opportunities for applied mathematicians are becoming available," said Carbonara. "Thanks to computer technology, businesses have almost unlimited data available to them. Applied mathematicians enable businesses to make use of the data."

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"Teach and Share" Featured in Innovations Week

norrisma1 — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 21:51:22 +0000

Author:

Mary A. Durlak

Published Date:

February 28, 2012

Several faculty members have chosen to play significant and unusual roles in Faculty Focused on Teaching: Innovations Week, March 5 through March 9. So far, 11 instructors—representing 15 classes, four academic schools, and all stages of academic careers—have invited their colleagues to observe a class as part of “Teach and Share.” Any other interested faculty members are invited to submit a response to Sue McMillen, director of faculty development, by Wednesday, February 29.

“We’d like to create a culture where we share our teaching practices openly,” said McMillen. “We can all learn from each other.” McMillen hopes that people will visit courses outside their own disciplines.

Inviting observers might seem like a bit of a risk. However, there are benefits, too. “Being vulnerable frees me up to be creative, to learn, and to pioneer,” said John Cabra, associate professor of creative studies. Cabra believes it is important to stay up to date on various pedagogies to meet the learning challenges and opportunities presented by each generation of new students.

Jane Cushman, assistant professor of mathematics, welcomes visitors to her courses. “I think that the method I use to teach problem-solving of mathematics is something others should see and experience,” she said. “I would like to see a variety of teaching methods, so I will be observing other classes, too.”

Innovations Week will also feature seven events, with registration required for most of them.

This year’s Gadget Gathering will include presentations from several faculty members in addition to offering attendees the chance to discuss and play with everything from Google+ Social Network, Elluminate, Android apps, and clickers.

Two other major initiatives are planned. The first is Magna Commons, a library of more than 100 webinars on topics including teaching strategies, online class development, classroom management, and FERPA-related issues. “I’ve used some of these webinars,” said McMillen, “and I found them to be of high quality.” She plans to collect feedback at the end of Buffalo State’s one-year subscription, which begins soon.

Another initiative is what McMillen describes as “a self-service mentoring database,” Faculty to Faculty. It will be available later this year. “The research is clear,” said McMillen. “A good mentoring experience can help a faculty member be successful.” The database will enable faculty with particular strengths and interests to share their knowledge with others who need such information and guidance.

Faculty members will find many opportunities for exploring their particular professional-development interest through these initiatives, including next week’s events. “I see Innovations Week as similar to attending a conference,” said Cabra, “but minus the costs and hassles of travel.”

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Mesquite and Math

norrisma1 — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 20:19:31 +0000

Author:

Mary A. Durlak

Published Date:

February 24, 2012

By combining math with biology, Dan Potts, a plant physiologist ecologist and assistant professor of biology, was able to use the fast Fourier transform (FFT) algorithm in what Potts believes is a novel application. Potts collaborated with Saziye Bayram, assistant professor of mathematics, and Joaquin Carbonara, professor of mathematics.

Potts was studying moisture in the soil in mesquite shrublands near Tucson, Arizona. “My collaborator at the USDA-Agricultural Research Service, Dr. Russell Scott, used an automated system to collect soil moisture data every 30 minutes for four years,” said Potts. “Then I wrestled for a year with a way to test my ideas with this remarkable data set.” After hitting two dead ends, he reached out to Bayram and Carbonara, both of whom teach in the undergraduate and graduate applied mathematics programs at Buffalo State.

”I got the idea from watching the way tree canopies creates a pattern of wet and dry patches on the sidewalk when it rains,” Potts said. “FFT enabled us to demonstrate that the canopies of mesquite shrubs act to dampen short-term fluctuations in soil moisture associated with small rain events without influencing long-term fluctuations in soil moisture associated with seasonal and annual cycles of climate. That is to say, this method allowed us to quantify the idea that when soils beneath shrubs dry out, they tend to stay dry and when those soils get wet, they tend to stay wet.”

The findings, discussed in Potts’ article “Woody plants modulate the temporal dynamics of soil moisture in a semi-arid mesquite savanna,” have implications for nutrient cycling in soil. From April to October 2011, he monitored soil moisture in a shrubland that was once an agricultural field near Buffalo, New York. Potts will analyze this data using a similar approach. Ultimately, this research will further understanding of the interplay between rainfall and woody plants, and how patterns of soil moisture change in response to changing plant communities. .

The successful collaboration with mathematicians has opened up new ways for Potts to pursue his research. He is particularly interested in woody shrubs and grasses. An investigation of leaf nitrogen content and photosynthesis of leaves of Phragmites and cattails, both grasses (members of the family Poaceae), suggested that commonly applied models of canopy photosynthesis may not be a one-size-fits-all tool to understand photosynthesis processes among stands of Phragmites, cattails, or both. That’s because a widely accepted notion in botany—optimization theory—doesn’t seem to fit these plant communities, at least in the site studied.

“I want to approach our applied mathematicians again,” said Potts. “Perhaps there is another model that can further our understanding of this phenomenon.”

While Potts is focused on understanding the whys and hows of the coexistence of woody shrubs and grasses, the knowledge he attains may be useful to other scientists, too. Information about members of the Poaceae family may apply to other grasses such as corn, wheat, and rice—grasses that are the basis of the diet of the seven billion humans on our planet.

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February 27, 2012

January Orientation Welcomes New Students

norrisma1 — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:20:34 +0000

Published Date:

January 18, 2012

Your first days at Buffalo State student will be a flurry of activity. Meeting your adviser, confirming your class schedule, buying textbooks, and locating classrooms will be just a few of the things you do as a new student.

January Orientation, Thursday, January 19, welcomes more than 650 new undergraduate students—75 new first-year students and 580 transfer students—to campus. The Orientation Office, with the aid of 30 current undergraduate and five graduate students, helps new students cross items off their “to-do lists” and introduces them to some of the unique opportunities Buffalo State has to offer.

“January Orientation gives new students the information needed to be successful at Buffalo State,” said Robert Mead-Colegrove, director of orientation and new student programs. “Students attend presentations from various offices on campus, meet with an adviser, and attend a resource fair.”

Also on the agenda for January Orientation: Workshops, including “Reduce Stress and Manage Your Time,” and “Student Exchange and Study Abroad”; small group activities with student orientation leaders; and an introduction to Buffalo State technology (ANGEL, Banner, Degree Navigator, and Gmail). Students and their guests will also familiarize themselves with the Financial Aid and Registrar's offices, Weigel Health Center, E. H. Butler Library, the Bengal Card Office, and many other college departments.

New to this semester’s orientation is the option for students who registered early to upload their own photos for their student ID and bus pass, allowing them to avoid the lines to have their picture taken.

“My ultimate goal is that students feel that Buffalo State was the right choice, and that they are ready for their first day of class,” Mead-Colegrove said. “In the past, many students and guests enjoyed the orientation and appreciated the small groups and time to talk to an adviser.”

January Orientation is mandatory for all new matriculated students. The event begins at 8:00 a.m. with a continental breakfast for participants in Rockwell Hall. An entire schedule of activities can be found on the Orientation Office’s website.

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Insertion Date for Daily Bulletin Feature:

January 19, 2012