NES/MAA REGIONAL DINNER MEETINGS - Spring 2004

The Northeastern Section Regional Dinner Meeting series has proven to be both popular and stimulating. Therefore, once again, the NES/MAA offers you the opportunity to spend an interesting and enjoyable evening with others involved in mathematics and mathematics education. There will be additional dinner meetings scheduled.  Information about dinner meetings will be posted as it becomes available Feel free to attend as many of the dinner meetings as you wish.  Please send a separate reservation form for each person attending and for each dinner meeting that you wish to attend.  Reservations must be made in writing by the respective deadlines since exact numbers must be given in advance.  The registration forms are available on-line.  However, the form must be mailed to the appropriate coordinator.  On-line registration and e-mail registration are not available.

Please contact Lucy Kimball, Mathematical Sciences Department, Bentley College, Waltham, MA 02154, (781) 891-2467, lkimball@bentley.edu , Coordinator of the Regional Dinner Meetings, for information regarding hosting a dinner meeting for your region in Spring 2004 or Spring 2005 or for more information about the dinner meetings program.
 

Boston --Tuesday, April 13, 2004 (Rescheduled from March 16)

Speaker:  Lisa Hansen, Western New England College
Title:  "Mathematics and Music"
There are many connections between mathematics and music.  This survey will focus on the links between music and areas of mathematics such as rational and irrational numbers, trigonometry, geometry, permutations, and group theory.  Other connections include the Fibonacci sequence, the golden mean, fractals, and continued fractions, as well as historical notes regarding famous mathematicians.  The talk will feature both live and recorded music.
Date:  Tuesday, April 13, 2004 (Rescheduled from March 16)
Simmons College, Boston, MA

Due to a snow storm this dinner meeting had to be cancelled and has now been rescheduled.  The information below has been updated to include room changes and a new registration deadline.

Schedule:
     5:30-6:00 p.m.   Reception, Presidential Board Room, Room C202
                               2nd floor, Main College Building (MCB)
     6:00-7:00 p.m.   Dinner,  Presidential Board Room, Room C202
                              2nd floor, MCB
     7:00-8:00 p.m.   Presentation, Trustman Art Gallery,
                               4th floor, MCB

Where:  Main College Building (MCB) -- #2 on the Campus map
               Parking available in lot behind the MCB, accessed via Avenue Louis Pasteur.

Choice of entree: Chicken with lemon & artichokes or  Eggplant Parmesan  (Please indicate your choice when you send your check.)

Cost: $18.00

Registration Deadline for the rescheduled dinner meeting;:  April 6, 2004

Registration form  (to be mailed in)

Contact:  Donna Beers, Professor of Mathematics
                Email:  donna.beers@simmons.edu
                Phone:  (617) 521-2389

Directions to Simmons College
Campus map

NES/MAA Homepage |  Eastern Massachusetts |  Central Massachusetts  | Rhode Island

Eastern Massachusetts -- Thursday, April 22, 2004

The Second Annual NES/MAA Preskenis Dinner Meeting

This dinner meeting honors the memory of Kenneth J. Preskenis, who died on Thanksgiving Day 2002.  Ken was a dedicated teacher committed to excellence, a serious scholar, a popular son of South Boston, and a gentleman.  He had a passion for mathematics and for sharing that love with others, especially youngsters.  A relentless pursuer of knowledge, he was a regular participant at the weekly seminars in functional analysis at Brown University, where he earned his M.S. in 1967 and his Ph.D. in 1971.  He joined the faculty at Framingham State College in 1977, after teaching at Newton College and then at Boston College for a total of 14 years.  Ken was the author of a number of articles in analysis and mathematics education, a regular attendee and contributor at NES/MAA meetings, a South Boston Athletic Hall of Famer, and a recipient of the Michael E. Glynn South Boston Community Service Award.


Speaker: Dr. Thomas Koshy, Framingham Sate College
Presentation Title:  "The Ubiquitous Catalan Numbers"

This talk touches on the history and the numerous occurrences of Catalan Numbers, and their various applications to computer science, graph theory, and combinatorics.

Date: Thursday, April 22, 2004
Framingham State College,  Framingham, MA

Schedule:
 5:45 -6:30 pm   Reception with cash bar, McCarthy's
                          Second floor of the D. Justin McCarthy College Center
 6:30-8:00 pm    Dinner, 1839 Room
                          Third floor of the D. Justin McCarthy College Center
 8:00-9:00 pm    Dr. Koshy's Presentation, Fireplace Lounge
                          Third floor of the D. Justin McCarthy College Center

Location:  D. Justin McCarthy College Center (#14 of the Campus Map)

Dinner Menu (in pdf format)

Copy of the printed Program for the 2004 Preskenis Dinner (pdf format)

Acknowledgements:

Cost: $18.00 per person.   Please make checks payable to Framingham State College Mathematics Department.

Registration Deadline: Monday, April 12, 2004

Registration form (to be mailed in):  pdf format   MS Word format 

Contact : Sarah L. Mabrouk (smabrouk@frc.mass.edu)
                 (508)626-4785

Framingham dinner meeting announcement in pdf form

Directions to Framingham State College
Campus Map

NES/MAA Homepage | Boston  | Central Massachusetts Region  | Rhode Island

Central Massachusetts - Monday, March 22, 2004

The Eleventh Leonard C. Sulski Memorial Lecture:
Speaker:  Frank Farris, Santa Clara University
Title:  "The Edge of the Universe: Noneuclidean Wallpaper"
Abstract: If the universe had an edge, you could go there, put your hand through and find something on the other side, right? This reasoning breaks down if you and your measuring devices shrink as you approach the edge, making it infinitely far away.  In this talk, we show a mathematical model of such a universe, called the Poincare Upper Halfplane, and study its features.  Physics suggests that this turns out to be a cold and lonely place, but we make beautiful wallpaper for the inhabitants.  This is a good chance to think about the shape of space and apply some classic geometry, such as circle inversion.
Date: Monday, March 22, 2004
College of the Holy Cross,  Worcester, Massachusetts

Schedule:
        5:30 pm    Cash bar, Hogan Campus Center, Suite B
        6:15 pm    Dinner, Hogan Campus Center, Suite B
        8:00 pm    Presentation in Hogan Campus Center, Room 519

Choice of Entree:      Poached Salmon, Chicken Marsala or Vegetarian  (Please indicate your choice when you send your check.)
Cost:   $15.00

Registration form (to be mailed in)

Contact: Thomas Cecil (cecil@mathcs.holycross.edu)
                  (508) 793-2719

Registration Deadline: March 12, 2004

Directions to Holy Cross
Campus Map  (Hogan Campus Center is #29 on the map.)

NES/MAA Homepage  | Boston | Eastern Massachusetts | Rhode Island

Rhode Island Region – Thursday, April 22, 2004

Speaker: Ann Trenk, Wellesley College
Title:  "Professors who Snooze and those who Steal: An Introduction to Interval Graphs and Tolerance Graphs"
Abstract:  We introduce a class of graphs known as interval graphs via two ``real world'' problems. In one of these problems, six professors are suspects in a library theft. We'll use their testimony together with some graph theory to identify the guilty party.  Formally, a graph G is an interval graph if to each vertex x of G there corresponds a real interval I(x) so that two vertices are joined by an edge in G if and only if their corresponding intervals intersect. We present a characterization of the class of interval graphs, mention several realistic applications and discuss a generalization of interval graphs known as tolerance graphs. No prior knowledge of Graph Theory will be expected
Date:   Thursday,  April 22, 2004

Location:  Providence College, Providence RI
              Glass Room, Slavin Center (#4 on the Campus Map)

Schedule:
             5:30 pm Reception, Slavin Student Center, Glass Room
             6:00 pm Presentation, Slavin Student Center, Glass Room
             7:00 pm Dinner, Slavin Student Center, Glass Room

Menu:   Salad; pasta bar with white and red sauces and meatballs; dessert; coffee, etc.

Cost:  $16.00.   Make check payable to Providence College.

Registration Deadline: April 19th

Contact: Frank Ford; E-mail: fpford@providence.edu
               Phone: (401) 865-2334 or (401) 865-2635

Registration Form   (To be mailed in)
 
Directions to Providence College
Campus Map

NES/MAA Homepage |  Boston  |  Eastern Massachusetts | Central Massachusetts

E-mail: gingrichr1@southernct.edu
URL: http://www.SouthernCT.edu/organizations/nesmaa//regdinnermts2004.html
Revised: May 4, 2004

"The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author and have not been reviewed or approved by Southern Connecticut State University."