Joe Fields

Teaching, Summer 2012

• MAT 250 -- Foundations of Mathematics
  
  • section 01, MTWR 5:30 PM -- 7:30 PM, EN B111

Office:

EN D118 (Engleman Hall, D-wing)

Phone:

392-6519

Office hours:

Office hours:
      Monday-Thursday: 4:30 PM -- 5:30 PM

I am a professor in the  Mathematics Department  at Southern Connecticut State University.

I am the lead developer/maintainer of the Guava package for the GAP computer algebra system. GAP is designed as a computational aid for Group Theory and Algebra, it has many add-on packages, among them is Guava which performs computations related to error-correcting codes.

I am Co-Principal Investigator on the NSF-sponsored Pathways to Academic Excellence (PAcE) grant. The PAcE program provides nearly $600,000.00 for scholarships to SCSU for students majoring in STEM disciplines. See www.southernct.edu/pathways/ for more information.

I received my PhD degree in Mathematics from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
My areas of research are in the theory of error-correcting codes, and Combinatorics.
My advisor was Vera Pless.

Here are some items on which I've been working:

• My presentation for CAMPY on cryptography.
• A truss with fractional dimension.
• Using honeydew melons to teach the volume element in spherical coordinates. (Students repeat the mantra "Rho-squared, sine phi, dee rho dee theta dee phi" while munching on the delicious volume elements.)
• Along with Jennifer Berg of Fitchburg State University, I am coordinating the NESMAA Collegiate Math Competition.
• My text, A Gentle Introduction to the Art of Mathematics (also known as GIAM). One can now obtain GIAM as a printed-on-demand paperback at www.lulu.com.
• A calendar for 2012 printed on plaits that can be woven together to form a rhombic dodecahedron.
• Along with Ross Gingrich I am coaching the SCSU Putnam Competition team.
• The slides for my talk at the fall 2009 NES/MAA meeting -- Differential Equations with a Fractal Character.
• The slides for my expository talk on Coding theory.
• The slides for my expository talk on Brun's Sieve -- a nice generalization of the sieve of Eratosthenes that solves some notable number theoretic problems.
• The split weight enumerator of the Golay code, partitioned with respect to the supports of two disjoint minimum weight vectors, as a VRML model. (This version is non-rotating.)
• Version 4.2 of HTMX (a tool that helps you include equations in web documents) is ready.
• I am converting an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) car to a Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV). Find out more at the EV discussion list.
• A page using VRML models to show that the group of symmetries of the dodecahedron is A₅.
• I've created a Geography study site consisting of a bunch of blank maps of the countries of the world. These are image maps with links to labelled maps and flags (courtesy of the CIA's World Factbook) for the countries.
• My presentation at the 16th annual CSU Academic Computing Conference.
• I'm the Puzzle Editor for SCSU's Math Department Alumni Newsletter.
• DRAFT of "Decoding the Golay code by hand", an on-line math paper.
• Boy's Surface
• A Small Puzzle
• Animations!!!
• A dictionary of combinatorics.
• My Cat-tree/sculpture hobby.
• My hotlist.