2012 Mathematics and Computer Science First-Year Orientation Program

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

The Mathematics and Computer Science Department hosted a series of workshops known as the "First-year Orientation Program" for incoming mathematics and computer science majors during the first four weeks of the 2012-2013 academic year.  During this time, first-year students met weekly over lunch with faculty members and with upper-class mathematics and computer science majors.  The program was developed to give new students a quick and informal introduction to each other and to other members of the department.

In the first session, Dr. Natacha Fontes-Merz organized a problem-solving competition with prizes.  During the second session, upper-class mathematics and computer science majors shared their summer internship and research experiences with the first-years.  Finally, faculty from the department led a few sessions on interesting topics in mathematics and computer science.  The sessions are listed below:

• September 6:  "A Problem-solving Contest With Prizes" (Dr. Natacha Fontes-Merz)

• September 13:  "What Do Math Majors Do? Opportunities Outside the Classroom" 
  Guest speakers (mathematics majors):   Jenna Huston, Lisa Kaylor, Connor MacKenzie, and Emily Walther

• September 20:  "This is Math?! An Introduction to Knots" (Dr. Jeffrey Boerner)

• September 27:  "Computer Science can be fun…really!"  (Dr. John Bonomo)