Several professional development workshops in computer science for high schools teachers were organized by UCA STEM Institute in collaboration with the Departments of Mathematics and Computer Science. They were held during June 9-11 and 16-18, 2015 from 12pm to 4pm on UCA campus.  Dr. R.B. Lenin, Associate professor of Mathematics, was the lead instructor. Teachers from Alma, Little Rock, Mayflower, and Vilonia School Districts attended the workshop.

In this workshop, Dr. Lenin covered basic computer programming topics such as expressions, functions, simple control and looping statements using the user-friendly software known as ‘Alice’ during the first half of the workshop. In the second half, he introduced a high-level computer programming language known as ‘Python’ to understand deeper concepts of computer programming. The participants were provided with computers, and  each topic was covered by the instructor through extensive hands-on-experience in computer coding. On the last day of the PD, various topics of the Praxis test were covered by going  over the sample questions of Praxis study companion – Computer Science 5651.

Details about the content of this PD can be obtained by contacting Dr. R.B. Lenin (rblenin@uca.edu). Details about future offerings can be obtained by contacting Dr. Uma Garimella (ugarimel@uca.edu).

Some comments from the participants are …

“It was such a pleasure to take your class. I hope I have the opportunity to study with you again.

I never would have thought that this would be a field that I would be so interested in, but it may be just the ticket for me. Thanks so much for making it interesting and fun.

I am excited about the opportunities that this could bring, and I don’t think that I would be thinking in those terms if we didn’t have a knowledgeable, patient, and passionate instructor. Thank you so much for that. ”

“This was the best PD I’ve ever attended and most engaging. You made the learning fun yet kept us challenged everyday. Thank you for all of your help and I look forward to seeing you in the future.”

“I really enjoyed being in your class and am looking into taking more courses.“

In fall 2014 a new Math Resource Lab (MRL), mainly for math tutoring and student group study,  was opened on the first floor the Math & CS building.  Several mathematics faculty members and all graduate teaching assistants provide students with tutoring from college algebra to calculus.   The lab is usually open from 10 AM to 8 PM on the week days and 10 AM to 4 PM on Saturday and  2PM to 6 PM on Sunday. The MRL, remodeled from two small classrooms, now provides dry erase walls for students to use, 10 desktop computers with the internet connection,  and two data projectors. There were a total of 2,359 student visits to the  Lab during the 2014-15 academic year.  The total included 631 student visits seeking help in calculus.

Here’s what our students have to say about the Math Resource Lab:

“It’s a great place to hang our and discuss homework in a relaxed environment. Plus there’s ample room to write it out on the white boards.” Erika Sparkman, senior, pure math major.

“Prior to the math resource lab, I had a difficult time organizing study time. Now I have a place to go everyday! It has been the greatest resource for me as a math major!” Jamie Mullins, junior, pure math STEM Teach major.

“The new math resource lab has been a fantastic place to meet in groups as well as work individually on homework and projects. The math faculty has utilized the facility very well in providing assistance with homework and projects.” Perry Claunch, senior, applied math major.

“It’s convenient and the white board space is awesome!” Christina Junkans, senior, pure math major.

Students clearly appreciated having a common place to study and where they can get help if needed. The Mathematics Department is very excited to provide such a great resource to it’s students!

Congratulations to Dr. R.B. Lenin for receiving tenure and promotion to the rank of Associate Professor. Also, congratulations are due to Ms. Loi Booher for receiving promotion to Lecturer II.

The following students received stipends from the Department of Mathematics to conduct research on various applied mathematics and mathematics education topics  in summer 2015.

Graduate students : Brandon Ashley ( Applied Math) , Seth Bloomberg (Applied Math), Kaiyi Chen (Applied Math), Thomas Deathrage (Applied Math), Jaime Garcia (Applied Math), Haley Lafoon (Math Education) and Rebecca Moody (Applied Math).

Undergraduate Students: Cyrus Koch ( Math Education), Erika Sparkman (Applied Math) and James Palmer (Applied Math).

This summer the department of mathematics, the department of computer science, and the STEM institute at UCA will jointly host a summer program designed to get our youth involved in programming and problem solving.

For more information, see the registration page on Google docs.

Congratulations to the recipients of  2015 student awards:

2015 O.L. Hughes Award.

William Kyle Barker received 2015 O.L. Hughes Award, which is annually presented to an outstanding senior mathematics major. The award is given in the memory of late Professor O.L. Hughes, who was the chair of the Math Department at UCA in late 70’s to mid 80’s.  Barker graduated in Spring’15 with a BS degree in Mathematics and  will join the Department of  Mathematics  at the University of Pittsburg  this coming fall to pursue a doctoral degree.

2015  Dorothy Long Award.

Jamie L. Mullins received the 2015 Dorothy Long Award, annually presented to an outstanding female junior. The award is given in the honor of late Professor Dorothy Long, who was a mathematics faculty member and the Dean of Women at UCA in 60’s.

2015 Graduate Student Award

Brandon Ashley received the 2015 outstanding graduate teaching assistantship award. This summer Brandon is working on a research project in bio-mathematics with Dr. Weijiu Liu.  Brandon is expected to complete his masters degree in applied mathematics by spring 2016.

This summer the department will again be hosting MSIT – a Mathematics, Science & Information Technology Summer Academy. It is a one week program for high school students. The two tracks offered are Coding and Decoding Secret Messages and Web Programming Using HTML, Javascript, and PHP.

For more information, see the brochure.

The department has adopted a new design for our website and has introduced a page for departmental news.