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Department of Mathematics

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Announcements & Schedule
of Events for Fall 2009

Student Club Meetings

Mathematical Association of America (MAA) Club Meetings

Anyone interested in mathematics is invited to attend the MAA meetings. Lunch is provided, and a short talk is presented. This semester, the meetings are held from 12:30 until 1:30 p.m. in MCS 119. The next meeting is listed below.

The next meeting of the Texas Section of the MAA will be held April 8 - 10, 2010, in Abilene. All expenses are paid for students (math major or minor). Please contact one of the people listed below if you are interested in attending:

Mathematics Teachers of Tomorrow (MT2) Club Meetings

Any student interested in teaching mathematics is invited to attend the MT2 meetings. Lunch is provided and a short talk is presented. All of the meetings are held from noon until 12:50 p.m. in MCS 211. The next meeting is listed below.

Pi Mu Epsilon Mathematics Honor Society

This national honorary mathematics society exists to promote scholarly activity among mathematics students. A next meeting is listed below.

Seminar in Mathematics

Presentations on selected topics followed by discussion comprise this seminar. Its purpose is to encourage an exchange among mathematics majors and faculty members but EVERONE is invited to participate. We meet every Friday in room MCS 216. We start at 3:00 pm with refreshments and end before 4:00 pm. The topics will be posted here so please join us. This week's topic is

“How to Encode Secret Messages"
by Emily Hendryx and Henry Schreiner
Friday, November 20, MCS 216
(Refreshments at 3:00, with the talk to start shortly thereafter)

Finding ways to send messages that are unreadable to others has always been important. Military messages are a commonly thought of example of the importance of secure communication, but many different important applications exist. If you use your credit card number to purchase an item online, how secure is it? Finding ways of reading secret messages meant for someone else may even be more interesting to some. What are some ways to hide your messages? Can they be broken?

Cryptography, the study of hiding information, is the topic of the next mathematics seminar at ASU. Using some basic math, several types of ciphers will be discussed. They will range from the simple shift to the powerful RSA algorithm used today. You should gain a better idea of the security of encryption methods. Several concepts of modular arithmetic will be included. Only basic algebra knowledge will be required. This is the last seminar of the year, and the only student seminar to be given this semester. Emily Hendryx and Henry Schreiner will be unraveling the mystery of cryptographic systems!

Other Events


Mobius Strip Competition

August Ferdinand Möbius (Nov 17, 1790 - Sept 26, 1868) is best known for his work in a branch of mathematics called Topology, and for the two dimensional strip that bears his name. On November 20, 2009, the MAA student club in conjunction with the mathematics department will hosts a competition in honor of Mobius (and for fun !). Students are invited to attend and to enter a strip in the competion. Professors from the art department will judge the entries and select first, second, and third place winners. Lunch will be served at 12:30 pm and the competition will follow (stay tuned for the location). We hope to see you there. More information about Mobius can be found at
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Mobius.html.

Mobius Strip Competition

August Ferdinand Möbius (Nov 17, 1790 - Sept 26, 1868) is best known for his work in a branch of mathematics called topology, and for the two dimensional strip that bears his name.

Each fall, the department hosts a competition in honor of Mobius (and for fun!). More information about Mobius can be found at http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Mobius.html.