Timetable Information for Fall 2008

Numeracy
THIS COURSE COUNTS TOWARD THE CAMPUS WIDE GENERAL EDUCATION QUANTITATIVE REASONING I REQUIREMENT.

DESCRIPTION: This course is for students whose major interests are not in engineering or the physical sciences. It emphasizes understanding of mathematical aspects of modern, real-world problems, and includes topics such as combinatorics, exponential growth, and probability and statistics. Emphasis is given to the development of problem-solving strategies. CREDIT: 3 Hours.

INSTRUCTOR: Professor Bruce Reznick
Bruce Reznick is a Professor in the UIUC Department of Mathematics. His degrees are from Caltech (B.S., 1973) and Stanford (Ph.D., 1976). He has been on the faculty of the University of Illinois since 1979. He was a Sloan Foundation fellow from 1983-1986, and received the Prokasy Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching from his College in 1997. His research interests are in number theory, real algebraic geometry, and combinatorics.

Calculus
THIS COURSE COUNTS TOWARD THE CAMPUSWIDE GENERAL EDUCATION QUANTITATIVE REASONING I REQUIREMENT.

DESCRIPTION: This is the first semester of a three-semester sequence in calculus. The course is designed to emphasize the conceptual as well as the computational aspects of calculus. To complement brief formal lectures, the majority of class time is spent working actively on problems in small groups. A weekly two-hour lab further develops and strengthens each student's understanding of concepts and applications of calculus.CREDIT: 5 Hours

INSTRUCTOR: Professor Alexandru Zaharescu
Alexandru Zaharescu is a Professor in the UIUC Department of Mathematics. His degrees are from the University of Bucharest (B.S., 1986) and Princeton University (Ph.D., 1995). Since then, he has held positions at M.I.T., McGill University, and the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton, before joining the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2000. His research interests are in number theory.

Freshman Mathematics Seminar: Complex Geometry
This elementary course will reveal mathematics as both an art and a science. We will work within the realm of the complex numbers to provide beautiful new perspectives on geometry. We will develop complex numbers from the start, discuss the geometry of the unit circle to simplify trigonometry and to understand Pythagorean triples, and we will see the Fibonacci numbers at work. We will discuss how and why complex numbers arise in geometry and physics by introducing complex line integrals and their applications. Considerable emphasis will be placed on both oral and written exposition. In about half of the classes students will present solutions to the problems posed in the course. We will strive for elegance in our thought processes, calculations, and exposition. I hope to recruit a few students into the Mathematics Honors program. There is no required text. On occasion students will need to augment what is done in class by outside reading from easily accessible sources.

Instructor: John P. D'Angelo is Professor of Mathematics at UIUC. He received his PhD in Mathematics from Princeton University and was a Moore Instructor at MIT before coming to UIUC. He was named a University Scholar at UIUC in 1986, won the Stefan Bergman Prize in 1999 for his research in complex analysis, and won the LAS Dean's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching at UIUC in 2005. He is currently a Kenneth D. Schmidt Professorial Scholar at UIUC. He has been named to the Incomplete List of Professors ranked excellent by their students at least fifteen different times, most recently in 2007. He has authored three mathematics books and sixty research papers. His primary research interests are in several complex variables and CR geometry. He enjoys the mathematics appearing in the financial and sports sections of newspapers and he plays the game oriental game go (wei-qi, baduk). He views mathematics as both and art and a science and loves to convey both aspects to students. In recent years D'Angelo has been actively involved in teaching in the Mathematics Department Honors Program.

Undergraduate Open Seminar
This is a course on the connections of mathematics with music and art. We will explore harmony [and dissonance], temperaments, and counterpoint in music. Topics in art will include frieze designs, "wallpaper patterns" -- as used by M. C. Escher, and perspective. All of these topics are directly connected with mathematics and investigating them enriches our understanding of both sides of the connection. These topics will lead to a deeper understanding of symmetry in general. We will look around to find some nearby mathematical gems such as why the square root of two is irrational [which has a lot to do with music] and the bridal veil proof of the Pythagorean theorem [which has little to do with either art or music]. There will be ample opportunity to exhibit musical and artistic skills as well as mathematical ones.

Instructor: E. Graham Evans, Jr. has been on the faculty of UIUC since the Fall of 1972. He has written dozens of articles and co-authored three books in the study of commutative rings and the solutions to polynomial equations. He won an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, which enabled him to study at the IHES in Paris in the academic year 1975-76. In the 1980's he developed and taught in-service mathematics teachers summer institutes in the mathematics department. These pioneered the use of personal computers in the mathematics classroom. He served on the Research Board of the university during the academic years '96-'97 and '97-'98. In the Fall of 1999 he assumed the position of Director of Undergraduate Programs in the Mathematics department. HE HELD THIS POSITION UNTIL HE RETIRED IN 2004. In 2002 he was awarded the Campus Honors Program Broadrick-Allen Award for Excellence in Honors Teaching. He is an amateur cellist and cook.

CD

MT

PM