Department of Mathematics & Statistics
MATH/STAT • NOTES is a publication of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Texas Tech University. It is published once a year for alumni, faculty, students, and other friends of the department. Editorial contributions may be sent to Margaret Plunket at the department. Editorial supervision provided by Margaret Plunket. Layout, design, and editorial assistance provided by Alison Stern-Dunyak, Prairie Dog Communications. Photos by Darrel Thomas
Because of a strong sense of collegiality and friendliness, our department provides a superb environment in which to learn and do mathematics and statistics. Certainly Ron Anderson, as chair of this department for 11 years, was a most important influence in cultivating the cooperative atmosphere that has contributed to many of our successes. There are, however, many factors that contribute to our accomplishments in teaching, research and service. I hope that this issue of the Math/Stat Notes provides you with a sense of the community that defines the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Texas Tech University.
Our undergraduate and graduate students are active groups that make important contributions to the department. For instance, the undergraduate student chapter of the MAA and the graduate SIAM chapter are vital to the increasing success of our annual Student Phone-a-thon. There are no better ambassadors to our friends and alumni than our students. The time and effort they volunteer to make calls on the behalf of the department has resulted in raising more than $35,000 over the past two years. These funds have been used to increase the amount of our scholarship endowments that is now approximately $450,000. There are other activities coordinated by the student groups that add energy and enthusiasm to Math & Statistics—the SIAM Fall Mini-Symposium, outreach programs to local schools, presentations at University Day, and not to be forgotten, the free lunch each semester at Faculty Appreciation Day! There are many instances of individual student accomplishment that provide positive publicity to our department. Each semester there are 40-45 mathematics majors on the Deans and Presidents Honor Roles. Monika Shepherd, last year's president of the MAA chapter, was one of 23 Texas Tech University seniors to graduate in spring 1999 with a perfect 4.0 GPA. Departmental graduate students Cheryl Peterson and Cathy Jenkins were awarded Paul Whitfield Horn Graduate Fellowships in a university-wide competition. Nearly every year at least one graduate student from our department receives a prestigious ARCS scholarship in recognition of their stellar academic record. This fall the department's honoree was Kimberly Drews who will receive a Ph.D. in statistics this coming spring. The 21 masters students and 2 Ph.D.'s that we graduated this past year were rewarded with employment offers from Raytheon, Sybase, Dallas and Lubbock ISD, Scruggs Consulting, Shared Global, BioMerieux, Missouri Valley Community College, and Lockheed-Martin.
We have been able to increase graduate stipends and the number of undergraduate scholarships that we offer, but the competition for good students is keener than ever. I would like to personally appeal to the friends and alumni to bring to the attention of potential students, the exciting opportunities that our programs of study offer.
To all who continue to generously support the department, thank you. This year we are pleased to highlight the generosity of Jane L. Winer, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Monty J. Strauss, Professor of Mathematics. They have funded an endowment for a scholarship for undergraduate honors students majoring in mathematics.
Our faculty continue to bring recognition to our department and the university by their excellence in teaching and research. Stories in this issue highlight Professor Minerva Cordero, our most recent President's Excellence in Teaching Awardee, and Professor Marianna Shubov, who is collaborating with colleagues at the UCLA Flight Systems Research Center supported by the National Science Foundation Interdisciplinary Grants Program. Our third classroom computer laboratory has become operational this fall. This lab, established with funds from a NSF Instrumentation and Laboratory Improvement grant, will be used to enhance our teacher preparation program. There are two other significant developments that add to our computational resources. Phil Smith, the director of the recently established Center for High Performance Computing, is a new professor in the department. With another NSF grant we are in the process of establishing a Beowulf cluster that will provide parallel computing capabilities to our department. External funding--which is only one measure of scientific activity--is at an all time high. Grants for which faculty serves as principal or co-principal investigator represent more than 3.3 million dollars of support. Currently there are 20 NSF sponsored research projects in the department. In the most recent Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Advanced Research Program competition, our department garnered 5 of the 15 grants awarded to mathematics departments throughout the state of Texas.
I hope you enjoy the 1999 edition of MATH/STAT • NOTES. You can keep up with the activities of the department by visiting our web page at www.math.ttu.edu. Better yet, pay us a visit if the opportunity arises.
Long-time faculty member Monty J. Strauss and his wife, Jane L. Winer, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, 
have endowed a scholarship for undergraduate honors students desiring to major in Mathematics. A gift to the university from an anonymous donor has allowed their donation to be matched, so that twice as much money is available for one or more outstanding students studying in our department.
Professor Strauss said that he enjoys working with honors students in mathematics courses, having taught an honors section of calculus many times over the past few years, even while he was Associate Dean and later, Senior Associate Dean of the Graduate School. In fact, one of the reasons he decided to return to the department full-time was so that he could be more active in the honors program. Dr. Strauss is a member of the university's Honors Advisory Council and has been appointed as Honors Coordinator for the department to facilitate the department's increasing involvement in honors courses. This fall, in addition to several sections of honors calculus, the department is offering an honors differential equations course for engineers, taught by Strauss, and is looking into other honors courses for the future, including statistics. Dean Gary Bell of the Honors College has acknowledged the importance of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics in honors studies and his appreciation of the efforts by members of the department in recent years, as the enrollment in the Honors College has grown tremendously.
Recipients of the endowed scholarship will be entering freshmen selected by the Honors College, based on academic credentials, subject to their seeking a degree offered by our department. Each recipient is allowed up to five years of support on the scholarship, and under new rules, the last year may be spent in graduate study at Texas Tech, if the student graduates in four years.
Professor Strauss and has been involved in the SmartFest (a College Bowl trivia contest) for the past three years, serving as a judge and then as a member of the faculty team that has--every year-- challenged and beat the winning student team.
You might not guess from the title of Prof. Marianna Shubov's grant, "Interdisciplinary Grants in the Mathematical Sciences," that it is one of only nine such awards given throughout the country by the National Science Foundation. The $100,000, one-year grant is funding Prof. Shubov's potentially groundbreaking work with NASA's Dryden Flight Systems Center and UCLA's Flight Systems Research Center.
Shubov
has been working for the past three years in
conjunction with engineers and computer scientists at NASA and
UCLA on the problem of wing flutter in aircraft. Wing flutter is
a potentially devastating vibration that can damage or even
destroy planes; it was first identified in the 1940s. Shubov's role in
this open problem is to apply her expertise in spectral and
asymptotic analysis and translate the mathematics into terms that
engineers can use. The NSF grant now supports this
interdisciplinary project, with the goal of getting mathematicians and
practitioners in other sciences to join forces in solving "real world" problems.
Shubov earned her Ph.D. in mathematical physics at St. Petersburg University in Russia. She and her husband, Victor, both joined the Texas Tech Dept. of Mathematics and Statistics 10 years ago. Although she considers herself more of a theoretically oriented mathematician, Shubov finds she enjoys the chance to apply her analytical skills to a major open problem with concrete applications.
"Fundamental, theoretical research is of course extremely important," she says. "But I'm finding that without understanding the reality behind a problem you may not get the best results. Good solutions, yes, but not necessarily the best ones."
The generous NSF grant has allowed her to make numerous trips to Los Angeles to collaborate with the researchers at NASA and UCLA. She will also have the opportunity for the first time to witness field experiments where solutions to wing flutter will be attempted.
Although her international reputation brought the California researchers to her doorstep several years ago when they invited her to discuss her research at UCLA, she at first hesitated before applying for the grant. She was involved in other work and was unsure if she wanted to commit so much time and effort to the problem.
"I admit I was skeptical," she says. "The day they posted the awards on the NSF Web site, I didn't even look. Lawrence [Schovanec] had to come and tell me.
"There are a lot of beautiful open problems initiated by engineers that mathematicians can help solve," she says. But communication is key, she notes. "You must use your math abilities to solve the problem and then convert the solutions into real world terms engineers can understand. They're very straightforward if I'm not clear, they let me know!"
Despite her initial hesitation, she now wholeheartedly embraces the concept behind the interdisciplinary award.
"I believe that grants like this will help make the gap between mathematics and engineering a little smaller," she says.
With the support from the National Science Foundation Instrumentation and Laboratory Improvement Program and matching funds from the College of Arts and Sciences, the department has established a new classroom computer laboratory consisting of 30 PCs that will be used extensively by our Teacher Preparation and Certification Program. With the addition of the new laboratory this fall, the department now boasts three classroom computer facilities that are used to enhance mathematics instruction.
In 1992 the department was awarded its first NSF ILI grant that was used to establish an X-terminal Unix-based laboratory. The impact of the facility has grown steadily over the years. The lab is now utilized by several undergraduate courses and is also an important component of our Graduate Teaching Assistant Mentoring Program in which students develop skills in the use of Maple, Matlab, Mathematica, and TeX.
For several years the department of Mathematics and Statistics has been working to modernize the sequence of courses that are required of students who plan to certify at Texas Tech to teach elementary, middle, or high school mathematics. The philosophy that determines the role of technology in these courses is predicated on the notion that mathematics teachers should be familiar with what technology can do, with its relevance to mathematics instruction, and with the issues involving its use in the classroom. The new Teacher Technology Center will better enable the department to provide courses for the teacher certification program that are designed to emphasize the general capabilities and pedagogical implications of current technologies.
In addition to the two NSF ILI labs, the department also operates a Mathematics Multimedia Learning Laboratory (MLL), established with support from Provost John Burns. In the fall 1996, a mathematics placement exam became mandatory for entering freshman. The major goal of the exam is to place students in the course that best matches their mathematics skill level. When students need to review and strengthen their skills, the MLL laboratory provides an instructor-guided, student-centered approach to mathematics instruction. The goal of the mathematics multimedia learning laboratory is to produce students who are successful in their college-level mathematics classes. This is achieved by combining the benefits of personal instruction provided by graduate teaching assistants and multimedia technology. Audio, animation, graphics and instructional features of the software enable students of diverse backgrounds to work in ways that support how they learn best. Through a sophisticated instructional support system, teaching assistants monitor student progress in detail, diagnose specific weakness in understanding, and target their assistance to maximize student success.
Jo Ann Temple 
, who was appointed Coordinator of Developmental Mathematics this fall, has been instrumental in the establishment of the lab and supervises the graduate teaching assistants who teach in the developmental program. Preliminary results for the MLL are encouraging. The limited data that is available since the program began in the fall 98 semester shows that there is an 8% increase of success rates in subsequent mathematics courses for students who use the multimedia lab as compared to students from the traditionally-taught sections and 4% decrease in failures in subsequent courses for the multimedia lab students.
On June 1, 1999, Dr. Ronald M Anderson 
began his duties as Senior Associate Dean of the Graduate School after having served as chair of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics for 11 years. Professor Anderson guided the department during a period characterized by outstanding accomplishments in research and teaching. During his tenure, the growth in stature of the department was recognized by the American Mathematical Society when it was listed as a "Group II" doctoral granting department. There are only 25 public institutions in the United States ranked as "Group I," the highest level of recognition. Under his direction, the department achieved many successes while maintaining the highest standards of teaching and collegiality.
When Professor Anderson became chair, few faculty had access to personal computing facilities. Today there are 250 ethernet ports in the department and all faculty and graduate students have at least one computer or X-terminal in their office.
The availability of technology for teaching was greatly enhanced in the last 11 years. The first computer classroom laboratory was established in 1992 and in 1997 the Mediated Learning Laboratory became functional. While he was chair, the department's first Horn Professor was named, the inaugural edition of Math/Stat Notes was published, external research funding in the department increased by approximately three-fold, and the department awarded 201 master's degrees and 42 Ph.Ds. Professor Anderson cultivated cooperation with other departments at Texas Tech and promoted the establishment of several multi-disciplinary research efforts that raised the level of visibility of the department on campus and around the United States.
Fortunately, since he will remain involved in teaching and research activities, the Department of Mathematics and Statistics will continue to benefit from the contributions and influence of Professor Anderson.
When Professor Minerva Cordero 
was honored as a recipient of the President's Excellence in Teaching Award during the 1999 Spring University Convocation, she became the third faculty member from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics to receive this award in the last four years. This is not the first time that Dr. Cordero has been recognized for her exemplary teaching and professional accomplishments. She was selected Professor of the Year in 1995 by the Texas Tech student chapter of the Mathematical Association of America and was a recipient of the College of Arts and Sciences New Faculty Award in 1994.
Professor Cordero, who is a charter member of the Texas Tech University Teaching Academy, also contributes to the educational mission of Texas Tech University as a member of the advisory boards for the McNair Scholars Program and the Teaching, Learning and Technology Center. For many reasons — her caring attitude toward students and vivacious classroom demeanor, to name but two — Dr. Cordero has always been a popular and effective teacher. The President's Excellence in Teaching Award is well-deserved acknowledgement within the larger university community of her dedication to her students and her promotion of the highest standards of teaching.
New Faculty . . .
Phil Smith, Professor, Ph.D. 1972, Purdue University; Director: Center for High Performance Computing. James Surles, 
Assistant Professor, Ph.D. 1999, University of South Carolina; Research Area: Statistics. Jo Ann Temple, Coordinator of Developmental Mathematics and Director of TexPREP. Brock Williams, Visiting Assistant Professor, Ph.D. 1999, University of Tennessee; Research Area: Discrete Conformal Geometry.
Far and away . . .
Ruth Gornet spent the 1998-99 academic year at the University of Kentucky, supported by a National Science Foundation POWRE grant. Shan Sun spent last year at the Federal Drug Administration, Rockville, MD. Zhimin Zhang, is on leave at the Department of Mathematics, Wayne State University.
Notable talkers . . .
Linda Allen, principal speaker, Workshop on the Mathematical Epidemiology, Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences, University of British Colombia, Vancouver, Canada. George Avalos, invited presentation at AMS Summer Research Conference, Boulder. Roger Barnard, invited talk, University of Hawaii. Harold Bennett, invited talk, special session, AMS sectional meeting, Wake Forest University.
Kamal Chanda, presented paper, Joint Statistical Meeting, Baltimore, MD. W.P. Dayawansa, invited guest and speaker, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden; Lance Drager, Ruth Gornet, and Jeff Lee, conference organizers, Texas Geometry/Topology Conference, February 1999, Texas Tech University. James Epperson, invited presentation, MAA panel, Joint Meeting of AMS-MAA, San Antonio. David Gilliam, invited lecture, NSF Workshop, University of California, San Diego. Gary Harris, presented paper, International Association for Mathematics and Computers in Simulation Conference, Euroforum, El Excorial, Spain.
Guangcao Ji, presented paper at the NSF-CBMS Conference, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Anatoly Korchagin, presented paper at the IV Joint International Meeting of the AMS and the Sociedad Matematica Mexicana, Denton, TX. Wayne Lewis, invited talk, Eastern Sectional Meeting of AMS, Gainesville, Florida. Hossein Mansouri, presented paper to the Symposium on Nonparametric Statistics, University of Florida. Clyde Martin, named Special Assistant to the Director for Science Integration for the Institute for Environmental and Human Health, Texas Tech.
Janusz Prajs, contributed paper, Spring Topology Conference, Salt Lake City, UT. Robert Byerly, Dave Weinberg, invited participants and speakers, Rocky Mountain consortium Workshop, University of Wyoming. Frits Ruymgaart, invited talk, Mathematisches Forschungsintitut, Oberwolfach, Germany. Carl Seaquist, invited paper, Joint Meeting of AMS-MAA, San Antonio, TX. Lawrence Schovanec, invited talk, Division of Biological Sciences, University of Chicago. Marianna Shubov, invited talk, International Federation for Information Processing, Cambridge, England
Congratulations are extended to: Hossein Mansouri, who was promoted to full professor; Ruth Gornet, who received tenure and was promoted to associate professor; and Shan Sun, who received tenure and was promoted to associate professor.
Dr. Derald Walling, who taught mathematics at Texas Tech from 1966-1992, passed away January 22, 1999. He was the founder and the first director of the TexPREP program and was instrumental in helping to begin the masters of arts program for secondary teachers. Professor Walling received his bachelors, masters, and Ph.D. degrees from Iowa State University. He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth and two children, Gerald of California and Lizann Croft of Albuquerque. Memorials may be made through the Department of Mathematics and Statistics to the Derald Walling Mathematics Scholarship.
"He was outgoing," said Ron Anderson. "He was a student's teacher. He provided good leadership and active research."
Dalton Tarwater said Dr. Walling was the kind of man who got to know his students.
"He was person-oriented and very much in touch with them," Tarwater said. "I hope his approach rubbed off on the students he taught."
Professor Wayne T. Ford retired at the end of the spring semester after 32 years as a faculty member in the department. Professor Ford received a B.A. from Oklahoma City University, a M.A. from the University of Oklahoma, and a Ph.D. from Rice University under the direction of Professor Jim Douglas, Jr. He began his career in industrial research and served as an Associate Professor at Houston Baptist University prior to joining the department in 1967.
Professor Ford has been the recipient of numerous grants for his research in porous media. He served as the Director of the Center for Petroleum Mathematics at Texas Tech for many years which was funded by Conoco and Texaco. Five people received doctoral degrees and 25 people received a master's of science degree under Professor Ford's tutelage. Although active in research and university and professional service, Professor Ford says, "The students are what we should be most proud of." Professor Ford is teaching one calculus class this semester. He and his wife, Dorothy, are the busy owners of the Book Alley.
The 26th Annual Mathematics and Statistics Awards Banquet was held at the McInturff Center on April 13, 1999. The event was more of a family reunion than a formal ceremony. Presentations were made by various faculty members and student organizations. Over 130 students, faculty, retired faculty, family members, and friends were there.
The scholarship recipients for the 1998-99 academic year were Gordon Fuller Scholars Cathy Jenkins, Keith Nabb, and Andrew Wilton, while Benjamin Bailey, Jeremy Sain, and Jerry Stout were the E. Richard Heineman Freshman Scholars. Kristan Fryman, Sky Sjue, and Nathan Rogers were the Tarwater Family Scholars.
For the academic year 1999-2000, Billy Duke received the Morrison-Broughton and the Mildred and Lonnie Langston Scholarships. Jeffrey Hood was the Robert A. Moreland Scholar. The ‘dub' Rushing Family Scholars were Jennifer Fowler and Brian Guyer. Lisa Taylor was the Derald Walling Scholar, and Stacy Dafoe was the Paul Thompson Scholar. The Emmett Hazlewood Scholars were Benjamin Bailey, John Baird, Ben Hough, Shelby Langen, Jeremy Sain, Brian Tate, and Jared Wolf. Ralynn Ernest received the Amir-Moez Undergraduate Research Award. The first Herman Reynolds Graduate Scholarship was awarded to Jake Kesinger and was presented by Heather Jordan, Evaluation Specialist with the Dallas Independent School District. The Outstanding Undergraduate Student was Monika Shepherd and Kimberly Drews was the Outstanding Graduate Student.
The three student organizations made presentations: Dr. Charles Kellogg was named the Kappa Mu Epsilon Distinguished Professor and the Texas Tech Students Chapter of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) named Dr. Ronald Anderson as its Outstanding Professor. The MAA also presented Natalie Stobie with a scholarship. The Student Chapter of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics recognized Dr. W.P. Dayawansa as the Outstanding Graduate Professor and awarded scholarship stipends to Eric Barefield and Jake Kesinger.
The various stipend awards varied from $200 to $1500 and a total of over $25,000 was presented to mathematics and statistics majors, many of whom also receive other stipends from Tech.
During this last academic year, nearly 20 colloquia were provided by visitors to our department. These talks provide an important mathematical and social function for our department. We are especially pleased that the Texas Tech University Ex-Students Association continues to generously fund the Ex-Students Distinguished Visiting Mathematician Program. This year the series featured Professor Mary Wheeler, 
who holds the Ernest and Virginia Cockrell Chair at the Texas Institute for Computational and Applied Mathematics, University of Texas at Austin and Dr. Ross Prentice, Senior Vice President of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Professor of Biostatistics, University of Washington. Professor Wheeler gave two lectures on "Domain Decomposition Methods for Subsurface and Surface Flow Problems" while Professor Prentice spoke on "Nonparametric Estimation of the Bivariate Survivor Function" and "Some Opportunities and Challenges in Chronic Disease Research."
In addition to these speakers, the ESA Distinguished Visiting Mathematician Program also enabled the department to host the Texas Geometry and Topology Conference in February. Nine topologists from around the United States attended the conference as invited speakers.
In recent years, increasingly close cooperation has developed between topologists in Mexico and colleagues in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. Much of this is due to the efforts of Professor Wayne Lewis of TTU, who in 1996 presented a three-week short course on "The Pseudo-Arc" at the Instituto de Matematicas of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City, Mexico. The pseudo-arc is a topological space that has played an important role in continuum theory, a branch of topology, and has been the subject of much of the research of Professor Lewis. A monograph resulting from this short course was subsequently published by Professor Lewis in the Boletin de la Sociedad Matematica Mexicana. In a reciprocal visit, Professors Janusz J. Charatonik and Wlodzimierz J. Charatonik of UNAM made a week long visit to Texas Tech University. This was probably the first father-son team of mathematicians to make such a visit to Texas Tech University.
In the intervening years, Professors Wayne Lewis and Carl Seaquist of Texas Tech University have been invited speakers at several international meetings that have strengthened the dialog between our department and topologists from Latin America. This year, the Fourth Joint International Meeting of the American Mathematical Society and the Sociedad Matematica Mexicana was held in Denton, Texas in May 1999. 
Professors Alejandro Illanes and Sergio Macias of UNAM co-organized with Professor Lewis of Texas Tech a special session on Continuum Theory, dedicated to the 60th birthday of Professor Sam B. Nadler, Jr. of West Virginia University, a noted researcher in topology who also has been active in promoting cooperation of topologists in Mexico and the United States. Most recently, a meeting of the Central section of the American Mathematical Society, held in Austin in October 1999 many participants from Mexico attended a special session on Topology of Continua organized by Professors Lewis and Seaquist
At these meetings, a special effort has been made by the organizers to include graduate students and recent graduates among the invited speakers as well as established senior researchers. Among the speakers at Denton and Austin meetings was Dr. Christopher Mouron. Dr. Mouron received his Ph.D. from Texas Tech in August 1998, having completed a dissertation under the direction of Professor Lewis. Dr. Mouron is presently at the University of Delaware.
This cooperation between topologists in Mexico and Texas should continue in future years. One of the most significant conferences in topology each year is the Spring Topology and Dynamics Conference. This major international conference will be held in March 2000 in San Antonio with Professors Lewis and Michael Levin, who will be visiting faculty at Texas Tech during the Spring, among the invited speakers. The 2003 conference is scheduled to be hosted by Texas Tech.
The Department of Mathematics and Statistics is home to one of the largest groups of control theorists in
a U.S. mathematics department, with 15 faculty members
who publish in the area of control and estimation. 
This
group directs research projects that are supported by funding
in excess of $3 million from agencies that include the
National Science Foundation, the National Security Agency,
NASA, the Department of Defense, NATO, the United States
Air Force, and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating
Board Advanced Research Program. At the national and
international level, the group has
gained recognition not only for theoretical results, but also for applications
of control to a broad range of real world problems. The list of applications
that have been derived from this research is novel and diverse and includes
such areas as: controlling air flow over wings and through jets; the study of
the effects of mixtures of toxicants; models of human learning and
postural control, epidemiology, smart structures, and biomechanics.
One of the greatest strengths of the control theory group is its collaborations with other scientists at TTU and around the world. Clyde Martin, Horn Professor and Fellow of the IEEE in control theory, is a regular visitor to the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden and has facilitated an exchange of graduate students between TTU and KTH. The National Science Foundation Interdisciplinary Grants Program currently supports Marianna Shubov as she conducts research at the Flight Systems Research Center at UCLA. The NSF also supports a joint research effort by W. Dayawansa, Clyde Martin, and Lawrence Schovanec in conjunction with systems scientists at Washington University, St. Louis, and biologists from the University of Chicago. This project involves the application of control theoretic notions to physiological systems and learning algorithms. George Avalos, David Gilliam, and Victor Shubov work closely with colleagues at Washington University, St. Louis, North Carolina State University, Virginia Polytechnic University, the University of Nebraska, and the University of Virginia on problems of smart structures and distributed parameter systems.
At a more local level, control theory has facilitated fruitful collaborations between mathematics and other colleges and institutes at Texas Tech. Professors Clyde Martin, Shan Sun, and Linda Allen, in conjunction with the TTU Institute for Environmental and Human Health, are involved in studies of effects of jet fuel pollution and issues related to bioterrorism. This research involves a heavy dependence on statistical techniques to which Frits Ruymgaart, Fellow of the Institute for Mathematical Statistics, has made major contributions. Linda Allen, who has done seminal work on the control of epidemics and population modeling, is also engaged in a NSF funded research project with the Department of Biology. James Dunyak has established extensive ties with Atmospheric Sciences and the Center for Wind Engineering as he has worked on the development of algorithms for the identification of anomalies in wind gusts in hurricanes and tornadoes. Several faculty in the group have been involved in projects carried out with the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.
The control group at TTU is also noted for its application of so-called pure mathematics to control problems. Within the framework of algebraic geometry, Lance Drager has made contributions to the problem of recovery of the state of a system from observations of the system dynamics. Alex Wang solved an open problem of some 25 years' duration with the use of sophisticated algebraic geometry. Clyde Martin, Zhimin Zhang, and Guangcao Ji have used approximation theory and splines in developing air traffic trajectory planning and for interpreting experimental data related to environmental toxicology.
The Texas Tech Chapter of the Mathematical Association
of America (MAA) promotes involvement in undergraduate
mathematics. MAA offers something for everyone.
One of the opportunities for members this year is a trip to
the MAA Texas Sectional Conference, to be held in Austin in April
2000. Many MAA members presented papers at the 1999 conference in
San Marcos, and more are expected to present again. Another
opportunity for MAA members comes from Iles Elementary School. MAA
supports the Math Club, with members visiting every other week.
Both MAA members and Iles students benefit from this interaction.
MAA members also have physical activities for a change of pace. An
intramural basketball team was formed, and the chapter also
conducted outings for laser tag and bowling.
For a list of members, activities, or other information regarding MAA, go to their Web page at www.math.ttu.edu/~maa/
Once again, the Mathematics and Statistics students plan to have their annual Phone-a-thon during the evenings of January 31 and February 1, 3, 7, 8, 10, 2000. The Math and Stat majors VOLUNTEER to call! As usual, a brightly colored postcard will be mailed in early February to remind that our students will be calling.
Remember, if you are called by anther program at Texas Tech, you may have any gift designated for the MATH department.
This year Texas Tech established the High-Performance Computing Center (HPCC) located at Reese Center. Dr. Phil Smith, 
who has been named as the Director of the HPCC is also a new Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. Prior to coming to Texas Tech, Professor Smith was the Vice-President of Windward Technolgies, Inc. He had also been the Director of the Numerical Software Division at IMSL and a professor in the mathematics departments at Old Dominion University and Texas A&M. He has authored over 100 technical papers in the areas of splines, numerical linear algebra, approximation theory and optimization.
The addition of this equipment to the Texas Tech campus inaugurates a new and exciting era in scientific computing. Computational scientists, engineers, mathematicians, architects, and visual artists at Texas Tech will now be able to work on this powerful equipment to develop and discover new science and art. It is expected that the HPCC will foster several multidisciplinary and large-scale projects, bringing together professionals from disparate disciplines.
The HPCC boasts a 56 node SGI Origin 2000 with 56 Gigabytes of RAM and 300 Gigabytes of RAID disk space. There will be several Terabytes of tape storage and a robotic tape system. The Origin 2000 will drive a Panoram Projection systems that can project images on an 8' by 20' screen in a 35-seat auditorium (the Virtual reality Lab). The images are roughly 1K by3K with a refresh rate of 60-hertz (perhaps even 120-hertz for 3D effects). There will be a 6 channel audio system that includes and integrated amplifier, 3 front speakers, 2 rear speakers, and 1 subwoofer.
One of the first projects involving the HPCC is called Countermeasures in Bio-terrorism. This project contemplates modeling an attack on a high-rise building and the emergency response to such an attack. The disciplines working on this project includes mathematics, environmental science, computer science, architecture, and engineering. The scientific issues include fluid flow in an enclosed building with a HVAC system, the dissemination of a contaminant throughout the building as a result of this flow, and the lethality of the contaminant as it spreads. Modeling a high-rise building and populating it with articulated virtual people. One of the major goals of the project is to view the attack from several different perspectives. It will be necessary to be able to "walk through" the building as the attack is in progress and to view the concentration of the contaminant as one progresses from room to room. The emergency response teams will be modeled as well, and their progress through the building will be tracked. The Virtual Reality Lab is central to understanding the progress of the attack and the efficacy of the emergency response team. Scenarios can be played and replayed to evaluate how effective different responses are to the attack. As a result of these simulations, scientists will be able to make recommendations concerning the "hardening" of target building against a chemical or biological attack.
Texas Tech University, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Broadway and Boston, Lubbock, TX 79409-1042
Phone: 806.742.2566 |
