Minicourses, short courses and workshops have been given on a variety of
topics in recent years, especially at MAA national and regional meetings
in San Antonio, Providence, DC, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Charleston,
Memphis, Charlotte, and Russelville (AK), as well as internationally
(Canada, Ireland, Cuba). More are on the way:
A two day minicourse on ``Mathematical Card Tricks'' was given
(jointly with Derek Smith) at the
Math Jubilee
at the University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, April 12 & 13.
A four-hour MAA
minicourse on ``An Introduction to Mathematical Card
Tricks'' was given (jointly with Jeffrey Ehme) at the
joint winter meetings,
January 2002, in San Diego.
A similar minicourse was given at
Mathfest 2001, in Madison, WI.
"Mathematical and Self-Working Magic", Teach-a-Trick Session,
Georgia Magic Club -- International Brotherhood of Magicians Ring 9,
Atlanta, Georgia, December 17, 2001.
A three-hour tutorial on ``The Curves
and Surfaces of The Digital Age'' was given at the
International Conference CIMAF 2001 (6th Symposium on Mathematics
and 4th Italo-Latinoamerican Conference on Industrial and Applied
Mathematics) in Havana, Cuba,
19th-23rd March, 2001.
A three-hour tutorial on ``Image Compression
Using Wavelets'' was given at the same meeting.
A four-hour MAA minicourse on
``A Hands-on Approach to Geometry'' was given
(jointly with Jeffrey Ehme) on 3rd-5th August 2000,
at
Mathfest in Los Angeles.
(A similar minicourse was given in July 1998 at MAA Mathfest in Toronto.)
Right before Mathfest in LA, a presentation
on "Alternative Approaches to Geometry" was
given as part of the (by invitation only) Project NExT Program.
A three-hour MAA short course on ``An Introduction
to Mathematical Card Tricks'' was given (jointly with Jeffrey
Ehme) on the morning of Friday, 10th March 2000, at the
79th Annual MAA Southeastern Section Meeting, in Charlotte.
A three-hour student workshop on ``The Curves and
Surfaces of The Digital Age'' was given on the morning of Friday
31st March 2000 at the
Oklahoma-Arkanasas Section Meeting at Arkansas Technical University,
Russellville, AR.
(A four-hour MAA minicourse entitled
``The
Curves and Surfaces of The Digital Age'' was given (jointly
with Jeffrey Ehme) this January 2000
at the
Joint Mathematical Meetings in Washington, DC.)
Many of these are aimed at alerting participants to the rich interplay between various combinations of mathematics, software, and select areas within computer science and engineering. Such workshops are suitable for faculty wishing to broaden their horizons, explore connections with adjacent disciplines, and keep up-to-date on current applications of mathematics in the multi-media realm. This has real potential to impact curriculum development at both the undergraduate and graduate level. Students can also benefit from exposure to these ideas, as they will become aware of the wide range of graduate school, technical training and career options open to them.
Currently, workshops and short courses along these lines are available in these areas: