Professional Development
We have several professional development activities in place:- Introduction to Teaching
- Computer Literacy
- Communicating Mathematics (Part I and II)
- Industrial Mathematics Initiatives.
Introduction to Teaching
Our current Introduction to Teaching course for all incoming graduate students is a practicum which lasts throughout the entire Summer Term. The teaching staff includes two faculty, an advanced graduate student with excellent teaching credentials, and the Department's TA Support staff. There are two course sections for teacher training--one for international and one for domestic students--which are combined for many of our activities.
All new students visit three actual classrooms taught by well-qualified, experienced TAs who have been awarded summer teaching support. This is a great opportunity for the students to see first-hand what good classroom practice is and to observe students in action. We also provide several opportunities for discussing case studies and role playing which cover many aspects of being a TA. In addition, there are panel discussions with experienced TAs, discussions about pedagogy, student background and culture, and presentations about departmental policies and practices.
Students are given valuable experience presenting explanations of problems and concepts in a mock recitation classroom environment. Currently we have nine opportunities for this practice, for a total experience of 90-110 minutes per student. With each presentation, immediate feedback is given to the student, and a general discussion takes place with the entire group about effective pedagogy. Students are videotaped twice during the practicum, once early in the quarter in a recitation setting and once mid-quarter during a short lecture presentation. As each student is being videotaped, the entire class assesses the teaching performance, and a written summary of their assessment is provided to the student.
Computer Literacy
This five week course is designed to familiarize our graduate students with the software they are most likely to encounter in a university setting. It will be taught in a computer laboratory with a minimum amount of lecturing by the instructor. The intent is to let the students experiment with the software, so that they learn by working on examples.
The course begins with an introduction to the operating systems Unix and Linux that are used in the Department. After learning the usage of the powerful editor Emacs, we focus on Latex and Tex as the prevalent packages to produce manuscripts. We also introduce Postscript and PDF as formats for printing documents and disseminating them on the Web. This leads naturally to a primer in HTML and on tools that allow us to convert Latex documents to HTML. We think it would also be useful to explain how literature searches of databases (such as the Citation Index or the Math Reviews) and on the Web are best done, and how documentation and answers to various computer and type-setting related questions can be found efficiently using the Web and newsgroups.
Afterwards, we focus on graphing tools such as Xfig and on various mathematical software packages including Matlab, Mathematica, and Maple. We also introduce XPP which can be used to compute solutions to ODEs. If time permits, debuggers for Fortran, C, and C++ code will be introduced.
Communicating Mathematics
The Communicating Mathematics seminar comes in two parts.
Part I will be taken by first-year graduate students in Spring Quarter. The students will learn how to give presentations of varying length and to different audiences, and how to write academic papers and reports. The goal of the seminar is to provide the students with guidelines, templates, and practice to accomplish the above tasks. We will visit colloquium and seminar talks, and discuss the presentations afterwards in detail. We will also discuss thoroughly a number of papers and reports. Graduate students will later practice and apply in various ways the theoretical knowledge acquired in the seminar. Working Group projects simulate, in a small way, the experience of writing an academic paper. Students will also be asked to give an oral presentation at the end of each Working Group Rotation. We will also ask students to write up short annual reports for summer fellowship support and brief proposals for using the travel money provided by the Department.
Part II is aimed at postdocs and fifth-year graduate students. Its goals are to provide the participants with some of the skills that makes applying for positions and succeeding in an academic environment easier. We will learn what a successful application package should contain and how to build an attractive teaching portfolio. Through informal discussions and by reading sample papers, we will learn how a good paper should be structured and written, and how and where to submit papers. Other topics that will be discussed include how to write and react to referee reports. Perhaps one of the most difficult tasks for beginning postdocs is to decide on, and afterwards pursue, a research program and profile. This includes making decisions on what topics to work on, and where and how to apply for funding. These issues will be addressed through panel discussions with invited faculty.
Industrial Mathematics Initiatives
In order to broaden the experience of graduate and undergraduate trainees, to expand professional opportunities, and to open new career paths, we propose new initiatives in industrial mathematics. In the short term, we will strongly encourage our graduate students to take advantage of existing opportunities in industrial mathematics provided by MITACS. We intend to strengthen our own connections to industry by establishing an industrial mathematics seminar. We expect that with consistent effort we will build long term relationships with local companies resulting in internships and employment for our graduate students and postdocs.
MITACS Internship Opportunity
The Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems (MITACS) is a Canadian Federal Network of centers of excellence and a joint initiative of Canada's three national mathematics institutes. MITACS encourages collaborative research partnerships between universities and emerging sectors of the economy: biomedical, commercial/industrial, information technology, manufacturing, and trade/finance. Currently, MITACS consists of 28 research projects involving 230 academics and more than 400 trainees (students and postdocs) located at sites across Canada. MITACS has agreed to provide opportunities for Ohio State graduate students in mathematics to compete for summer internships with MITACS sponsored projects. Students can apply to work on projects in any of the above sectors by submitting a letter of application and curriculum vita to the MITACS Head Office located at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. MITACS will act as a clearing house to match these applications with project needs. Applications will be forwarded to appropriate project leaders who will choose successful applicants. Appropriate support funds will be determined by project leaders on a case by case basis and could include travel support, stipends, and/or living expenses. Once chosen, graduate students will spend about three months working with both academic and industrial scientists on applied research problems.
Industrial Mathematics Seminar
Columbus is a regional banking and insurance center and has a growing high technology sector. We already have an active Actuarial Science seminar, mainly aimed at undergraduate majors, with speakers from banks and insurance companies. Guest speakers from industry have also made occasional visits to the Department in the past, particularly in the Applied Mathematics seminar. We intend to increase these activities gradually over the next two years to the point where a separate industrial mathematics seminar can be up and running on a regular basis. Local companies and local affiliates of national and international companies which employ mathematically trained professionals will be identified. We then make contact with representatives of these companies with a view to arranging reciprocal visits: of a faculty member to the company and, subsequently, of the representative to campus to speak in an industrial mathematics seminar. We will follow up contacts with our recent PhD graduates who have secured employment in industry and are natural candidates for establishing such contacts. The expected benefits to companies will be access to a pool of potential employees possessing a high degree of mathematical background and training. The expected benefit to Ohio State is greater breadth of experience for students and an increased pool of potential employers of our graduates.