XVII SIDIM

What is SIDIM?  It is the abbreviation of “Seminario Interuniversitario de Investigación en Ciencias Matemáticas”, meaning in English “Interuniversitary Seminary of Mathematical Sciences Research“.

This annual conference is always held in the “Enchantment Island”, Puerto Rico.  The university host varies from universities around the island every year.  People from different universities (faculty, students and administration) organize the activity.

This is the XVII year and was held at the “Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico” in San Germán during February 22-23, 2002.  The Sidim is a great opportunity for professors and students to present their research work, give some information of what they have been doing during that year at their respective campuses, and get to know each others work

As being part of PFMF for this year, gave me the opportunity to attend to this event, to listen to their expositions and find out what are their interests in the academia right now in terms of research.

Since I am from Puerto Rico, I saw and spend some time with people I already knew, and also met some new people.  I saw some of my professors (it is always great to see you again!) and some of the new mathematician’s generation.  (You can see them in some of the pictures below).

Plenarias:

María Trigueros, PhD.  from the Polytechnic Institute of Mexico

Wayne Roberts, PhD.  from Macalister College, Minnesota “The effects of mathematic courses in the students perception of how they learn mathematics”

Carlos Castillo Chávez, PhD.  from Cornell University “Epidemics, Politics Drugs, Learning, Ideologies and Mathematics”   

There were many other conferences and expositions, including poster sessions by students.

Some sponsors of this activity are the National Science Foundation (NSF), US Department of Education, and CETP PR - Collaborate for Excellence in Teacher Preparation, University of Iowa, and the universities at Puerto Rico.