(Prepared by Ashwini Kelkar)
On February 16th 2004, the Preparing Future Mathematics Faculty team of Arizona State University gathered to visit this private liberal arts college of engineering, science and Mathematics. Although Harvey Mudd is an independent and prestigious part of the Claremont College University, the students can and do take courses from the other Claremont colleges as well to work towards their common goals.
We were warmly welcomed by Dr. Arthur T. Benjamin, Professor and Chair of the Department of Mathematics. After giving a brief introduction of the college, he gave insights into how the teaching is regarded and conducted there. Typically, most freshmen are already proficient in basic Calculus, and are well-prepared to start beyond that. Along with teaching, which is a major emphasis for the faculty, they are also involved in active research. It is reasonable to expect one publication per year (more or less) to obtain tenure.
We then headed for the lunch at the cafeteria of the Olin Science Center, (which is where we arrived first and where the Dept. of Math is). Along with the student crowd(!), we were joined by Prof. Jon Jacobsen and Prof. Alfonso Castro. Here, we students got a chance to interact with them. After that, we very briefly attended the Abstract-Algebra-II lecture by Dr. Michael Orrison and had the opportunity to observe his excellent teaching style, and friendliness towards R-modules! The Campus Tour by one of the Harvey students was next on the agenda. (This was mainly for the prospective students at Harvey Mudd.) Including an elaborate visit to the various labs,other resources and information on scholarships,we also had a peek into the dormitories of the "Mudders", as they are called. Lets just say, it is quite an interesting abode and leave it at that!
Meeting with Prof. Michael R. Raugh, the Director of the Mathematics Clinic was the next activity we got organized. He gave us a lot of information about the clinic. In this program, the students work on projects in the real-world environment, very similar to an industrial setting. There is teamwork involved and the students are also given the opportunity to write the initial contract. Sponsoring companies are usually from the government or corporate sector (e.g. Los Alamos National Laboratory) and they even assign a liason to supervise their activity. The students too elect a team lead who does the presentations. Although this is very different from a usual course, doing a clinc-course has many other advantages and is encouraged by the faculty as well. All those students who have expressed interest in doing a clinic, have got a chance to do so, and have had valuable experience out of that. The director was very proud of the success and the quality of the past (and current!) projects presented by their students. He mentioned that, along with being an educative enterprise for Harvey Mudd, the clients also benefit from this. This program, although inherently different, was the main reason why the RIPS (Research in Industrial Projects for Students) program at UCLA, originated.
Also, grading of such a clinic-course can be quite challenging in itself. There can still be improvements made on that and many issues regarding that were discussed. We then talked about the possible future visits from ASU, and the possibility of projects for some of us PFMF students.
Finally, we attended the Math Forum under the instructor ,Prof Jacobson.,
and were exposed to the problems encountered by typical students while
trying to explain a mathematical idea. (And I left Dr. Kaliszewski's pen
there while sitting in that.I intend to replace that sometime.)