August 26, 2005

Introductory Meeting

Prepared by Theresa Johnston

 

August 26, 2005 was the first meeting of the 2005-2006 PFMF program. 

This year's participants:

·        Abdessamad Tridane

·       Merrick Hermann

·       Mudassar Imran

·       Muhammad Dur-e-ahmad

·       Theresa Johnston

·       Tufail Malik

·       Vicki Sealey

·       Wolfgang Stefan

 

Upon introducing ourselves, it was first decided that future meetings for PFMF will begin at 1:40 PM on Fridays.  We were given a tentative schedule of events for the Fall semester which include visiting other institutions, guest speakers from within the department and social activities sponsored by PFF.  Following the discussion of the calendar, we were given an overview of the history of the PFF program and its goals.  Specifically, we learned about how ASU was a leader in adopting a university wide PFF program and how the unique concerns of math graduate students necessitated the smaller, more focused PFMF program.  Next, two PFMF fellows, Jacob Shotwell and Nicole Engelke, spoke of their experiences in the PFMF program and gave us an overview of the projects that they pursued in PFMF.  They also gave their overall impression of the benefits of being involved in this seminar. 

 

Some other noted decisions that were made:

·       Vicki and Merrick will be the PFMF webmasters for the Fall semester

·       Theresa will work with Jacob to continue the Graduate Student Seminar

·       Tufail will work on updating the math graduate student webpage

 

Possible project ideas that were discussed:

·       Help organize or facilitate the AMUC conference in October

 

Since Dr. Kawski will be out of the country next Friday, our next meeting is scheduled for September 16^th.