Teaching and Service Project

SUMS Institute was founded in 1985 by the ASU Mathematics professor Dr. Bustoz with the motto, “to recruit and retain minority students in mathematics and science”. SUMS institute achieves its goal by designing and supporting programs like

I decided to do a project with the SUMS institute, as it combines service with teaching. I worked in the MSHP for high school students with Ms. Sisulak (Assistant Director SUMS Institute).

About MSHP:

MSHP is an intense academic program that provides high school students an opportunity to learn university Mathematics and science even before graduating from high school. Each summer talented high school students from under represented communities and low income families are recruited and trained in university level

¨College Algebra (MAT106)

¨Pre Calculus(MAT170) &

¨Calculus (MAT270 & 271)

Head starting collage level courses boosts confidence and motivation of the students to pursue a collage education. This is also a nationally accredited program that qualifies students for various scholarship opportunities throughout the nation.

Each year around 170 high school students from various schools are recruited and trained in Mathematics during summer. Students are given free tutoring, accommodation and food during their stay in SUMS Institute. Funding for this program is provided by the office of the Vice provost, ASU.

My Experience with MSHP

I helped SUMS institute with the placement exam, which determines the proficiency level of examinees in Math. It helped SUMS institute to register, recruited students to appropriate Math classes.Before preparing a the question paper I studied in detail

¨The students existing knowledge level in Math

¨Required minimum knowledge to take a particular class

¨Expectation of the Professors teaching the class (Prof. McDonald Prof. Suslov helped me in the process).

As a part of the experience I accompanied MS. Sisulak to placement exam centers in Thunderbird high school, Tolsen Public Library and ASU Main camput. In each of the testing center I got an opportunity to talk to the prospective/past students and their parents. Every one of the student I spoke to were very happy to be a part of the MSHP. Their parents were very

proud of their children’s achievement and efforts. Talking to these people helped me to understand and appreciated the work of the SUMS institute better.

I am very Thankful to Ms. Sisulak for all her help and support in doing the project.

Service Project: GSSS(Graduate Student Seminar Series)

Aim of GSSS is to help senior graduate students to refine their presentation skills and to give new graduate students exposure to the current research interest of the department.This also provided a wonderful opportunity for graduate students to meet in a more relax environment and share their knowledge in their chosen field of research with others.

My Experience with GSSS

I worked on this project with Jenifer Fowler. When Prof. Gelb first gave us this project idea, our main concern was about finding speakers for a year. But graduate students were very enthusiatic about the seminar. Ten of them volunteered to give 12 seminars in computational math, control theory, real analysis, discrete mathematics, math education and statistics. The hard part was to find a time that works well for the speaker and most of the students. Thanks to Prof. Armbruster for his generous help with funds for pizza and soda. We were able to organize seminars during lunch

time. We maintained a web page, to inform faculty and student about the up coming seminar. We distributed remainder flyers and emails to students. Debbie helped us desing and distribute the flyers. She also helped us in ordering pizza. She was very helpful and was always there for us when we needed help. Prof. Johns and Prof. Gelb showed their support and encouragement by coming for seminar regularly. We occasionally had trouble getting right room for the seminar or getting pizza on time, but for most of the part we all had a lot of fun.

Thanks a to every one involved in GSSS for making this a wonderful

experience for Jenifer and myself.

Thanks a to every one involved in GSSS for making this a wonderful experience for Jenifer and myself.

Research Projects:: REU at NAU(Research Experience for

The REU Program is an opportunity for undergraduates to work one on one with an actively research professor. Participating students at NAU students work on a research porject e with one of NAU faculty for 8 weeks. They attend regular lectures by NAU faculty and othere visitors to NAUThe level of research involved is fairly advanced, occasionally leading to joint publications of

papers in refereed journals. Funding for this program is by the National Science Foundation

My Experience with REU at NAU

IIworked with Dr. Shafiu Jibrin.on his project for a week starting June 17th 2002 to June 21st 2002. PFMF paid for my tirp and accommadation. Every day I worked with Dr. Jibrins studnets Susan and Danial for atleast 2.00 hours. On June 17th I attended Dr. Jibrins lecture on semi definite program. on June 18th I presented a talk on, "Modeling & decision making in semiconductor supply chain" to all the REU students in the department. For the next three days I taught Dr.
Jibrin's students, primal-dual method and interior point methods for solving optimization problem. Dr. Jibrin was very encouraging and helpful. I enjoyed teaching his students. They showed lot of
interest in learning and actually paid attention in the class. It was very different experience from teaching freshman and sofomore students. Students asked question on the material taught and also
about life in graduate collage. They also had questions on application procedure like how to select graduate collage. The experience was very enjoyable including the nice Flagstaff weather.

Thanks to Dr. Terence Blows and Dr. Armbruster for coordinating between NAU and ASU to make this experience possible.

PFMF Web Page Development

Tamil Maldonado-Vega and myself maintained PFMF Web Page during Spring2002. It was a good learning experience for me as didn’t have prior experience developing web pages. My job was to get and post PFMF meeting minutes and pictures on time.

Observed prospective candidate being interviewed Math education faculty position. If not for PFMF I wouldn't have been able to get a real time experience of job interview without being interviewed. It is a valuable experience which will surely help me in my job search.