Rose-Hulman School Opening Symposium August 25, 2000
Abstract
Every faculty member at Rose-Hulman, upon reaching the status of
tenured full professor, is invited to make a presentation to his or her
colleagues, at the opening symposium of the school. The presentation
gives the faculty member to give their spin on what is important for them
and their profession. I chose to share with my colleagues the "unreasonable"
effectiveness of mathematics as:
a creative problem-solving tool, both in mathematics and a variety
of disciplines,
as a common language and system for conceptualization, both in mathematics
and a variety of disciplines,
and that
that the computer has made this effectiveness even stronger, and
that the effectiveness is also coming in mnay areas outside the traditional
calculus based applications in engineering and science.
These points were illustrated through a series of examples. Then the implications
(as personal opinion!!) of this were presented:
implications for faculty development and recruitment,
implications for curriculum content and teaching style, and
