Department News

Spring 2013: Faculty member recognized for teaching excellence

Mr. Sean Tierney has been named a recipient of the 2012 - 2013 Omicron Delta Kappa Teacher of the Year Award. Each year, Duquesne's chapter of Omicron Delta Kappa, the National Leadership Honor Society, sponsors the Teacher of the Year award. During the month of March, all Duquesne students have the opportunity to vote for the faculty whom they believe to be most deserving of this award. The Department of Mathematics and Computer Science is happy to see Sean's teaching excellence and dedication to his students receive such prominent recognition!

Spring 2012: Faculty member will examine possible Lincoln writings

Dr. Patrick Juola, as part of a project funded by a $50,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to the Papers of Abraham Lincoln, will apply authorship-attribution software that he and his team have developed to writings that might have been authored anonymously by Mr. Lincoln when he served in the Illinois legislature, long before becoming President. Further details can be found at this Duquesne University news release.

Spring 2012: Graduating senior receives multiple awards

Graduating senior mathematics and computer science major Katie Heaps received the 2012 General Excellence award, the highest honor for graduating seniors in the College of Liberal Arts.  The department also chose Katie to receive the excellence awards for both mathematics and computer science (she is shown here accepting the awards from department chair Dr. Jeff Jackson). This is the first time a student has won both departmental awards. Katie has accepted a Ph.D. fellowship to study applied mathematics at the University of Minnesota.

Spring 2012: Faculty member recognized for mentoring excellence

Dr. Stacey Levine was awarded the Distinguished Faculty Mentor of Undergraduate Mathematics Students Award by the Allegheny Mountain Section of the Mathematical Association of America.  According to the Section, "Awardees have made significant contributions to the development of undergraduate students in mathematics as scholars. This includes, but is not limited to, encouraging student participation in MAA activities and advising students who make presentations at the Section meetings."  This has certainly been true of Dr. Levine, who has mentored approximately a dozen Duquesne undergraduates in research during her time at Duquesne, with many of her students presenting their work not only at Sectional but also at national math meetings.

Fall 2011: Faculty member receives NFS Grant

Dr. Karl Wimmer has received a grant for $231,480 from the National Science Foundation for the project, AF: Small: RUI: New Directions in Fourier Analysis, Noise Sensitivity, and Learning Theory. He plans to hire both undergraduate and graduate students to assist him in this research, which is funded through May, 2014. Dr. Wimmer joins several other members of the department who have held and/or currently hold significant government grants, including Drs. Jackson, Juola, Levine, and Simon.

Fall 2011: recent math graduate beginning top PhD program.

Spring 2011 mathematics graduate Josh Koslosky has been accepted into the PhD program in applied mathematics at the University of Minnesota. Josh will also be a graduate assistant in this program, which is one of the top 20 in the US.

Fall 2011: Recent CS graduate employed by Electronic Arts

Spring 2011 computer science graduate Joe Kann has recently become a software engineer at EA Sports in Orlando. He joins alumnus James Sweeney, who has worked with EA for several years and was a key implementer of the "gang tackle" feature in newer versions of Madden NFL (there is a nice article about this feature that singles out "Superman" Sweeney's contribution at http://insideblog.easports.com/archive/2009/05/04/madden-nfl-10-a-deeper-look-into-pro-tak.aspx.

April 5, 2011: Math/CS well represented at student research event

Five undergraduates majoring in mathematics and/or computer science--Jeffrey Baker, Christine Gray, Katie Heaps, Michael Mehok, and Stephen Timko--presented posters detailing their research at Duquesne's Undergraduate Research Symposium on March 30. Michael also gave a 15 minute talk on his work, and Jeffrey won an Honorable Mention award that included a small scholarship from the Office of the Provost. Drs. John Kern, Stacey Levine, and Patrick Juola advised the students.

Fall 2011: New math faulty member joins the department.

Dr. Rachel Miller-Neilan, previously a post-doctoral researcher at Louisiana State University, joined the department as an assistant professor of Mathematics in Fall 2011. Dr. Neilan, who has successfully applied mathematics to a range of subjects including oceanography and disease transmission, adds a new dimension to the research interests of the department.