MAT 401 -- Capstone Seminar
Professor: D. Bradley (http://www.umemat.maine.edu/faculty/bradley/index.html)
Description:
This 3-credit course is required of all mathematics and statistics majors, and satisfies the "general education capstone experience" requirement. Prerequisites are MAT 261, MAT 262 and senior standing. A major goal of this course is to have students draw upon and integrate their previous mathematics course work by exploring mathematical topics in their historical and scientific context. Some class time will be devoted to lectures on new material,
with assigned homework in which students will be expected to exhibit innovative problem-solving and thoughtful writing. Other class meetings may be devoted to discussing assigned readings, participating in group problem-solving activities or presenting individual projects.
In addition to the regularly scheduled assignments, each student will be required to a) read at least one book from the list of suggested references and prepare a written report on it; b) write a paper on a mutually agreed upon mathematical topic and give an in-class presentation on it.
Time & Location: 12:30 p.m. -- 1:45 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays in 421 Neville Hall.
Grading:
- Regular attendance and positive contribution to class sessions: 20%
- Homework assignments: 20%
- Book report: 15%
- Paper: 25%
- Final presentation: 20%
References:
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My Brain is Open: The Mathematical Journeys of Paul Erdös, by Bruce Schechter
(Simon & Schuster, New York, 1998, ISBN: 0-684-85980).
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The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The story of Paul Erdös and the search for mathematical truth, by Paul Hoffman (Hyperion, New York, 1998, ISBN: 0-7868-6362-5).
- A Mathematician's Apology, by G. H. Hardy; with a foreword by C. P. Snow (Cambridge University Press, 1992, ISBN: 0521427061).
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Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, by Douglas R. Hofstadter (Basic Books, 1979; Vintage Books 1989, ISBN: 0-394-75682-7, winner of the Pulitzer Prize).
- I Want to be a Mathematician: An Automathography in Three Parts, by Paul R. Halmos (Mathematical Association of America and Springer-Verlag, 1985, ISBN: 0-88385-445-7).
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The Man Who Knew Infinity: A life of the genius Ramanujan, by Robert Kanigel (Washington Square Press Pocket Books, New York, 1991, ISBN: 0-671-75061-5).
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Indiscrete Thoughts, by Gian-Carlo Rota (Birkhäser, Boston, 1998, ISBN: 0-8176-3866-0).
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John von Neumann: The scientific genius who pioneered the modern computer, game theory, nuclear deterrence, and much more, by Norman Macrae (American Mathematical Society, 1999, ISBN: 0-8218-2064-8).
- Alan Turing: the Enigma, by Andrew Hodges; with a foreward by Douglas R. Hofstadter (Walker and Company, New York, 2000, ISBN: 0-8027-7580-2).
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Adventures of a Mathematician, by Stanislaw M. Ulam (new introduction by Daniel Hirsch and William G. Mathews, epilogue by Françoise Ulam and Jan Mycielski, University of California Press, 1991, ISBN: 978-0-520-07154-4).