Fall 2017 Seaway Section/NYSMATYC Meeting
Paul Hudec, Universal Instruments
Statistical Sleuthing
Abstract:
How did my smartphone get here? What’s inside? How did they do that? This presentation will provide an overview of electronic device circuit board manufacturing from a quality control perspective. Machines that populate circuit boards must themselves be built with good parts. The output of these machines must meet specific customer requirements. Furthermore, the machines must be engineered and optimized to meet more stringent requirements as electronic devices become smaller. How is this done?
Use of mathematical approaches – high-school or first-year undergraduate level – to solve problems, save money, and investigate improvements will be discussed:
- “Brillo pad” stats: non-traditional application of a statistical technique to “clean” a critical assembly.
- “But I can’t afford the equipment!”: use of coordinate transformations and graphs to validate part quality (geometry) in the machining process.
- CSI-“absence of evidence is itself evidence”: visual and exploratory data analysis (VDA/EDA) techniques discover patterns in an apparently random large data set of placement machine outputs.
Biography:
Paul Hudec earned an AA in foreign languages (SUNY Broome) and eventually switched to Geology (SUNY Binghamton). Decided that was an avocation and not a vocation, so switched to manufacturing. His initial training and experience was focused on welding, heat treating, and blacksmithing, which eventually enabled discovery of, and experience in, machining and computerized numerical control (CNC) machining. The latter revealed the ineffable interface between mathematics and physical reality – a real epiphany. These interests and specialization led to Process Engineering, especially engineering for precision parts with small T/D (tolerance/dimension) ratios and an emphasis on process control through machine characterization. Supporting this is further interest in precision metrology including touch-probe and vision metrology with a focus on practical quantification of measurement uncertainty. Presently he is an Optimization Engineer, with his engineering interests combined with exploratory data analysis/visual data analysis (EDA/VDA) for business, engineering, and quality processes. This includes responsibility for the applicability and accuracy of statistical methods used in obtaining and evaluating data, and for the generation of statistics based information, test criteria, methods and evaluation across business disciplines.
(Saturday Opening Lecture)
Mary E. Helander, IBM Research
Ties That Bind and Bridges to Nowhere
Abstract:
How important is an arbitrary link in social network and how can mathematics help us understand such a question? With so many links between individuals (i.e. edges between vertices) how can the importance of just one link be measured? In this presentation, Dr. Helander will discuss her work, with Sarah McAllister, on characterizing the relative importance of an arbitrary network link by exploiting the properties of a k-shortest path algorithm. This leads to the notion of Link Gravity, how often a link occurs in any possible network path, to identify local bridges among the ties that bind, as well as bridges to nowhere.
Biography:
Dr. Mary Helander is a senior research scientist and software architect in the Data Science Group at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center. She received a B.A. (CIS; Math) from SUNY Potsdam, an M.S. (Industrial Engineering & Operations Research) from Syracuse University, and a Ph.D. (Industrial Engineering, Operations Research) from the University of Buffalo. Prior to her current position, Dr. Helander was a research fellow and faculty member at Linköping University, in Sweden. She has researched and worked on algorithm and solution development to study HIV transmission dynamics; hazardous material routing; geographically distributed team coordination; the intrinsic value of administrative assistants in the workforce; sustainability and greenhouse gas emission minimization; tracking food ingredients; testing raw materials for contaminants; and a few other more standard topics related to transportation, manufacturing and distribution. Throughout her career, Dr. Helander has been an advocate of fact based decision and policy making, with a passion for topics that leverage science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) to further social fairness and equity. Her current project work involves modeling and revealing best practices of emergency food aid and assistance to the impoverished, a partnership between the IBM Research’s Science for Social Good Program and St. John Bread and Life, a non-profit agency working to alleviate hunger and poverty in Brooklyn and Queens.
Dr. Helander has published in the Journal of Food Protection, Interfaces, Networks, Transportation Science, IBM Journal of Research and Development, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Software Quality Journal, Empirical Software Engineering, Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Computers and Operations Research and Computers and Industrial Engineering. She is an INFORMS Franz Edelman Laureate, as well as the 2013 recipient of SUNY Potsdam Alumni Association’s Minerva Award, presented annually to an alumnus or alumna who has demonstrated outstanding professional achievement in his or her field. The Minerva Award is the highest honor that a SUNY Potsdam graduate can receive from the association. A native of central New York and graduate of John C. Birdlebough High School in Phoenix, in her free time, Dr. Helander is a drummer for the Lesbian & Gay Big Apple Corps Band, in New York City, and plays competitive tennis on various USTA league teams.
(Randolph Lecture)
Yousuf George, Nazareth College
IBL for All
Abstract:
Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) is characterized by a deep engagement in rich mathematical tasks, and by opportunities for collaboration and discussion of ideas and solutions. Evidence from education research is overwhelming that IBL produces improved outcomes for students — particularly for under-prepared and under-represented groups. We will examine some of the research into IBL, but we will focus our discussion on how IBL is a broad framework which can create transformative experiences for all students and faculty alike.
Biography:
Yousuf George received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. from the University of Toronto, and his Ph.D. from Penn State University. After graduate school, Yousuf joined the faculty at Nazareth College where he is now an Associate Professor of Mathematics and the Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Nazareth College. Yousuf co-founded the Rochester Area Math Teachers’ Circle, and the Upstate New York Inquiry Based Learning Consortium. He is also a co-PI on the $2.5 million NSF PRODUCT grant to expand the use of Inquiry Based Learning in mathematics. Yousuf’s wife works at, and their two children attend, the World of Inquiry School in Rochester. IBL is truly a family affair for the Georges!
(Closing Keynote)
Gary Gordon and Liz McMahon, Lafayette College
Title: The Joy of SET®
Abstract: The card game SET® is played with a special deck of 81 cards. There is quite a lot of mathematics that can be explored using the game. We’ll look at questions in combinatorics, probability, linear algebra, and especially geometry. The deck is an excellent model for the finite affine geometry AG(4,3) and provides an entry to surprisingly beautiful structure theorems for that geometry. If you’d like some practice before the talk, go to www.setgame.com for the rules and a Daily Puzzle.
Biographies:
GARY GORDON received his B.A. from the University of Florida in 1977 and his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina in 1983. His research interests are in combinatorics. He ran Lafayette College’s REU program for a decade and has thoroughly enjoyed doing research with enthusiastic undergraduates. His favorite research partner is Liz, though. He is currently the Problem Editor for Math Horizons. He loves baseball, enjoys climbing things, and occasionally plays the piano.
LIZ MCMAHON received her A.B. from Mount Holyoke College in 1975 and her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina in 1982. Her research interests are in algebra, combinatorics and finite geometry. She is currently running Lafayette College’s REU program and enjoys sharing math with anyone who will listen. Her favorite research partner is Gary, not surprisingly, and she has coauthored a book, the Joy of SET®, with Gary and their two daughters. She loves reading, cycling, hiking, and traveling.
Other Special Events
Microcourse
Friday, 2-5pm Applied Technologies Building, room AT218
staRting (with R), Mark Baker and Scott Preston, SUNY Oswego
Through examples, demonstrations, and hands-on work, we aim to get the totally uninitiated up and running with R. Our focus is on R use for instruction, but we will also demonstrate features of the software suitable for use in personal projects. Some familiarity with basic statistical inference might give participants better context, but is not required.
We plan on to address four areas, concluding the first three with hands-on exercises for participants. (Of course, there will be overlap among these somewhat arbitrarily defined areas.)
- Fundamentals: Installing R; arithmetic / math; list processing; basic descriptive statistics; a bit of simulation
- Graphics: Univariate and bivariate plots; plotting distributions
- Statistics: Descriptive statistics and inference for a handful of the basic models (one- and two-sample; regression; ANOVA; categorical data)
- Extended features: Scripting; function writing, subsetting, packages, extensions (R Studio), crazy things you can do in R.
Participants are encouraged to work on their own (portable) computers during the workshop. If so, please try to download and install R prior to starting. Due to the idiosyncrasies of individual machines, we are unable to guarantee getting people up and running quickly – although it is our experience that generally installation is seamless. Here is a site from which you may download:
http://lib.stat.cmu.edu/R/CRAN/
Feel free to query either of us if you encounter any difficulties.
Computers will be available in the workshop room if you do not have your own laptop available.
Bios
Scott and Mark are on the faculty of the Math Department at SUNY Oswego. Mark earned his PhD in Biostatistics from SUNY University at Buffalo. Mark makes heavy use of R in his research. Scott’s PhD in Statistics is from Penn State; simulations for his aging thesis were performed in R (well…technically S+ – same thing really). Scott and Mark introduce students to R through courses on regression, environmental statistics, and mathematical statistics. mark.baker@oswego.edu, scott.preston@oswego.edu
Game show
After the banquet speaker Friday night the Student Program Committee will host a game show/contest. All (students and faculty) are welcome to participate in round one. There will be prizes!
Workshop on Leadership in the Mathematical Sciences
Saturday (time TBA), hosted by Mihail Barbosu, RIT. Topics: Incentives for Faculty Involvement.