South Carolina Alpha
University of South Carolina
2007-2008 Chapter Report

Advisor and Officers

Advisor: Matthew Boylan

President: Tyler Ray

Vice President: Kevin Pompey

Secretary: Travis Goldie

Treasurer: Jennifer Guest

Number of New Members Inducted:

11

Number of Continuing Members:

33

Describe the two most interesting or unusual chapter activities this year:

(1) Sudoku Championship, Nov. 13, 2007. USC graduate student Ivan Haynes explained to us the connection between Sudoku and graph theory. We then learned some Sudoku strategies from USC undergraduate Forrest Spence. After this, the students tested their skills to see how good they really are by participating in the USC Sudoku Championship. Here are some of the competition categories: (i) Can you solve the most puzzles in a set amount of time? (ii) Can you solve a tough puzzle faster than everyone else? (iii) How much progress can you make on an insane puzzle? Prizes were given to the overall winners. Door prizes and snacks were distributed throughout the meeting. About 30 students participated/competed. ----------------------------------------------------------- (2) Annual USC Integration Bee: Tuesday, April 8, 2008. The USC Integration Bee was begun by Carrie Finch (a former graduate student at USC and current tenure-track assistant professor at Washington and Lee Univ.) on April 8, 2003. Since then, PME/GMC hosts the USC Integration Bee annually. It is similar to a spelling bee, but one integrates insteads of spells. In teams, students try to work through each integral before the music ends. Snacks, drinks, and prizes are all provided. To quote a student: "This event is more fun than seems feasible, really". The USC Math Department and the South Carolina Honors College generously supported this event. The integrals were provided by graduate student Daniel Savu. Daniel and Ben Ingram, another graduated student moderated/officiated the competition. More than 50 students attended.

Do any of your chapter members plan to attend or present a paper at the PME national meeting at MathFest in Madison, Wisconsin?

Not as of right now.

Do you have any news about current students or recent graduates? For example, scholarships or other awards, acceptances to graduate school, paper presentations at conferences. :

Here are some of the awards/scholarships won by South Carolina PME members: * Tyler Ray (Outstanding Senior in Engineering and National Defense Science & Engineering Graduate Fellow and Who's Who) * Andrew Cron (Rising Senior Award in Statistics) * Joshua Hendrickson (Nina and Frank Avignone Fellowship in Physics) * Kevin Ludwick (Nina and Frank Avignone Fellowship in Physics and Who's Who) * Joey Montoya (Goldwater Scholar) * Bill Kay (Goldwater Honorable Mention, Markham Scholarship) * Timothy (Hudson) Harper (Polston Family Scholarship) * Joshua Hendrickson (Yang Award) * James Manning (Polston Family Scholarship) * Kelvin Pompey (CAS Rising Senior Scholarship) * Holly Watson (Pi Mu Epsilon Award)