Mathematics and Computer Science at Gustavus
Curriculum
The Mathematics and Computer Science Department offers a variety of courses which provide a solid introduction to the concepts, structures, and techniques of the two fields of mathematics and computer science. The department's curriculum has been developed to closely follow national standards and recommendations.
The math curriculum offers a wide spectrum of courses ranging from algebra, analysis, and geometry to probability, statistics, and applied mathematics. The computer science curriculum offers introductory courses in computer science based on the Scheme programming language as well as courses in software development, computer organization, analysis of algorithms, operating systems, theory of programming languages, compiler design, and artificial intelligence.
Department majors in both curricula are well prepared to pursue a wide variety of endeavors from secondary school teaching, careers in actuarial science and business, governmental work, to further graduate studies in math, computer science, or statistics.
Graduate school preparation
The schools at which the department's graduates have pursued post-graduate
study include the University of
Minnesota, University of
Wisconsin, University of
Washington, Stanford
University, Northwestern
University, Yale
University, University of
Chicago, Dartmouth College,
UCLA,
Miami
University of Ohio, Georgia Tech, Colorado School
of Mines, Purdue
University, Indiana University,
Michigan State
University, University of
Illinois, Norwich University, University of Houston,
and the University
of St. Thomas. Several of our graduates have
received NSF
Doctoral Fellowships to support their graduate studies.
The department has active student chapters of the Mathematical Association of America and the Association of Computing Machinery. Both clubs are student-run and sponsor activities such as invited lectures, field trips, the departmental Christmas party, sledding in the winter, and other social activities.
Honors program and student research
Two programs of special note in the department are its honors program and its student/faculty research program. Students have the option to graduate with honors in either mathematics or computer science by completing and publicly presenting an honors thesis, and achieving a grade point average of at least pi(3.142) in courses used to fulfill the requirements of the major. The department encourages students to become involved with faculty in investigating research topics and developing software. The department has received several grants from various sources such as National Science Foundation and Cray Research to support student/faculty research.
Faculty
The department faculty consists of thirteen full-time
members. All of them hold the PhD degree, with three
of these being in computer science and one in
statistics. Department members' graduate training
occurred at some of the finest graduate schools in the
country, including the University of
California at Berkeley, University of
Illinois, University of Iowa,
University of
Michigan, University
of Minnesota, Brandeis
University, Kent
State University, Stanford
University, Boston
University, University of Colorado, and the University of Wisconsin.
Facilities
The department is located on the third floor of Olin Hall of Science, a
state-of-the-art facility with a high-tech
classroom/lab and an additional computer
lab. Departmental computing equipment that is
available for student use include dual-boot PCs
(Linux/Win2K). All computers are hooked to the
Internet as part of the
college's Ethernet network.
The department also provides ample study space for its majors. There are three student offices, and a general study space in the lobby area on third floor. Priority for space in the student offices is given to those students who are engaged in student/faculty research projects and to those who work as tutors or graders.
Last modified 2003-08-06.