Facts

Key Benefits

• Skills in problem solving.
• Skills in formal reasoning.
• Introduction to all major areas of mathematics, including calculus, discrete mathematics, linear algebra, abstract algebra, probability and statistics, and analysis.
• Preparation for many mathematical and math-related careers, such as graduate study and research, teaching, actuarial work, applied mathematics of many kinds, business, and computer-related fields.
• Appreciation for the culture of mathematics as revealed through its history, the beauty of its ideas, and its particular way of knowing, which sets mathematics apart from all other disciplines.

Allegheny Distinctions

• Close working relationships between faculty and students.
• Use of computer workstations (configured into classroom/lab setup) and Mathematica (powerful computer algebra and graphing system) for calculus classroom exercises and homework projects.
• Accessibility of the mathematics faculty.
• Encouragement and assistance for students to attend professional conferences and to present papers at conferences.
• Active student chapter of the Mathematical Association of America.
• Required individual Senior Project demonstrates to graduate schools and prospective employers the ability to complete a comprehensive independent assignment.
• Chapter of the Pi Mu Epsilon national mathematic honorary society since 1995.

Endorsements

• One of the nation's top six institutions for consistently producing graduates earning bachelor's degrees in mathematics and the sciences; in the top seven for graduating women with bachelor's degrees in mathematics and the sciences. Both rankings determined as a percentage of graduating class.
• "The reason I have pursued mathematics as a career is attributable to the way the department encouraged and supported me." - Alumna
• "If you have any other students as good as this one, please send them to us." - Graduate program administrator, West Virginia University
• Mathematics faculty includes past winner of the Julian Ross Award for excellence in teaching
• Since 1920, the Department has ranked in the top 8.5% among private, undergraduate institutions in production of eventual Ph.D.s in mathematics.
• Department's graduates have a 95% acceptance rate at graduate and professional schools.

Facilities Strengths

• The mathematics department is housed in Carr Hall, which underwent a $3.5 million renovation.
• Over 30 computer workstations in laboratories (for the use of mathematics students).

Student Research and Special Projects

Every Alleghenian completes a Senior Project in his or her major field-a significant piece of original work, designed by each student and a faculty advisor, that demonstrates to employers and graduate schools the ability to complete a major assignment, to work independently, to analyze and synthesize information and to write and speak persuasively.

Some noteworthy Senior Projects in mathematics:

• "An Application of a Deterministic Model for the Spread of Measles"
• "An Introduction to the Analysis of the Family of Composition Series"
• "Computing Galois Groups"
• "An Introduction to Cryptography and the McEliece Cryptosystem"
• "The Travelling Salesman Problem: Analysis and Application"
• "Petersen-like Graphs"
• "Number Theory Problems of Cosgrave and Halmos"
• "Cayley Digraphs of Groups"
• "Z12 analysis of musical chords"

Other Research

• "A Value for Zero-monotonic Partially Defined Games," student/faculty summer research project funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
• Students often are involved in one-semester independent projects at research centers such as Oakridge, Brookhaven, Woods Hole and Argonne.

Selected Student Achievements

• Approximately four students annually attend at least one meeting of a professional mathematical association.
• Two students were recently accepted into Undergraduate Summer Research Programs-one at the University of Tennessee and the other at Northern Arizona University. One presented a paper on his research results at the Joint American Mathematics Society-Mathematics Association of America meeting in San Francisco.
• Senior mathematics majors often present their senior projects at professional mathematics conferences.
• As a result of a summer NSF Student Research Grant, an Allegheny student had two papers on finite group theory published in a refereed journal that accepts only papers containing original results.
• Several students have attended the George Washington University Summer Program for Women in Mathematics for talented undergraduate women contemplating graduate school in the mathematical sciences.