Who am I?

• Assistant Professor
  
  
• grew up in Strongsville/Berea area (Cleveland SW suburbs) in 1970's
  
  
• former automobile-mechanic/gritty redneck
  
  
• spent time in Colorado/Wyoming in 1980's
  
  
• attended math. graduate school at Kent State in 1990's
  
  

Jobs

• Ph.D. Appl. Mathematics, 2000
  
  
• Engineer, Liquid Crystal Institute, 2001
  
  
• Lecturer, Case Western Reserve U., 2002 - 2006
  
  
• Engineer, Rocketcalc Inc., 2003 - 2006
  
  
• Asst. Professor, Walsh Univ., 2006 - present

Projects/Interests: Outdoors

• skiing
• birding
• hiking
• photography

Projects/Interests: Science

• liquid crystal optics
  
• numerical analysis
  
• high-performance (parallel)   
  computing
• liquid crystals
  
• probability/statistics         
  

What am I?

• good with hands/tools/devices/computers,
  
  
• talented,
  
  
• a decent writer/communicator,
  
  
• a hard-working guy,
  
  
• still just Joe Blow.

Work-life in 2000's = very competitive

• we learn to adapt,
  
  
• we acquire valuable job skills,
  
  
• we learn to present our sets of skills,
  
  
• we also might attend a college.

You find out that college is:

1. Not at all like hanging with John Belushi.
2. Also not at all like spending time with Don Trump.
   
   
3. A lot like working your tail-end off.
   
   
4. Nothing at all like it was for George Barrick.
   
   
5. All of the above.

What will you adapt to?

• probably not math., statistics or physics.
  
  
• probably other professions.
  
  
• but you still gotta do your math;
  
  
• . . . . . it might be useful.

Quote:

A person can live a happy and prosperous life, and never know (or care) anything about mathematics.

• Richard K. Brown, ca. 1978 (an old friend).
  
  
• probably true;
  
  
• also probably true with God replacing mathematics;
  
  
• not good to behave as if it were true.

So, you're here to pass your math. class . . . .

• I'm here to help.
  
  
• I'll tell you what you need to know, and
  
  
• . . . . why you need to know it.
  
  
• You have to read the book; I can help you.
  
  
• You have to play with the problems.
  
  
• You will have to write tests.

How will you ever survive mathematics/statistics/physics???

• Do the John Belushi thing. It might make you wealthy.
  
  
  
• Better alternative: stick around here; I can probably help you with that math. difficulty.

You need to do some math.

• Not the kind that I do.
  
  
• Convince me that you've learned something;
  
  
• . . . . and that you can write it down.
  
  
• Learn to do some projects on a computer.
  
  

Try not to feel like an idiot

• I know what that feels like.
  
  
• Try to imagine your way over difficult spots.
  
  
• Clear up details on your second go.
  
  
• I can help you imagine it.

Work through me idiot phase to get it right second time

• I need to talk with you;
  
  
• You need to talk to me;
  
  
• electronic communications sometimes suffices;
  
  
• laughter = communication.
  
  
• Don’t be a stranger!
  
  
• Read the book!

Links