Team-taught by two professors and incorporating active student involvement, the class promotes skills in understanding and developing mathematical proofs. Students work together to hash out their ideas and improve each other's work. On topics of the presenters' choosing, the seminars convey material beyond the regular curriculum to an audience of students and faculty. Either way, at the end of your education here you will find yourself reflecting on the full spectrum of material you've learned, seeing new connections and gaining new insights. You'll find that one of our program's strengths is the intensive individual attention our students receive.
Faculty members are always ready to help.
If you choose to take an independent study course, or complete a senior thesis, you'll be working individually with a faculty member who will guide you and act as a mentor. Topics for independent studies and theses can vary widely across applied and pure mathematics. One recent student studied the traffic flow at certain street intersections in his hometown of Los Angeles. Another focused her research on mathematical mechanisms that might explain how pacemaker cells in the heart synchronize their firing patterns. Yet another sought mathematical techniques for eliminating imperfections in sounds arising from the interactions of audio amplifiers with their surroundings.