Mark Iwen
Visiting Assistant Professor
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Contact Information: Mathematics Department Office: Physics 015 |
I have a B.S. degree from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee in both Mathematics and Computer Science. While an undergraduate I took several semesters off to work in the Applied Research and Electrical Systems Software Design departments at Hamilton Sundstrand Aerospace. I earned a Ph.D. in 2008 from the University of Michigan in Applied & Interdisciplinary Mathematics. From September 2008 through August 2010 I was a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications (IMA). I have been a visiting assistant professor at Duke University since September of 2010. My research interests include signal processing, computational harmonic analysis, algorithms, scientific computing, and analysis of high dimensional data sets.
Teaching and Mentoring
| Math 361, Mathematical Numerical Analysis | Spring 2013 | Duke University |
| Math 487.01, Introduction to Mathematical Logic | Fall 2012 | Duke University |
| Math 221/104.02, Linear Algebra | Fall 2011 | Duke University |
| Math 222/105.01, Vector Calculus | Spring 2011 | Duke University |
| Math 393/192, Independent Study | Spring 2011 | Duke University |
| Math 212/103.08, Multivariable Calculus | Fall 2010 | Duke University |
| Math 4997W-006, Senior Project | Summer 2010 | University of Minnesota |
| Math 4991-001, Independent Study | Spring 2010 | University of Minnesota |
| REU Team Mentor | Summer 2009 | Institute for Mathematics and its Applications |
| Math 216, Introduction to Differential Equations | Fall 2007 | University of Michigan |
| Math 215, Calculus III | Fall 2005 | University of Michigan |
| Math 116, Calculus II | Winter 2005 & Fall 2006 | University of Michigan |
| Math 115, Calculus I | Winter 2004 | University of Michigan |
| Math 105, Algebra | Fall 2003 | University of Michigan |
| Math 117, Trigonometry | Spring 2002 | University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee |
Educational Outreach
- Here are some slides for an introductory tutorial on Group Testing which was presented to sixth graders at "Lyuben Karavelov" school in Koprivshtitsa, Bulgaria in June 2012. The tutorial has also been presented to North Carolina middle school students as part of the ``Girls Making It in Science'' computational science project held at Bennett College for Women in November 2010. The talk provides a good opportunity to discuss chemistry, biology, computer science, basic probability, and WWII history, among other topics. Ultimately, the students learn general ``binary search'' techniques. Besides a discussion of the aforementioned topics, these slides and exercises can be supplemented with a safe experimental implementation of a group testing procedure. I suggest the students be split up into groups, and that each group be given 4 to 8 ``mystery dixie cups'' each containing one of two possible types of powder (either bleached flour, or flour mixed with baking soda). The group's job is to identify which mystery dixie cups contain only flour, and which contain flour mixed with baking soda. These dixie cups can be tested for the presence of baking soda by mixing lemon juice with samples of the powder from various subsets of the mystery dixie cups in a separate ``test dixie cup''. Lemon juice will fizz up in the presence of baking soda, but does not react with flour alone (baking soda is basic, lemon juice acidic). The group who manages to identify the one (or two) mystery dixie cups containing baking soda while using the fewest number of test dixie cups wins a round of applause.
- Here is a Matlab script which was part of an introductory Matlab tutorial presented to undergraduate mathematics students at Bennett College for Women in April 2012. This script explores the PageRank algorithm used by Google to rank the web pages returned by an internet search. After an hour on basic computational and graphing skills, this script can be used to help guide students through a simplified description of the page ranking algorithm. Along the way there are many opportunities to discuss introductory graph theory, probability, and Markov chains, along with their applications in computer science.
Some Fun Links...
Math in Literature
- Some Interesting Commentaries on Poems by Lewis Carroll:
- An interesting discussion of Carroll's famous nonsense poem Jabberwocky is here.
- More on the meaning and language of Jabberwocky can be found here.
- The book Flat Land incorporates geometry into a story about confronting social norms.
- A very large database of many many other works of fiction that are related to mathematics can be found here.
Other Educational Math Links
- The Klein Project:
- An interesting project focused on bridging the gap between high school and research mathematics. The website and wiki are here.
- The blog is here.
- Mathematical Experiments:
- An experimental challenge involving three sticks is here.
- More geometrical experiments by Hunkin are here.
- Many other interesting games, puzzles, and simple proofs can be found here.
- A nice website which offers many computational mathematical challenges is here.