2:00 - 6:00	Registration (located in the Sleith Hall Entranceway)
2:00 - 3:00	Executive Committee Meeting (located in the Campus Center Room #4)
3:00 - 3:50	Finite Orbits: The Dynamics of Polynomial Maps and Undergraduate Research Greg Call, Amherst College One of my long-term research goals has been to involve students in my work. This talk will focus on a continuing research project which has proven to be especially attractive to my undergraduate collaborators and has produced a number of tantalizing theorems and conjectures. In particular, I'll describe some results obtained by my students over the past two summers.
3:00 - 3:50	Mathematics on the Web: Looking Back and Looking Forward Davide Cervone, Union College Over the past several years, The World-Wide Web has become enormously popular, even with those who do not traditionally use computers. Web addresses are now commonly seen on TV commercials, news programs, product packaging, even advertising on the sides of buses. What does this medium offer mathematicians? This talk will focus on a web-based research paper that gives one approach to how hypertext and hypermedia can substantially improve the presentation of research-level and educational materials. We will discuss some of the issues involved in writing such a document, on what this means for traditional publications, and some current directions being developed for presenting mathematics on the internet.
4:00 - 4:50	CHRISTIE LECTURE: Mathematics for future lawyers, legislators, and business leaders Michael Starbird, The University of Texas at Austin Mathematics is artistic, creative, and just plain fun. It can provide a powerful and penetrating way of thought and a lifetime of pleasure. Mathematics can shock non-technical students out of their narrow rut of reality and open their minds to wonders beyond their wildest imagination. The best parts of mathematics are in its depths. Infinity, fractals, and the fourth dimension; topology, cryptography, and duality - these ideas are fascinating for anyone. Let's avoid having students struggle up the first two steps of a hundred step ladder that they will never climb. Instead let's allow them to discover for themselves the joy of thought. Our challenge is to follow the 20 year rule: What from their mathematics course will be of real value to them in 20 years?
5:00 - 6:15	Student Talks
6:15 - 6:45	Reception
6:45 - 7:45	Dinner
7:45 - 8:00	Welcome
8:00 - 8:50	BANQUET LECTURE: A Room in Perspective: A mathematician's reflections from the President's Office Neil Grabois, President, Colgate University We are delighted to welcome President Grabois who is both a mathematician and the President of Colgate University. He will provide a unique perspective of mathematics from a college-wide vantage point.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1997

7:30 - 10:30	Registration
8:30 - 3:00	Book Exhibits
8:00 - 8:50	NES/MAA TEACHING AWARD LECTURE: "Real Estate In Hyperbolic Space:Investment Opportunities for the Next Millennium", Mel Slugbate, Real Estate Agent (substituting for his brother-in-law Colin Adams, Williams College)
9:00 - 9:50	Discovering Minimal Surfaces Helen Moore, Bowdoin College What is a minimal surface? How were minimal surfaces discovered? If you were holding a live minimal surface in your hand, what kinds of things should you look for and why? I will give a brief history of minimal surface theory, including some exciting problems solved in the 1980's and the latest progress on a related problem. My aim is to give you a sense of the beauty of minimal surfaces and some of the questions that have been asked about them.
9:00 - 9:50	Recent Results in the Mathematics of Political Power Bill Zwicker, Union College In democracies, elected representatives typically vote "yes" or "no" on proposed legislation, constitutional change, etc. The voting systems range from simple majority rule, to weighted versions in which legislators from more populous districts cast more votes, to complex bicameral systems with presidential vetoes and veto overrides, such as the US federal system. Designers of such a system must be able to test whether the actual difference in influence among the legislators came out the way they intended. The traditional approach is to use a mathematical "voting power index," but the known indices differ sharply from each other. Can the issue be resolved? Some recent results indicate promising lines of research for the future.
9:50 - 10:15	Coffee Break and book exhibits
10:15 - 11:05	Williams Summer Science Program - Not With a Whisper But a Bang Olga Beaver, Williams College Since its inception in 1987, Williams' Summer Science Program has delivered a challenging wallop of college math and science to participating pre-freshman students of color. These 12-14 students have indicated a strong interest in math or science, and the Summer Science Program is designed to reinforce that interest. In no way the euphemistic "bridge" between high school and college, the Program takes participants through five tough, unrelenting summer weeks of math, chemistry, and literature, together with some biology and geology. The Summer Science Program works: retention of SSP alumni in math and science fields is high and overall retention to graduation is noteworthy.
10:15 - 11:05	Some new results on p-adic local zeta functions discovered by undergraduates Margaret Robinson, Mount Holyoke College This talk will describe the Summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program at Mount Holyoke College and explain and discuss some of the results obtained by three different groups working on problems in p-adic analysis.
11:15 - 12:15	STUDENT WORKSHOP: Balloons and Bagels: A Hands-on Exploration of Surfaces, Helen Moore, Bowdoin College Students will work in small groups and perform experiments using balloons and bagels. This will be a guided discovery of some of the fundamental relationships between the shape of a surface and the directions it faces. It is intended to give students an enticing glimpse of the beautiful and deep connections between geometry and topology. The last part of the workshop will be spent relating the workshop discoveries to the morning talk. The workshop will be appropriate for all levels of college students.
11:15 - 12:15	FACULTY WORKSHOP: Discovering mathematics for the multitudes, Michael Starbird, University of Texas at Austin How can we engage non-technical students in mathematical inquiry? This workshop will feature some samples of activities to involve students in thinking about intriguing, but abstract mathematics. This entertaining workshop will feature hand's on methods for making the underlying ideas of abstract mathematics accessible and enjoyable to students.
12:15 - 1:15	Lunch New faculty are invited to a special table for an informal lunch meeting organized by Project NExT
1:15 - 2:05	New Faculty Presentations Irrational numbers, continued fractions, and irrationality degree Eileen Lee, Trinity College Groups in Geometry Megan Kerr, Wellesley College The Open-Box and Field-Along-A-River Problems Jean McGivney-Burelle, Southern CT State University On edge-magic labellings of graphs Lisa Hansen, Western New England College
2:15 - 3:05	Implementing the MAA Report on Quantitative Literacy: what works and what doesn't A panel discussion chaired by Judith Moran, Trinity College In 1996 the MAA issued its report: "Quantitative Reasoning for College Graduates: A Complement to the StandardsÓ. Last April, members of ten colleges in the New England/New York area met to share ideas and experiences implementing the report's recommendations. This panel will include members of the group formed last spring, The Northeast Consortium for Quantitative Literacy, from Trinity, Wellesley, Hamilton, Skidmore and Williams colleges, who will discuss how their institutions have responded to the report's philosophy and suggestions, with descriptions of programs that have worked and difficulties encountered.
2:15 - 3:05	On A Clear Day, You Can See Forever David Daniels, Longmeadow High School Mars success and Mir troubles have occupied the news over the past year. What are some of the mathematics of space travel? Space debris is a growing problem that threatens the safety of spacecraft and astronauts. Another question of interest is how far we can see from high above the earth and how much of the earth's surface is visible. Mathematics can help answer these qustions.
3:15 - 4:15	Contributed Paper Session

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Tommy Ratliff, tratliff@wheatonma.edu Dept of Math & CS Wheaton College, Norton, Massachusetts