On October 24, 1995, at its Annual Meeting in Charlotte, NC,the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) organized a special program for underrepresented minority students.
The Workshop was called "Graduate Student Focus on Diversity" and was organized by three graduate students from Rice University. The intent of the workshop was to support and encourage minority undergraduates who might be considering graduate school, and first- and second- year minority graduate students.
During the day, there were two sessions of technical talks by minority graduate students. SIAM arranged a luncheon for students, their faculty advisors, the graduate student speakers, distinguished minority mathematicians, and SIAM members. At 8 PM, there was a special evening session called "The Real Deal," moderated by Professor Richard Tapia of Rice University, during which students talked frankly about professional and personal issues relevant to graduate school and scientific careers.
The schedule of events was:
10:00-11:30 Graduate Student Presentations
Moderator: Pamela J. Williams
On the Solution of a Shape Optimization Problem Anthony J. Kearsley, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth
Finite Element Approximations to a System of Shallow Water Equations Monica L. Martinez, Rice University
Cassandra M. McZeal, Rice University On the Use of Interior Point Methods for Integer Programming
Coupling Sea Ice Models to Climate Models Method Monica Y. Stephens, Brown University
12:00-1:45 Lunch with Applied Mathematicians
1:45-3:15 Graduate Student Presentations
Moderator: Cassandra M. McZeal
Otis B. Jennings, Georgia Institute of Technology Approximations for Nonstationary Circuit Switched Networks
The Use of Interior Point Methods for Solving the Phase Problem in Crystallography Leticia Velazquez, Rice University
Donald C. Williams, Rice University Computational Applications of Lagrangian Equations of Motion to Spatial Loose-Parts Dynamical Systems
Pamela J. Williams, Rice University On Effective Finite Termination Techniques within Interior Point Methods for Linear Programming Problems
2:30-4:00 Mathematical Contest in Modeling-SIAM Award Pres.
4:15-5:15 Special Expository Lecture-If Copernicus Had a Computer Speaker: Charles Van Loan
5:30-6:30 Reception
8:00 The Real Deal: An Informal Graduate Student Session
Moderator: Richard Tapia
This was an occasion for all undergraduate and graduate underrepresented minority students to talk with each other about personal and professional issues pertinent to survival and success in graduate school.
Additional information about SIAM can be found on the web at SIAM's home page.