Academic Departments
Physical Sciences
Research
The Department of Physical Sciences encourages students to conduct original research in collaboration with faculty. Students may propose their own research projects or support the research of a faculty member in his or her area of academic interest. Research projects that are approved in advance by the Department and completed may count for academic credit.
Research Opportunities in Mathematics
Students have the opportunity to conduct original research in collaboration with faculty for college credit. They can either come up with their own projects or utilize a faculty member's ideas. Current and past research areas include:
- Cryptology is the art/science of secret writing (making and breaking ciphers). It is used extensively by the National Security Agency (NSA), which is the largest employer of mathematicians in the world. Dr. Bauer has many ideas for students if they wish to pursue research in this area. In the past, students' cryptology research papers have been published in Cryptologia, a peer reviewed journal published at West Point.
- Applied Mathematics is defined as the use of mathematical tools such as statistics or numerical analysis to study problems from business, physics, or other areas. Students have studied encoding of video files (like MPEG), created "Virtual Fish," and programmed artificial societies.
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Pure Mathematics research involves finding new solutions to problems, creating proofs, or examining mathematical methods for their own sake.