Bob Hudson, a Physics instructor from 1962 to 1996 at Roanoke College, passed away this week. The word “character” describes Bob as well as one word can ever capture a person. I’m using the word in both the “lovable eccentric” sense as well as the “moral integrity” sense – I think Bob would appreciate the…
Roanoke College has a long history of basketball success. Current men’s coach Page Moir and recently retired women’s coach Susan Dunagan hold the records for most ODAC conference wins. A lesser known, but more important, tradition is MCSP majors in the starting lineup. The list includes James (JP) Pennix, the well-named Ken Sine, Bryant Lee,…
The second floor of Trexler is haunted by intermittent clattering sounds! Actually, there is no need for a paranormal investigation, it’s just Drs. Taylor (Dave) and Childers (Adam) playing dice games. For Dave, this was partly research for his book The Mathematics of Games: An Introduction to Probability, recently published by CRC Press. The book…
There is an old saying that “the camera does not lie.” Putting aside the fact that PhotoShop does, the use of high-speed photography has revealed some fascinating facts. MCSP has such a camera; although it is very low resolution, we did capture a rubber band oscillating and verified the mathematical solution (found in Math 332)…
In continuing with the tradition started just last year, the Computer Science department held a showcase for students in the introductory Computer Science and Mobile App INQ courses to show the software they created this semester to a wider audience. The computer science students were allowed to choose their final projects, and were required to…
What do our graduates do with a physics or mathematics major? For years, one of our answers has been “assistant director of the FBI” but until recently I did not know the details of our distinguished alumnus, William A. (Al) Bayse. Some surreptitious sleuthing unearthed excerpts from books about the FBI, including recently declassified information…
Each year the Computer Science department takes a trip to the Consortium of Computing Sciences in Colleges (CCSC) south eastern regional conference. This year the conference was held in North Charleston South Carolina, at the College of Charleston’s north campus. While the focus of the conference is Computer Science education, one of the more fun…
Fractals are infinitely complex – infinite and complex are two carefully chosen descriptors. The Menger sponge is one of the classic construction fractals. Start with a cube. On each face draw a Tic-Tac-Toe grid of nine squares, then drill a rectangular tunnel straight through the middle square. Here’s a challenge: you can think of the…
Amanda Wright is a Physics major at Roanoke College. A desire to do research brought her to Roanoke College, and she has always had an interest in marine life. The chance to combine the two in a summer project was too good to pass up, even if it was not always clear how the finances…
Computer Science is stereotypically a male dominated field. However, this was not always the case. Many of the pioneers in the field have been female. One of the biggest names from the field is Grace Hopper, a Navy Rear Admiral who developed the very first compiler for a programming language. She is even the individual…
