Discrete Mathematics Group at ISU (DISCMATH)

(Prepared by Roger B. Eggleton & Saad I. El-Zanati)

The Mathematics Department at Illinois State University (ISU) has an excellent Discrete Mathematics Group. The group, usually called DISCMATH for brevity, is very active in research and professional service, as well as providing enthusiastic and dedicated teaching for students at master's and all undergraduate levels.

The DISCMATH group convenes a regular weekly colloquium program , which runs throughout the Fall and Spring semesters and usually logs around 30 talks each academic year. Meetings last an hour, preceded by a quarter hour informal social gathering. The talks usually report on recent results or research in progress, but occasional expository and survey talks are included. Speakers usually are ISU faculty members of DISCMATH, but also include graduate students, invited speakers from other institutions, and visitors to the ISU Mathematics Department (most semesters the Department hosts one or more longer term visitors in Discrete Mathematics).

The DISCMATH group has organized and hosted a number of successful, well-attended research conferences at ISU in recent years:

o 25th Midwestern Graph Theory Conference (MIGHTY), Sept. 30, 1995.

Total of 23 research papers presented; over 50 participants, considered a new record for the MIGHTY series.

o 1996 Illinois Number Theory Conference, April 19-20, 1996.

Three invited principal speakers, 12 contributed research papers; 60 participants.

o 13th Midwestern Conference on Combinatorics, Cryptography and Computing (MC4) , Oct. 14-16, 1999.

Six invited principal speakers, 32 contributed research papers; over 60 participants. Some of the papers were published in JCMCC.

o Fall 2002 Midwestern Graph Theory Conference (MIGHTY XXXV) , Sept. 27-28, 2002.

Total of 34 research papers presented; 68 participants, considered a new record for the MIGHTY series.

Faculty members of DISCMATH include:

o Roger Eggleton , (Ph.D., Calgary 1973), Professor, with approximately 60 refereed research papers, mainly in Graph Theory, Combinatorics and Number Theory. E-mail: <roger@ilstu.edu>

o Saad El-Zanati , (Ph.D., Auburn 1991), Professor, with approximately 30 refereed research papers, mainly in Graph Theory and Combinatorics. E-mail: <saad HHH@ilstu.edu> ( Remove the HHH from thr e-mail address before e-mailing)

o Heather Gavlas , (Ph.D., Western Michigan 1996), Assistant Professor, with approximately 20 refereed research papers, mainly in Graph Theory and Combinatorics. E-mail: <hgavlas@ilstu.edu>

o Michael Plantholt , (Ph.D., Michigan 1982), Professor, with approximately 35 refereed research papers, mainly in Graph Theory. E-mail: <mikep@ilstu.edu>

o Papa Amar Sissokho , (Ph.D., Emory 2003), Assistant Professor, with several refereed research papers, mainly in Graph Theory. E-mail: <psissok@ilstu.edu>

o Shailesh Tipnis , (Ph.D., Cornell 1986), Professor, with approximately 15 refereed research papers, mainly in Discrete Optimization and Graph Theory. E-mail: <tipnis@ilstu.edu>

o Charles Vanden Eynden , (Ph.D., Oregon 1962), Professor Emeritus, with approximately 40 refereed research papers and two books, mainly in Number Theory, Graph Theory and Combinatorics. E-mail: <cve@.ilstu.edu>

The DISCMATH Group is very pleased to have hosted some wonderful guests from Down Under:

• Andrew Blinco , (Ph.D., University of Queensland 2003), Visiting Assistant Professor, Fall 2003.
• Darryn Bryant , (Ph.D., University of Queensland 1994), Visiting Assistant Professor, Spring 1999.
• Abdollah Khodkar , (Ph.D., University of Queensland), Visiting Assistant Professor, Fall 2001.
  

All the above are regular participants in research conferences, and usually most are holders of competitive research grants. Several other ISU Mathematics Department faculty take an active interest and regularly participate in DISCMATH activities.

Some Recent Guests of the DISCMATH Group (CAUTION: Lots of Aussies!!)

• Peter Adams (University of Queensland, Australia)
• Brian Alspach (Simon Frasier University & University of Regina)
• Sergei Bezrukov (University of Wisconsin at Superior)
• Andrew Blinco (University of Queensland & Auburn University)
• Darryn Bryant (University of Queensland, Australia)
• Nicholas Cavenagh (University of Queensland, Australia)
• Diane Donovan (University of Queensland, Australia)
• Dalibor Froncek (University of Minnesota at Duluth)
• Hung-Lin Fu (National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan)
• Peter Horak (University of Washington-Tacoma)
• Abdollah Khodkar (University of Queensland, Australia)
• Andre Kundgen (California State University, San Marcos)
• Nikolai Kuzjurin (Institute for System Programming, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow)
• Jiujiang Liu (Eastern Michigan University)
• Jim MacDougall (University of Newcastle, Australia)
• Barbara Maenhaut (University of Queensland, Australia)
• Michal Morayne (Wroclaw University of Technology, Poland)
• Joy Morris (University of Lethbridge, Canada)
  
• Narong Punnim (Srinakharinwirot University, Bangkok, Thailand)
• Ian Roberts (Charles Darwin University, Australia)
• Chris Rodger (Auburn University)
• Jozef Skokan (Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil)
  
• Vijaya Lakshmi Venkatajalam (Bombay University, India)
• Matt Walsh (Indiana-Purdue University, Fort Wayne)
• Wal Wallis (Southern Illinois University, Carbondale)

Courses in Discrete Mathematics and closely related areas are regularly offered by the ISU Mathematics Department. Instructors for these courses are normally selected from DISCMATH faculty members. These courses include the following:

o MAT 160: Elementary Discrete Mathematics - Discrete Mathematics relevant to computer science.

o MAT 162: Conflict, Cooperation, and Strategic Decision-Making - Game theory, especially two-person zero-sum and nonzero-sum games.

o MAT 260: Discrete Mathematics -Broad range of topics from combinatorics, graph theory, matching theory, network flows, switching circuits, finite state machines.

o MAT 330: Number Theory - comprehensive introduction to Non-analytic Number Theory.

o MAT 361: Topics in Discrete Mathematics - study of selected areas of Discrete Mathematics; selection varies from semester to semester.

o MAT 362: Linear Programming - covers modeling and solution of of problems using the simplex method. Also covers duality, sensitivity, integer programming and transportation problems.

o MAT 363: Graph Theory - comprehensive introduction to Graph Theory.

o MAT 410: Topics in Number Theory - variable selection of topics, usually including continued fractions, diophantine equations, and diophantine approximation.

The dedication, enthusiasm, professionalism, experience and high productivity of the DISCMATH group make the ISU Mathematics Department an excellent place in which to study Discrete Mathematics. Please contact us if you're interested.

Return to: Saad El-Zanati's Homepage or ISU Math Website