Report from King's College
by Denise Reboli
On February 21, 2002 Joseph Smith, Marc Evans, Lori Koban, Steve Tedford,
Dan Clouse, Dan Lopez, Fernando Guzman, and Luise-Charlotte Kappe from
SUNY-Binghamton traveled to King's College for the afternoon. Veronica
Cybulski
from Luzerne County Community College and Louise Berard from Wilkes University
also joined the group. Dan Clouse presented "Identification numbers and check
digit schemes: 'How do we know we have the right number?' " to our
undergraduate
students and faculty. Dan discussed various errors that occur when
transmitting
identification numbers. He also discussed the role of the check digit and
various ways of computing it, including the UPS tracking number and the USPS
money order number. In doing so, he also elaborated on the efficiency of those
methods, particularly in regard to the two major errors made in transmission.
Those errors, transposing adjacent digits, and changing a single digit
represent
nearly 90% of the errors that commonly occur.
After Dan's talk, the Math and Computer Science Club provided refreshments so
that all present would have an opportunity to discuss the talk and mingle with
one another. Some students discussed graduate school with Professor Guzman.
Our
faculty had the opportunity to catch up with three of our graduates who are
currently at Binghamton pursuing graduate degrees. Other students and faculty
continued to talk with our guests about the talk.
Afterwards, Tony Berard, Joe Evan, Dan Ghezzi, and Denise Reboli, King's
College,
joined our visitors for dinner at Chili's. We discussed many issues that we
face
in the classroom. We also discussed our recent experiences at the Joint
Meeting
Employment Center in San Diego. We look forward to hearing where those that
are
completing their Ph.D.'s this year will accept employment.
Submitted by:
Denise M. Reboli, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Mathematics
King's College