Mathematics Mini-courses for Students at the SACNAS Conference

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This project includes two mathematics mini-courses to be part of an enhanced group of mathematics activities at the 2003 Conference of the Society for Advancement of Chicano and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) to be held on October 2-5, 2003 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Each mini-course will consist ofsix one-hour lectures by two instructors: an established mathematician with an excellent record of research, mentoring and teaching, and a junior mathematician who has demonstrated exceptional mentoring ability while carrying out an outstanding research and teaching program. The mini-course topics will be"Coding Theory" and "Explorations in Mathematical Biology."The purpose of each mini-course is to expose a large number of minority students (advanced undergraduates and graduate students)to a topic in applied or pure mathematics with particular emphasis on diverse approaches to problems, and connections to other areas of mathematics or other disciplines. The mini-courses are expected to reach a point when open problems that have the potential to grow into graduate research projects can be stated in context. This is designed to encourage students to continue on to graduate school and boost their confidence by making them realize that, even at this stage, they are able to understandthe nature of motivating questions.