Deadline for iCampus Research Proposals is October 4

Project iCampus, the MIT-Microsoft Alliance for research in educational technology, is now soliciting research proposals for 2005-2006. The deadline is October 4.

iCampus plans to fund several projects that will run for two years, each with a budget of $200-400K per year. Project work will be expected to begin in January 2005. Proposals should contain explicit milestones for each year, and second-year funding will be contingent on a successful project review.

Submissions are open to members of the MIT community only, and each proposal must be submitted by a designated principal investigator who is authorized to hold PI status on MIT research contracts.

See the iCampus web sit e for more information and submission details.

PDA Support - Survey of Faculty Interest

Information Services and Technology (IS&T) is exploring faculty interest in the extention of support for the use of PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) for accessing MIT services such as e-mail, the TechTime calendar, and the Web. IS&T is currently building support for e-mail access via devices such as Blackberries and Treos, and already offers support for PDAs running PalmOS and PocketPC. See the IS&T PDA support web page for more information about current support.

Free Maple 9.5 Training

September 21, noon - 5:00 p.m., 37-312. Registration required.

A representative from Maplesoft will be giving two training sessions on Maple 9.5 the newest version of Maple (one introductory, one intermediate) in room 37-312 (Building 37 Windows cluster) between noon and 5pm on September 21, 2004.

Seating is limited so be sure to register if you plan to attend the event.

For more information or if you have questions about the training, contact Daniel Jamous via e-mail or phone at 252-1383.

General Session Objectives

• Introduction to Maple 9.5 – A first look for experienced users, newcomers, or anyone interested.
  • Rock Solid numerics for solving Optimization problems
  • Improved ODE and PDE solvers
  • Easy-to-access interactive task assistants help with common tasks, such as unit conversion and solving ODEs
  • A Math and Engineering Dictionary of terms with over 5000 definitions and 300 diagrams
  • Enhancements to plots improve interactive manipulation through sliders, scaling, panning, and an enhanced plot builder
  • New dockable palettes make expression entry easier
  • The new CodeGeneration[Save] command allows user-contributed language definitions to be saved in a Maple archive more easily
  • The expanded Tools menu provides easy access to 40 interactive tutors, which guide you through mathematical explorations in precalculus, calculus, multivariate calculus and linear algebra
  • Curriculum-specific visualization routines improve students' comprehension in key topics
  • Enhanced context sensitive menus which provide more options for problem analysis
  • The Interactive Plot Builder has been expanded to allow easier creation of a greater variety of plots
  • Mathematica Notebook conversion and command translation saves time when migrating your work to Maple
  • Many new features offer advanced programmers greater convenience and programming tools, including debugging a running program
  • Easy-to-use interactive Maplet™ assistant to set up and edit problems
• Introduction to MapleNET solution for web-based teaching and learning.
• Introduction to Maple T.A. solution for comprehensive assessment and testing such as practice problems, proctored exams, and mastery based testing
  • Student Experience
  • Instructor Experience, including authoring questions, assignment creation, and grade book navigation