Professional Skills for Mathematics

Department: 
MATH
Course Number: 
2801
Hours - Lecture: 
1
Hours - Total Credit: 
1

Professional Skills for Mathematics is an introduction to technical and communication skills utilized in upper level mathematics courses with additional focus on resume building and professional development.

Prerequisites: 

There are no pre-requisites for this course. The intended audience is math majors in their second semester here, and the course is restricted to math majors. 

Course Text: 

No text required. The course will be structured around primarily discussions of readings outside class, peer review of assignment drafts, and presentations including a poster session at the end of the semester.

Topic Outline: 

Course Goals and Learning Outcomes

 

Be aware of the skills that future employers are looking for and how to build a resume/CV that will be attractive to employers/graduate schools

 

Know how to find and apply for summer opportunities including REU and internships.

 

Understand the ethical implications of modern mathematics; possibilities: statistical analysis, modeling, gerrymandering.

 

Learn about experiences of other mathematicians (Living Proof)

 

Learn about the various professional and student groups and conferences in the mathematical sciences

 

Be able to utilize commonly employed software in the mathematical sciences (to be decided: LaTeX, Excel, Matlab, Python, R as possibilities)

 

Be able to find and cite mathematical information in the literature.

 

Be able to present, in an effective and appealing fashion, mathematical ideas in the form of a poster or short presentation.

 

Reflect on the process of learning these skills and develop the ability to better learn further professional skills