Math 399i: Senior Seminar
(Fall 1997)
ASSIGNMENTS AND IMPORTANT NOTICES

Assignment 1 (due Friday 1/30)

Write up, in ONE page, a description of your senior paper project. This should contain a brief explanation of the topic (with motivations and examples, if you want). The goal is to be able to give, in only one page, an idea of what your senior paper is all about to a reader who doesn't know anything about it. This will require some thinking and effort on your side. You should bring TWO TYPED copies of this description on Friday 1/30. You'll give one copy to me and one to one of your classmates and he/she will read it on his/her own and explain to the rest of us what your senior paper deals with. Then we'll all discuss together the organization and clarity of your description, as well as suggestions for possible improvement. The grade for this assignment will be based on the degree of success in conveying your topic in a clear, coincise and organized fashion.

Note:

Please see the updated version (as of 1/21/98) of the course information sheet on the www. Some changes have been made.

Assignment 2 (due Friday 2/6)

Prepare three definitions, which appear in your senior paper, followed by illustrative examples to present to the class.

Assignment 3 (due Friday 2/13)

We'll continue with the definition stuff.

Assignment 4 (due Friday 2/20)

Prepare an oral presentation of the proof of a (short) statement, lemma, theorem, or proposition relative to your senior paper. Your presentation should be self contained. Be prepared to give all necessary definitions and possible illustrative examples for these and for the statement you will prove. You are also asked to submit a written plan of your presentation as explained in class.
Note: We'll meet on Monday Feb. 23 from 6:30 to 7:30 pm instead of Friday Feb. 27. Also, we won't be meeting on Fri March 6, since the first draft of your paper is due on that day.

Assignment 5 (due Friday 3/20 and Friday 3/27)

Prepare an oral presentation of a nontrivial result in you senior paper, like a theorem or relevant lemma or proposition. Be prepared to give all necessary definitions and possible illustrative examples for these and for the statement you will prove. Also be prepared to explain, if asked, at least the ideas involved in the proofs of results that you might be quoting. The duration of your presentation should be from 20 minutes to half hour and you should be able to go through it without referring to your notes, if not occasionally. You are also asked to submit a written plan of your presentation as explained in class.

Assignment 6 (due Friday 4/10)

We will not meet on 4/3. We'll meet on 4/10 and we'll discuss your final senior paper presentation. Come with a rough outline of how you plan to organize your talk: time distribution among various parts of the presentation (introduction, main results, etc.), results that you plan to state, proofs or sketches of proofs that you plan to present, examples you'll provide etc.
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