Revitalizing Complex Analysis

Westmont College, Santa Barbara CA

Investigators

Abstract

Russell Howell (PI, Westmont College), Alan Noell (Oklahoma State University), and Paul Zorn (St. Olaf College) are organizing a one-week workshop (June 24 to 28, 2013, at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA). The workshop is producing a document that contains recommendations for revitalizing the content and teaching of a first course in complex analysis at the undergraduate level. The animating momentum behind the project is modeled after the successful reform movements in calculus and linear algebra. A follow-up contributed paper session and panel discussion is being planned for the 2014 Joint Mathematics Meetings in Baltimore, MD. The fifteen workshop participants are researchers and educators trained in complex analysis, people with expertise in pedagogy, and people affiliated with scientific or industrial organizations who use complex analysis on a regular basis. One of the focal points of the workshop is looking at ways of enhancing and expanding applications of complex analysis that are usually presented to undergraduates. Other goals being pursued include crafting recommendations for technology and pedagogy, with special emphasis on identifying promising (or, better yet, tested) inquiry-based learning approaches to the subject of complex analysis at the undergraduate level.