Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics
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The Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics (HCSSiM) is a residential program for mathematically talented high school students. The program has been conducted each summer since 1971, with the exceptions of 1981 and 1996, and has more than 1500 alumni.
The program was created and is still headed by Professor David C. Kelly, more affectionately called Kelly by his students. For the past several years the co-director has been sarah-marie belcastro.
The program is housed at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, and generally runs for six weeks from early July until mid-August.
The program itself consists of lectures, study sessions, math workshops (general-knowledge classes), maxis (three-week classes run by the senior staff members), and minis (specialized shorter classes). It has served as the basis for many other similar programs due to HCSSiM's success.
On a typical day, students spend the morning in class, have lunch together with the faculty, and then have several hours to use at their leisure (many take this opportunity to play Ultimate). They return for the "Prime Time Theorem" (an hour-long talk on an interesting piece of mathematics given by a faculty member or a visitor), have dinner, and then spend a few hours solving problems.
HCSSiM receives highly favorable reviews from its students; many unconditionally recommend it to anyone interested in mathematics. Well-known alumni of the program include two MacArthur Fellows, Eric Lander and Erik Winfree, as well as Lisa Randall, Dana Randall, and Eugene Volokh. Many alumni return to the campus for a few days around Yellow Pig's Day (July 17) of each year. This observance was formalized for 2006 in "Yellow Pig Math Days," which was conducted in observance of 2006 being the 34th offering of the HCSSiM Program (34 being a multiple of 17).
The Summer Studies has been funded in the past by the American Mathematical Society and the U.S. National Science Foundation.
[edit] Other Alumni
- Art Benjamin, Professor of Mathematics, Harvey Mudd College
- Tom Hull, Associate Professor of Mathematics, Merrimack College
- Jim Propp, Associate Professor of Mathematics, University of Wisconsin at Madison
- Lisa Randall, Professor of Physics, Harvard University
- Seth Schoen, Technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation
- Ann Trenk, Professor of Mathematics, Wellesley College
[edit] External links
- HCSSiM Homepage
- HCSSiM LiveJournal
- HCSSiM Forum moderated by HCSSiM Co-director sarah-marie belcastro
- HCSSiM 2006 photo collection (including Yellow Pig Math Days)
