There are "skills courses" (the more specialized ones) that run
November - April. Since they are three weeks, you may be able to
squeeze one in during a winter break. That would be pretty demanding
I think (too demanding for me, personally) but possible. It would be
a lot easier if you are at a school with some sort of January/winter
short term that you could miss.
I don't think teaching something applied is necessary, although its
good if it has connections with applied material. While I was there,
there was another course on graph theory that was proof- and theory-
oriented - but of course graph theory has a lot of applications.
Its a great place, I highly recommend going. I hope to go back
sometime although it is challenging to schedule without some sort of
leave or sabbatical.
-Marshall
On Nov 25, 9:31 am, kcrisman <kcris...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Rob - thanks for continuing to post on this issue. I have been
> mentioning AIMS a lot to my students this semester - as a reminder
> that in places outside the US, math can be seen as an opportunity, not
> a chore.
>
> A couple questions I think are worth addressing is whether their
> activities are usually during the US school year, and whether
> particular applied expertise is needed (my sense was that the
> institutes are planned to be fairly applied?). Marshall also taught
> there once, right?
>
> Great! Something to give thanks for today is this initiative.
>
> - kcrisman
>
> On Nov 24, 5:08 pm, Rob Beezer <goo...@beezer.cotse.net> wrote:
>
> > I've enjoyed seeing developers report themselves as on a "leave of
> > absence." I've just back from a leave myself, but failed to notify
> > everyone in advance that I would be gone. So I will correct the
> > bureaucratic oversight by filing a report on my time away. ;-)
>
> > I spent October and November at the African Institute for Mathematical
> > Sciences (AIMS), in Cape Town, South Africa. I taught a 3-week course
> > (2 hours a day, 5 days a week) titled "Applied Linear Algebra with
> > Sage" [1]. The students were in AIMS' Postgraduate Diploma course
> > [2]. They were 55 students from across all of Africa, all with
> > undergraduate degrees, and plans to continue their studies in
> > mathematics or physics at the graduate level. The Institute is housed
> > in an old hotel, so students and lecturers all live, eat, work and
> > study in the building. The location is idyllic - it is one block away
> > from "Surfer's Corner," which is where the long white-sand beach of
> > the northern border of False Bay gives way to the Cape Peninsula,
> > which culminates in the Cape of Good Hope.
>
> > AIMS runs entirely on open-source software and there is an emphasis on
> > Sage. It is quite pleasing to walk into the computer lab to see the
> > students all working with LaTeX, Python, Sage and a variety of other
> > standard tools. Students really appreciated the power of Sage. One
> > student from Egypt told me how he had once multiplied together two
> > 10x10 matrices, by hand! So I really enjoyed exposing these students
> > to the capabilities of Sage, and I expect they will continue to
> > promote its use as they move on to new institutions and new positions
> > in the years ahead.
>
> > There is an initiative to create 14 more such centers across Africa
> > [3], which has attracted $20 million in funding from Canada and $3
> > million from Goggle. Nigeria, Senegal, Ethiopia, Ghana (in that
> > order) seem poised to be the first countries to act. So there should
> > be a continued need for visiting lecturers with knowledge of Sage.
> > The teaching is quite intense (two hours of lecture, plus lab time in
> > the afternoon and evening), but there is a group of teaching
> > assistants to mark assignments and for the courses early in the year,
> > there are no examinations given. I enjoyed the chance to structure a
> > course with such a heavy dose of Sage.
>
> > Regulars will notice that Jan Groenewald regularly posts reminders
> > about AIMS being interested in lecturers with Sage experience. Feel
> > free to ask me any questions you might have, or ask Jan. Much more
> > info at [4].
>
> > {1] http://users.aims.ac.za/~beezer/course.html
>
> > {2] http://www.aims.ac.za/en/programmes/postgraduate-diploma
>
> > [3] http://www.aims.ac.za/en/programmes/nexteinstein-initiative
>
> > [4] http://aims.ac.za
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