N A N C Y. J. W Y S H I N S K I

The following feature story appeared in the campus publication MOSAIC in May, 1998.

APPROACHING PROBLEMS, SEEING PATTERNS, AND FINDING SOLUTIONS

El Niño may have made this a lackluster winter weatherwise in Hartford, but it failed to stop Associate Professor of Mathematics Nancy J. Wyshinski from challenging the mathematical -- and meteorological -- skills of her students.

Wyshinski posed the following problem to the students in her "Differential Equations" class this semester: One morning it began to snow very hard and continued snowing steadily throughout the day. A snowplow set out at 8 a.m. to clear a road, clearing three miles by 11 a.m. and an additional mile by 1 p.m. At what time did it start snowing? Working as a team, Abigail P. Day '00 and Alicia K. Ferraro '00 creatively tackled the problem by, among other things, constructing a model complete with a toy snowplow and artificial snow -- in this case, salt. Assuming that the snow fell at a constant rate, the students calculated that the snow began falling at 6:31 a.m. Ferraro said the exercise showed her a real-life application of differential equations and heightened her interest in math. "Professor Wyshinski gets so excited about math; it's contagious," says Ferraro. "She loves math and she gets us to love it, too."

Wyshinski contends that the powers of logic and analysis, used in mathematics, can solve not only practical problems, like that of the hypothetical snowplow, but can be applied to many other disciplines, as well. As an example, she recalls how a former student, who spent a summer working in computer applications, expressed delight at how her study of calculus had helped her. Wyshinski believes that mathematics -- specifically, calculus and the thinking skills it requires -- has universal benefit and should be mandatory for all college students.

"Students think that we are teaching them calculus so they can differentiate and integrate functions," she says. "That's not true. What we're really trying to do is show students how to approach problems, look for patterns, and eliminate the extraneous material." Such critical thinking skills are valuable in any discipline, Wyshinski contends, noting that Trinity math majors have gone on to positions in industry, business, law, and medicine, to name a few.

A Pennsylvania native, who holds a doctoral degree from the University of Colorado, Wyshinski says her positive experience as an undergraduate illustrated the important role social support plays in the study of mathematics. Since joining Trinity's faculty in 1991, Wyshinski has done much to provide her students with similar support. In 1992, she started a math club whose members have tutored students at Hartford Public High School.

For the past four years Wyshinski and her students have participated in the Hudson River Undergraduate Math Conference, an opportunity she promotes in order to provide her students the experience of participating in an academic conference. During the one-day conference, which is funded by the National Science Foundation, Trinity math majors join their peers from 30 institutions from the Northeast and give presentations on math problems they are working on. Wyshinski also started Trinity's honor society for math majors, Pi Mu Epsilon, as yet another way of encouraging and recognizing student achievement.

Motivating students by helping them build their confidence is only part of Wyshinski's pedagogical approach. "I think the most important thing that we can do for students is just make them feel comfortable enough to ask a question," she contends. "If they don't feel comfortable, they will close down and not know what's going on. I try to make sure that my door's open to them," she says.

A high energy level

Professor of Mathematics David Mauro praises his colleague for "the high energy level that she channels into her teaching, into conveying mathematics in an enthusiastic and delightful way, and into her research." In her research, Wyshinski has collaborated with colleagues at the University of Colorado at Boulder to produce a comprehensive collection of continued-fraction representations of mathematical functions. She hopes the work will eventually be published and become a companion volume to the five-volume set Higher Transcendental Functions and Tables of Integral Transforms, the basic reference on special functions and number theory, which is used in computational and theoretical research. According to Seabury Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy and department chair David A. Robbins, Wyshinski is among a select group of mathematicians from Boulder, Norway, and the Ukraine who are pursuing this recognized line of research.

Math major Daniel S. Buchholz '98, who has taken several courses with Wyshinski and is one of her advisees, says learning about her experiences has been very helpful to him. "You can read a lot, but when you hear a firsthand account of someone's experience, you really know what the field entails. Professor Wyshinski is not dry. She makes math fun, or as much fun as math can be!" Following graduation, Buchholz will begin work as a corporate analyst with the investment banking firm of Lehman Brothers in New York.

Engineering major Joshua M. Sachar '98, who has taken "Linear Algebra" with Wyshinski says, "Professor Wyshinski really cares how her students do. She wants to see her students succeed."

-- Suzanne Zack