Mathematics Department

 

 

 

The Honors Program

Description:

The Honors Program at BMCC provides eligible students with academic challenges beyond the normal parameters of a particular course's requirements. Qualified students, working in close conjunction with a faculty member, on an honors Committee approved project, extend their knowledge of the theoretical or practical aspects of the course and develop or enhance their writing, critical thinking, analytical, and problem solving skills.

To Qualify:

If you are interested in doing an honors project in your math class, talk to your mathematics professor. The professor who teaches your math class will have to agree to be your faculty mentor for an honors project. Since professors can only mentor one honors student each semester, it is possible that you may not be able to work on an honors project even if you meet the other requirements below; in this case, consider completing a project under one of the other research programs at BMCC.

To qualify for the program, a student must:

  • be free of all remediation;
  • have taken 12 credits at BMCC;
  • have GPA of 3.2; and
  • be taking a course with the faculty member who agrees to be their mentor.

Upon successful completion of the project, a designation of "H" will appear on the student's transcript.

Requirements:

In order to receive the honors designation, a student must:

  • sucessfully meet all of the evaluation criteria laid out in the contract;
  • present the project at a specific honors project event at the end of the semester (before final exams); and
  • earn a "B" or better in the course.

Deadlines:

Contracts must be submitted no later than the 5th week of the semester, and must be approved by the honors committee, and a completed project
(including an oral presentation) is normally due well before final exams.

Students should obtain contracts from their faculty mentors.

The application/contract requires:

  • a faculty mentor to serve as the student's project advisor
  • a description of the project to be undertaken, including a timeline and evaluation criteria
  • a copy of the course syllabus
  • a sample of the student's graded written work (not necessarily from the class in which the honors project will take place)
  • the signature of the student and the faculty mentor
  • the signature of the department chairperson
  • the approval of the honors committee

    The faculty mentor will then meet with the Honors Committee to present the contract for review.

Some Past Honors Projects:

  • The Rising Polish Mathematical Logic School in the 1900s and 1930s
    MAT 501: History of Mathematics, Student: Wioleta Jaworska; Advisor: Dr. Yibao Xu
    Mathematical Logic is one of the most active and fruitful research areas in the first half of the twentieth century. Polish mathematicians and logicians have made some great contributions to it. For instance, Leon Chwistek’s theory of type, Jan Łukasiewicz’s improvements on the symbolism in the Principia Mathematics by Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell, Alfred Tarski’s many original contributions, and Kazimierz Kuratowski’s applications of logic and metalogic results in the solutions of the mathematical problems. This project will primarily use second hand articles and published books both in English and Polish to tell a story of how the Polish Logic School was formed, who were the main participants, and what major contributions they have made and their collective impact on the late development of mathematical logic in the world.

  • Analysis of Hedge Fund Investment Return over Different Historical Periods
    MAT 206: Precalculus, Student: Kayode Ramsay; Advisor: Dr. Claire Wladis
    After completing his degree in business management at BMCC, Kayode wants to major in finance at a four-year college; his goal is to work as an investment manager at a hedge fund one day. In light of this, the main goal of this project will be to use exponential and logarithmic functions to analyze the rate of return on different investment classes over different holding periods. More specifically, research will first be done to determine the rate of return for different investments or investment classes over different historical periods, particularly those periods which contain a large range of possible market behavior. Then the project will compare the returns made for various investment allocation choices over different periods of time to see which choices of investment allocation were the most profitable over different historical time periods.

  • The Cantor set
    MAT 302: Calculus II, Student: Huanmei Zhu; Advisor: Dr. Felix Apfaltrer

  • On formal proofs for limits and continuous functions in calculus
    MAT 301: Calculus I, Student: Xing Xiu Chen; Advisor: Dr. Felix Apfaltrer

Faculty who have mentored an honors student:

In the math department, the following faculty have mentored honors students in the past:

  • Felix Apfaltrer
  • Jaewoo Lee
  • Claire Wladis
  • Yibao Xu