The School of Natural Sciences Advisory Board Sally S. Davenport, Chair Texas General Land Office
And the outcomes are impressive. Over the years, this small, private college has produced an army of successful scientists, technology leaders and health professionals. In the last 14 years, almost 70 percent of all St. Edward’s University students who applied to medical or dental school were accepted, according to Professor of Biology Jimmy Mills. And the acceptance rate for those applying to graduate school in areas like chemistry, biochemistry and biology over the last six years is almost 100 percent. Computer science faculty members estimate that almost 75 percent of computer science majors are working at least half time in Austin’s technology industry by their senior year; some have such valuable skills that they work full time before graduation. “Our faculty-student collaborative research for undergraduate students, as well as internships and individual studies, promotes a unique bond between
explained Herbig. “The algorithm assumes that isolating every choice will always produce the best solution.” Herbig knew, however, that an alternative to the greedy algorithm had emerged, a simulation modeling genetic principles. “Genetic algorithms examine multiple solutions at a glance to find the optimal one," he said. “What we didn’t know was which algorithm solved problems faster.” And Herbig wanted to find out. He reworked the problem to represent an issue closer to home, producing a university course schedule that matches professors with available time slots and classrooms. After conferring with
students and faculty,” said Dean of the School of Natural Sciences Roger Yu. “This personal and active learning process trains our students to be able to expand in their careers and in their lives.” The formula The School of Natural Sciences works from one basic premise: Research and hands-on projects are a valuable and effective way to educate students in the sciences. “We see undergraduate research as a valuable means of instruction,” said Professor of Chemistry Henry Altmiller. “It’s a means of making the student learn on their own in a very practical sense.” While this “hands-on” idea isn’t a new one, it is rare at the undergraduate level. At larger universities that focus on research, very few undergraduates get the opportunity to participate in research; the majority of research is
Professor of Biology Bill Quinn, Herbig crafted two genetic algorithms and ran his scheduling program using his genetic algorithms and a standard greedy algorithm. Because of the different genetic processes each algorithm was based on, one outperformed its greedy counterpart and one did not. “My hypothesis was partially supported, but that doesn’t mean it’s true,” said Herbig, whose work earned him third prize at the regional conference of the Consortium of Computing in Small Colleges in April. “The problem Chris was looking at was room scheduling, but he wasn’t really trying to schedule rooms for somebody,” said Assistant
W. David Balfour URS Corporation Brother Romard Barthel St. Edward’s University Joe R. Brown, Ph.D. Intelligent Technologies Corp. David R. Duhon, J.D., M.D. Sleep Disorders Center of Central Texas Richard A. Goodin, Ph.D. SACHEM Cynthia Y. Naples, Ph.D. St. Edward’s University Richard A. Scadden, P.E. Roy F. Weston, Inc. A. Keith Shuley Hughes & Luce, L.L.P. Aloysius P. Thaddeus, M.D. Roger Yu, Ph.D. Dean, School of Natural Sciences St. Edward’s University
Professor of Computer Science James McGuffee, Herbig’s research advisor. “The point was to discover the fitness of genetic algorithms to approaching this type of problem — let’s say feeding everybody in a country. If you have agricultural centers in one area and you need to move that food to the population, you have a problem to solve. How’s the best way to do that?” “The breadth of information Chris covered and the depth of research that he looked at made his work outstanding,” agreed Associate Professor of Mathematics Cynthia Naples, who assisted Herbig with his statistical analysis. “You don’t often see that level of detail and organization.” — S.H.
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