B
rother Romard Barthel, CSC, keeps a kitchen table in his office, and he has a good reason for it. In the years since he first came to St. Edward’s in 1947, the physics and mathematics professor says one thing has been a constant: his ability to give students personal attention. “That’s why I have this kitchen table here — because it’s a wonderful thing to get the students around,” he said. “It’s a good place to work with my students, point out what they are doing wrong and suggest how to do it better.” But this personalized approach to education isn’t limited to the students who gather around Brother Barthel’s table. In fact, the School of Natural Sciences’ long-held commitment to personal attention brings faculty and students together to engage in hands-on, collaborative research and projects in biology, biochemistry, chemistry, computer science, computer information systems and mathematics.
Imagination > knowledge
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This spring, St. Edward’s University and the School of Natural Sciences hosted the first-ever Symposium on Undergraduate Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE). The inaugural event provided a university-wide forum for undergraduate students to present academic research, visual art and other forms of creative expression. Presentation topics ranged from the mating systems of insects and metric functions to the evolution of Western thought.
Problem: A salesman wants to visit 23 cities, taking the most direct route possible. Problem: A traveler packs her suitcase, knowing that what she can pack is limited only by how much her suitcase can hold.
TAYLOR JONES
Problem: A robot moves through a room and must successfully navigate obstacles.
Profile: Chris Herbig, ’02
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Solution: Chris Herbig, ’02. As a computer science major and math minor, Herbig had studied a computer model called a greedy algorithm to solve dilemmas like these. “A greedy algorithm makes a series of decisions by using the best solution available at each moment, but each decision is made without considering the others,”