Math Education
The Ph.D. Glut is Bad for the United States
This is a followup to my previous article The Mathematics of the Ph.D. Glut. To recap, yes there is a Ph.D. glut in nearly all STEM (Science, Technology,…
John F. McGowan, Ph.D.
John F. McGowan, Ph.D. solves problems using mathematics and mathematical software, including developing gesture recognition for touch devices, video compression and speech recognition technologies. He has extensive experience developing software in C, C++, MATLAB, Python, Visual Basic and many other programming languages. He has been a Visiting Scholar at HP Labs developing computer vision algorithms and software for mobile devices. He has worked as a contractor at NASA Ames Research Center involved in the research and development of image and video processing algorithms and technology. He has published articles on the origin and evolution of life, the exploration of Mars (anticipating the discovery of methane on Mars), and cheap access to space. He has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a B.S. in physics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). He can be reached at jmcgowan11@earthlink.net.
This article is copyright © of John F. McGowan, Ph.D.
Articles
Math Education
The Mathematics of the Ph.D. Glut
I recently had a conversation at a get-together with someone whose sister had just started a Ph.D. program in biology. I discussed some of the unpleasant realities of…
Applied Math
Seven Scientific Calculators for Computer Users
This is a brief post on scientific calculators for computer users. It is partially a followup to the post Ten Great Quick Calculators for Computer Users and overlaps…
General
The Government Did Too Invent the Internet
The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They don’t alter their views to fit the facts. They alter the facts to fit their…
Applied Math
Floating Point Arithmetic in the Bourne Again Shell (BASH)
This is a brief post on quick ways to perform floating point arithmetic in the GNU Bourne Again Shell (BASH), either at the command prompt or in a…
Applied Math
Displaying Error Bars in GNU Octave
This is a brief post showing how to display error bars in GNU Octave, a free open-source numerical programming and analysis tool that is mostly compatible with MATLAB.…
Applied Math
The Mathematics of Autism
Autism statistics are measurements of identified people in particular populations, using particular definitions and methods. Reading them well requires more than comparing two headline numbers. We need to…
Applied Math
Breaking the Maya Code Video Review
Breaking the Maya Code Year: 2008 Duration: 1 hr 56 minutes Writer/Director: David LeBrun Publisher: Night Fire Films Breaking the Maya Code (2008) is a one hour fifty-six…
Essential Math
Ten Great Quick Calculators for Computer Users
From time to time, computer users may need to perform a quick calculation such as adding or multiplying two large numbers. This is particularly true if the computer…
Applied Math
Top Secret Rosies: The Female Computers of World War II Video Review
Top Secret Rosies: The Female Computers of World War II Top Secret Rosies: The Female Computers of World War II is a documentary produced, directed, and narrated by…
Applied Math
The Return of the Mythical Man Month
Underestimation of the cost, schedule, and risk of projects is common in software development and especially prevalent in mathematical software development. It is common to encounter extremely optimistic…
Applied Math
Simulating Cell Chemistry for Health and Medicine
Advances in mathematical and computer modeling of cell chemistry may lead to cures or effective treatments for major diseases such as cancer. This article discusses using mathematics and…