A Life of Equations Shifting to a Life of Words

As my technical life diminishes, my writing life increases. Since 2017 I have been writing, first a memoir of my time in the Intelligence Community, then poetry and flash fiction. One of the missions I have assigned to my poetry is to expose to `regular\u27 people the inner life of the mathematical person. The poems in this poetry folder develop three themes. Formulations\u27\u27 pokes a bit of fun at the bloated (and in this case almost musical) titles that can grow from our research; more seriously, it documents the change in self-definition that flows from recognizing the inevitable drift away from high-intensity math as we age. Least Lower Bound\u27\u27 is a bit of an exaggeration of the way we can develop the habit of translating important life events into the sometimes stilted and overelaborate language we use in our technical work. It also illustrates how deeply we can come to use that language to translate the world to ourselves. Academic Inquiry\u27\u27 is the first of several poems I have written about the massive role that teaching has played in my life. If this poem were a wine, a reviewer might say it combines notes of yearning, pride, and challenge with a finish of wry resignation\u27\u27

Statistical methods for planners

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Using diagrammatic representations in mathematical modeling: The sketches of expert modelers

Modelers create descriptions of a problem in part to assess their understanding of the problem situation. We postulate that these descriptions, i.e., models, are often constructed in our minds, i.e., mental models, and that their complexity forces the modeler to use external memory aids such as pencil and paper. The purpose of this paper is to report on an exploratory study of the use of sketches, i.e., diagrammatic representations, by modelers expert in the construction of mathematical models in the context of management science. In addition, we suggest a theoretical framework for the role of diagrammatic representations in the process of constructing mathematical models