Dr. Michael Berry, Associate Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Dr. Michael Berry was nominated for a 2009 Chancellor’s Academic Outreach Award. Before obtaining his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Illinois, Dr. Berry got his M.S. and B.S. in Mathematics. At the University of Tennessee he was interim head of the Department of Computer Science and currently serves as Associate Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. The two outreach projects in which he is involved represent the perfect application of his fields of research – Mathematics and Computer Science.
Since 2001, Dr. Berry has been the co-creator and host of the regional math Jeopardy contests held throughout the Southeast. Held in conjunction with the Mathematical Association of America and the SouthEastern Atlantic Section (SEAS), these annual game show contests are a way that students can demonstrate their ability to solve difficult math problems quickly in a competitive and fun environment.
“The questions cover calculus, linear algebra, differential equations and discrete mathematics, which is really close to computer science. We select the four top teams based on their scores. The final round is usually held in a huge auditorium with 400 – 500 people watching these kids. It’s phenomena!. These kids are really talented to answer a question in a 2 minute time period. These are not trivial questions. You get to know some bright stars. We had one kid from UT a couple of years ago who was just impressive. This kid knew discrete math just better than anybody at that age that I have seen – real prodigy. He impressed everyone at the competition. It really demonstrated the kind of talent that a lot of our kids have here,“ Dr. Berry says.
Math Jeopardy started as a project involving only four schools and grew into the contest which involves 23 schools. It takes a couple of months to prepare the contest based on a unique software system and automated scoring. The trophies are given to the first four schools. Dr. Berry says that math Jeopardy is a great way for recruiting young talents.
“I talk with these kids about their careers. Some kids that have played math Jeopardy have actually ended up coming here (at UT). It is really great because we are bringing up to 140 people. These kids are the kids who are going to be future graduate students. This is the great way in generating more interest in graduate studies. “
Dr. Berry is the principal investigator along with the School of Art for Basics of Computer Science Animated, a series of five related, animated modules. The modules were initially developed for Introduction to Computer Science for Non-major classroom, but the modules are appropriate for a wider audience such as computer literacy or information technology courses at a high school or a junior college. Dr. Berry hopes the modules can generate more interest and understanding in the discipline.
“Computer Science and Computer Engineering are not really reflected in the high school curriculum. Kids coming to the University don’t have any understanding of what it really is. We were thinking about ways of making it easier for high school teachers or for everyone who wants to make kids get some understanding without lots of intrusion.”
Dr. Berry plans to make the module more appealing to young people by engaging graphic experts to design its outlook.
“Graphic designers would animate it so it would be almost as a game play. The goal is to attract kids by something that looks like a game, something that you can learn by interacting with and get better understanding of how data is stored in the computer, or what binary representation is, or what a jpeg image is … The goal is to talk about everything they do but explain what is really go on technically. It’s like you study biology and you want to learn how the body really works. We want to take some magic out of computer, to find an explicable way of what is happening on machine. “
Dr. Berry who, besides teaching and doing his research, serves as the Associate Dean of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, finds his motivation for Outreach activities in fervor for sharing the knowledge.
“You have to be passionate about these things. You really have to enjoy it. I make time for it because I believe in it very strongly. It’s just something that you have to enjoy doing, like teaching. It’s not because of money. For me personally it’s a way of getting back to the community that supports you.”
Dr. Berry also plans to encourage other regions of the scientific community to find ways in engaging undergraduate students. Not lacking enthusiasm and ardor, the only obstacle, for the time being seems to be – how to get the math Jeopardy buzzer system through the airport security.
Contact Information
Dr. Michael Berry
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
203 Claxton Complex
1122 Volunteer Boulevard
The University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN 37996-3450
Phone: (865) 974-3838
Email:berry@eecs.utk.edu
Homepage: http://www.cs.utk.edu/~berry/
If you want to know more about math Jeopardy click here
If you want to know more about the Annimated Modules click here