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Dr. silvia fernandez

Contact Information

Dr. Silvia Fernandez' Picture

Office. Santa Susana Hall (SN) 406

E-mail. silvia.fernandez@csun.edu

Phone. (818) 677-6445

Fax. (818) 677-3634

Address.
Department of Mathematics
California State University, Northridge
18111 Nordhoff St.
Northrige CA 91330-8313

Office Hours. Tuesday and Thursday 3:45-4:45 pm.

Research

My research interests are in Discrete Geometry, Combinatorics, and Graph Theory. I specially like Erdös type problems. I am currently working on Crossing Number problems.

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Colaborators

Bernardo Ábrego (CSUN)
Jorge Arocha (UNAM, Mexico)
Estie Arkin (Stony Brook, NY)
Jozsef Balogh (U. of Illinois, IL)
Mario Cetina (UASLP, Mexico)
György Elekes (Eötvös University, Hungary)
Ruy Fábila (IPN, Mexico)
David Flores-Peñaloza (UNAM, Mexico)
Ferran Hurtado (UPC, Spain)
Mikio Kano (Ibaraki University, Japan)
Jesús Leaños (UAZ, Mexico)
Bernardo Llano (UAM, Mexico)
Joseph Mitchell (Stony Brook, NY)
Michael Neubauer (CSUN)
Víctor Neumann-Lara (UNAM, Mexico)
Vera Sacristán (UPC, Spain)
Gelasio Salazar (UASLP, Mexico)
Maria Saumell (UPC, Spain)
Jorge Urrutia (UNAM, Mexico)
William Watkins (CSUN)

Classes Spring 2010

Math 340. Introductory Probability. TR 12:30-1:45 pm CR5119.

Math 140. Introductory Statistics. TR 2:00-3:40 pm LO1125.

Math 340

Introductory Probability. TR 12:30-1:45 pm CR5119.

Textbook. Introduction to Probability and its Applications by R. L. Scheaffer, 2nd edition, 1994. Duxbury Press. ISBN: 0-534-23790-8.

Syllabus.

Calculators won't be needed and they won't be allowed during tests.

Homework

Chapter 2.

Due Tu 2/2. 2.2, 2.4, 2.5 (the answer to (b) should be 1/3), 2.9, 2.11, 2.13, 2.15-2.17, 2.22-2.24

Due Tu 2/9. 2.27-2.29, 2.32, 2.33 (the answer to (b) should be 0.1947), 2.35, 2.38, 2.39, 2.41, 2.43, 2.46 (m should be n in the answer) , 2.63, 2.66, 2.69, 2.70.

Math 140

Introductory Statistics. TR 2:00-3:40 pm LO1125.

Textbook. Statistics in Action by A. E. Watkins, R. L. Scheaffer, G. W. Cobb, 2nd edition, 2008. Key Curriculum Press. ISBN: 978-1-55953-909-8.

You will also need a TI-83 calculator (TI-84 or even TI-89 are also acceptable) .

Syllabus.

Lecture Notes

These notes do not include most exercises solved in class. The handout version includes 4 slides per page.

Chapter 1 (handout).

Chapter 2 (handout).
Last update 2/4.

Exams

Exam 1. Thursday February 11, Ch. 1-2 and Section 4.1.
Exam 2 . Thursday March 18. (Tentative)
Exam 3 . Thursday April 29. (Tentative)
Final Exam. Thursday May 13, 3:00-5:00 pm LO1125. Cummulative.

You can use a calculator, a TI83 is recommended. NO cell phones, scratch paper, or any other materials are allowed during the exam. Don't forget to bring your ID.

Homework and practice problems

Some of these problems were either solved in class or included in the lecture notes. Not all problems are due, but you are responsible to go over them to help you prepare for the tests.

Chapter 1. P1-P5, E11, E15, E16, E18, E20. Due 1/26. E20.

Chapter 2.P1-P30,P32-P39, E5, E29, E31, E40, E65, E66. Due 2/9. E66.

Chapter 4. P1-P24, E8, E11, E17. Due 2/9. E17.

WeBWorK: Online Homework

Available starting 1/27.

Not due. Set 0 will help you use WeBWorK.

Due 2/3. Set 1 includes material from Sections 2.1-2.3.

To access WeBWorK:

1. Go to webwork.csun.edu.

2. Click Fernandez under Math 140.

3. Enter your username: The first part of your CSUN email address (for example, for john.doe.43@csun.edu the username is john.doe.43).

4. Enter your password: Your student ID number with no starting zeros.

5. Change your password after logging in for the first time.

6. For instructions on how to use WeBWorK refer to “First Steps for Students”. (Upper left corner of webwork.csun.edu.)

Tutoring

Math Tutoring Center.
Live Oak (LO1327-"Herbarium"). Math 140 hours:
Monday 3-5
Tuesday 3:30-5:30
Wednesday 12-2, 3-5
Thursday 11:30-1:30, 3:30-5:30
Friday 1-3

Learning Resource Center.
Bayramian Hall (BH408)
http://www.csun.edu/lrc/
Refer to their schedule for Math 140 tutoring hours.

Publications

B. M. Ábrego and S. Fernández-Merchant. Point-sets with many similar copies of a pattern: without a fixed number of collinear points or in parallelogram-free position. To appear in Geombinatorics (2010).
B. M. Ábrego and S. Fernández-Merchant. Point-sets in general position with many similar copies of a pattern. To appear in Geombinatorics (2010).
B. M. Ábrego, M. Cetina, S. Fernández-Merchant, J. Leaños, and G. Salazar. 3-symmetric and 3-decomposable drawings of Kn. To appear in Discrete Applied Mathematics. Available online as article in press, doi:10.1016/j.dam.2009.09.020.
B. M. Ábrego, R. Fábila, S. Fernández-Merchant, D. Flores, F. Hurtado, V. Sacristán, M. Saumell. On geometric proximity graphs. Proceedings of XIII Encuentros de Geometría Computacional, Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain, June 29-July 1, (2009) 151-156.
B. M. Ábrego, E. Arkin, S. Fernández-Merchant, F. Hurtado, M. Kano, J. Mitchell, J. Urrutia. Matching points with square. Discrete and Computational Geometry 41 (2009), 77-95.
B. M. Ábrego, S. Fernández-Merchant, M. G. Neubauer, and W. Watkins. Sum of squares of degrees in a graph. Journal of Inequalities in Pure and Applied Mathematics, 10(3) (2009), Art. 64, 34 pp.
B. M. Ábrego, S. Fernández-Merchant, and B. Llano. On the maximum number of translates in a point set. Discrete and Computational Geometry, 43 (2010), 1-20.
B. M. Ábrego, S. Fernández-Merchant, and B. Llano. An inequality for Kruskal-Macaulay Functions. Submitted (2008) arXiv:0809.3549.
B. M. Ábrego, S. Fernández-Merchant, J. Leaños, and G. Salazar. A central approach to bound the number of crossings in a generalized configuration. Electronic Notes in Discrete Mathematics 30 (2008) 273-278.
B. M. Ábrego, S. Fernández-Merchant, J. Leaños, and G. Salazar. The maximum number of halving lines and the rectilinear crossing number of Kn for n<=27. Electronic Notes in Discrete Mathematics 30 (2008) 261-266.
B. M. Ábrego, J. Balogh, S. Fernández-Merchant, J. Leaños, and G. Salazar. An extended lower bound on the number of (<=k)-edges to generalized configurations of points and the pseudolinear crossing number of Kn. Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series A. 115 (2008), 1257-1264.
B. M. Ábrego, S. Fernández-Merchant, J. Leaños, and G. Salazar. Recent developments on the number of (<=k)-sets, halving-lines, and the rectilinear crossing number of Kn. Proceedings of XII Encuentros de Geometría Computacional, Universidad de Valladolid, Spain, June 25-27, (2007), ISBN 978-84-690-6900-4.
B. M. Ábrego and S. Fernández-Merchant. Geometric drawings of Kn with few crossings. Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series A 114 (2007) 373-379.
B. M. Ábrego, J. Balogh, S. Fernández-Merchant, J. Leaños, and G. Salazar. On (<=k)–pseudoedges in generalized configurations and the pseudolinear crossing number of Kn. Preprint (2006).
B. M. Ábrego, S. Fernández-Merchant, M. G. Neubauer, and W. Watkins. Trace-minimal graphs and D-optimal weighing designs, Linear Algebra and its Applications 412 (2006), 161-221.
B. M. Ábrego and S. Fernández-Merchant. A lower bound for the rectilinear crossing number. Graphs and Combinatorics, Springer-Verlag Tokyo Inc., Vol. 21, Num 3, (2005), p. 293 - 300.
B. M. Ábrego, E. Arkin, S. Fernández-Merchant, F. Hurtado, M. Kano, J. Mitchell, J. Urrutia. Matching points with geometric objects: combinatorial results. Discrete and Computational Geometry Japanese Conference, JCDCG 2004, Tokyo, Japan, October 8-11, 2004. Springer-Verlag, Lecture Notes in Computer Science Series, Vol. 3742, Akiyama, Jin; Kano, Mikio; Tan, Xuehou (Eds.) 2005, VIII, p. 1-15, ISBN: 3-540-30467-3.
B. M. Ábrego, S. Fernández-Merchant, and Gy. Elekes. Structural results for planar sets with many similar subsets. Combinatorica 24 (2004), no. 4, 541-554.
B. M. Ábrego, S. Fernández-Merchant, M. G. Neubauer, and W. Watkins. D-optimal weighing designs for n=-1 (mod 4) objects and a large number of weighings, Linear Algebra and its Applications 374 (2003), 175-218.
B. M. Ábrego, S. Fernández-Merchant, M. G. Neubauer, and W. Watkins. Maximum volume simplices and trace-minimal graphs, Proceedings of X Encuentros de Geometria Computacional, University of Sevilla, Sevilla Spain, June 16-17, (2003), 51-56.
B. M. Ábrego and S. Fernández-Merchant. The unit distance problem for centrally symmetric convex polygons. Discrete and computational geometry and graph drawing (Columbia, SC, 2001). Discrete and Computational Geometry 28 (2002), no 4, 467-473.
B. M. Ábrego and S. Fernández-Merchant. Convex Polyhedra in R^3 Spanning W(n^(4/3)) Congruent Triangles, Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series A 98, 406-409 (2002).
B. M. Ábrego and S. Fernández-Merchant. On the Maximum Number of Equilateral Triangles II. DIMACS Technical Report 99-47, (1999).
B. M. Ábrego and S. Fernández-Merchant. On the Maximum Number of Equilateral Triangles I. Discrete and Computational Geometry 23, (2000), no. 1, 129-115.
B. M. Ábrego, J. L. Arocha, S. Fernández-Merchant, and V. Neumann-Lara. Tightness Problems in the Plane. Discrete Mathematics 194 (1999), no. 1-3, 1-11.