Abstract from Dr. Tyler Jarvis:
Ten years ago a group of my department’s math majors told my colleague, Jeff Humpherys, and me, “We majored in math because we like it, but we know it won’t get us a job unless we want to teach.”  That comment motivated us to create an entirely new program in applied and computational mathematics (ACME) at BYU—a program to teach students mathematics that is deep and beautiful and that employers are also eager to pay for, mathematics that students can use on the job to solve the problems of the 21st century.

Since we started the ACME program eight years ago, the number of majors in our department has almost doubled, ACME students account for two-thirds of all our majors, and resources have flowed to our department.  Our graduates’ starting salaries are substantially higher, and many of them are turning those big offers down to go to top graduate programs, where they are flourishing.  Our alumni are fiercely loyal to ACME and eager to help the students that follow them.

In this presentation I’ll talk about some of the problems we had to overcome to get ACME started, how we made ACME successful, and what we have learned along the way.