Faculty Profile

Dick Forrester

Professor of Mathematics and Data Analytics (2002)

Contact Information

Data Analytics co-chair

forrestr@dickinson.edu

Tome Scientific Building Room 235
717-245-1668
http://www.dickinson.edu/dickforrester

Bio

His scholarship is at the interface of operations research, computer science, and data analytics. The majority of his research has centered around the development of techniques for solving applications that can be modeled as nonlinear 0-1 programs. He is also interested in modeling and analyzing real world problems. Some recent projects include optimal crop rotation modeling, assigning students to schools to minimize both transportation costs and socioeconomic variation between schools, and balancing faculty and student preferences in the assignment of students to first-year seminars. As an applied mathematician, his teaching interests primarily center around data analytics, statistics, operations research, computational mathematics, and computer science.

Curriculum Vitae

Education

  • B.A., Alfred University, 1995
  • M.S., Clemson University, 1997
  • Ph.D., 2002

2023-2024 Academic Year

Fall 2023

COMP 331 Operations Research
Cross-listed with MATH 331-01.

MATH 331 Operations Research
Cross-listed with COMP 331-01.

COMP 332 Analysis of Algorithms
A study of algorithmic approaches to problem-solving and techniques for analyzing and comparing algorithms. Algorithm design strategies such as divide-and-conquer, dynamic programming, and backtracking will be explored in conjunction with problems that they solve and the data structures that they use (e.g. graphs). Topics in computational complexity include formal use of upper, lower and tight asymptotic bounds, analysis of recursive algorithms and lower bound arguments.Prerequisite: 232, MATH 211. Offered every fall.

COMP 560 Stu/Faculty Collaborative Rsch

MATH 560 Stu/Faculty Collaborative Rsch

Spring 2024

COMP 200 Data Syst for Data Analytics
Cross-listed with DATA 200-01.

DATA 200 Data Syst for Data Analytics
Cross-listed with COMP 200-01.

COMP 241 Computational Mathematics
Cross-listed with MATH 241-01.

MATH 241 Computational Mathematics
Cross-listed with COM 241-01.

MATH 560 Stu/Faculty Collaborative Rsch