AMS 2014 Spring Eastern Sectional Meeting Local Webpage

Welcome!

The Department of Mathematics and Statistics welcomes you to UMBC! We are excited about this opportunity to host the 2014 Spring Eastern Sectional Meeting of the American Mathematical Society (AMS).

This webpage complements the official pages of the meeting maintained by the AMS, namely the Program page and the Registration/Housing/Etc. Information page. The latter page contains information about hotels, dining options, registration, and transportion. We give some additional information (e.g., more detailed description of buildings and room locations), some timely updates (weather forecast immediately before meeting), and after the meeting some photos and pickings.

Photos

Student Volunteers and Registration

Plenary Talks in ITE 104

Special Sessions Organized by the Host Department



Final Updates Immediately before the Meeting

As of Thursday, March 27, 2014, the days, in particular the mornings, are still quite chilly here in Baltimore. Temperatures can start below freezing in the early morning and get up to 45 in the daytime. When the sun comes out, it can be nicer. The weekend forecast calls for showers, but warmer temperatures ranging from low of 40 to high of 55 for both Saturday and Sunday, March 29-30, 2014.

Campus Map, Parking, Location of Buildings and Rooms

General information about UMBC can be found at its homepage and more practical details at our Visitor's Guide. This webpage links to campus maps and general directions to campus.

The most useful campus map might be the Campus Map with Accessible Routes, which is in printable PDF form. I use this map here to point to locations.

Parking is legal on weekends without hanger (in legally marked parking spots). The closest location to the AMS Sectional Meeting is the streetside parking in the Southwest corner of the campus loop (Hilltop Circle) in quadrant G4 of the campus map. From the I-95 entrance to campus, you will be on UMBC Blvd. When reaching our campus loop, formally Hilltop Circle, make a left (up the hill) and park immediately along the roadside.

The registration for the AMS Sectional Meeting will be located on the first floor (= ground floor) of the Information Technology/Engineering (ITE) building in quadrant G4 of the campus map; from the parking mentioned above walk up the gated service road and you will be on the correct floor.

Handicapped parking is available in Lot 9 in quadrant F4 of the campus map. From there, enter the ITE building from the top floor and use the elevator down to first floor. All buildings have elevators for wheelchair accessibility, and a convenient bridge connects Sherman and Sondheim Halls.

The conference will be held in the three buildings in quadrants G4 to G5: ITE building, Sherman Hall, and Sondheim Hall. Only registration, coffee, book exhibit, and the plenary talks will be in the ITE building, Room 104 and lobby in front of this room. To reach the other rooms, you can either use the outside staircase along the side of Sherman Hall down to the first floor of Sondheim Hall (then back up one floor for the 2nd floor rooms via stairs or elevator). Or for an indoor route, you can enter Sherman Hall across the street from the ITE building and use stairs or elevators one floor up [sic!] to access the building bridge from Sherman to Sondheim Hall, then down to the 1st and 2nd floor via stairs or elevator.

Equipment in rooms: The rooms in Sondheim Hall, where all sessions (except the invited addresses) will be held, are all typical classrooms. They have movable chairs with attached tables, large chalkboards, overhead projector, and data projector (with VGA connector). Macintosh users, remember to bring your VGA adapter! Most rooms have 40 seats, the rooms 101, 103, 105 have 80. Notice that the AMS makes no provisions for any laptops or similar to be available to speakers, so it is assumed that each speaker uses their own laptop (with VGA connection or adapter).

Internet access: UMBC provides a visitor wireless network which requires no username and password. Also the internationally standardized eduroam network connection is available that uses your home institution's username (full e-mail address) and password.

Driving Suggestion from the Hotels to UMBC

We address this issue here, since GPS and google maps may give some strange results. Then again, they may also work very well, so just consider the following suggestions to cross-check.

All hotels secured by the AMS are in the BWI Airport area in Linthicum or Linthicum Heights, Maryland. I suggest here to use the most straightforward way to get to UMBC, namely via interstate I-195 that connects BWI Airport to I-95. This may not be technically the shortest from some hotels, but avoids changing freeways. More importantly, from the Westernmost hotels, google maps gives very scenic driving directions via two-lane roads steep downhill and through the bottom of the large Patapsco Valley that the interstate I-195 bridges over in one fell swoop. These directions would indeed give a scenic trip, but may be discouraging, since the area looks quite abandoned and lonely (it is an undeveloped part of Patapsco Valley State Park).

Hence, driving directions via I-195 only: From all hotels, head due East via Winterson Rd., then South on W. Nursery Rd., or Elkridge Landing Rd. Where Elkridge Landing Rd. and W. Nursery Rd. meet, continue East towards BWI Airport. Next intersection is with Terminal Rd., where you go South following most traffic. Turn immediately right (West) onto Aviation Blvd.; stay in the merge lane, which becomes exit lane to West I-195 towards Catonsville and UMBC. You will reach the UMBC Main Campus exit (conventional right exit) after underpassing I-95. (Do not follow signs for South Campus or MD-166; our exit is directly from I-195.)

UMBC has its own ZIP code 21250, which means that most GPS and certainly google maps get the location right. Our formal address 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 does not hurt. Since it points to the entire campus (without any building displaying any house number at all), you should look at the driving directions above to park close to the right building (ITE building).

Dining Options

The area around the hotels secured by the AMS has a lot of dining options on all levels, ranging from Subway and Starbucks to classical chain diners to fine dining.

Coffee (regular and decaf) and tea will be available during the meeting next to the registration desk on the first floor of the ITE building, in front of the lecture hall room 104. We will provide light continental refreshments (pastries or cookies), but it is not designed to replace actual breakfast.

UMBC provides limited on-campus dining options during weekend days. Within less than five minutes of (nice) walking, there are two options on Saturdays and Sundays: (1) The main food court of campus is in The Commons building in quadrant E5/6 of the campus map above; on weekends, it is the Mesquite Ranch BBQ and Grill, located on the he mezzanine level (not on the first floor with the other main food court options that are closed during the weekend). (2) There is a Subway fast food restaurant in the bwtech@UMBC Research Park in quadrant K6 of the campus map above (marked as 5520 Multi-Tenant building on that map).

Very attractive and widely varying lunch and dinner options exist in downtown Catonsville, five minutes by car from UMBC. Leave campus towards the West along Hilltop Road. Go straight around the roudabout and continue on Hilltop Road to Bloomsbury Avenue. Turn right (North) on Bloomsbury, until you reach Frederick Road (main street).

Local Contact

Matthias K. Gobbert, gobbert@umbc.edu, office phone 410-455-2404 (not useful during the meeting), personal homepage.

Acknowledgments