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STUDENT OF THE MONTH - February 2006
Matt Elder  For people such as Matt Elder, math is really fun. Throughout his life, Matt has found that solving math problems is not only a satisfying exercise of the mind, but a real adventure. Demonstrating an aptitude for math early in life, Matt has participated in many math contests, including the USC High School Math Contest in 2001, and in 'Destination Imagination', a worldwide creative problem solving competition. He continues to stay actively involved with that program, helping the next generation of young students rise to the challenges that were so valuable to him. He is currently the State Technical Problem Master for that program, a role he enjoys immensely. Matt came to USC in 2002 as a Carolina Scholar (he was also the recipient of a Goldwater Scholarship in 2004), majoring in mathematics and computer science. He has developed an avid interest in the interface between the two disciplines, especially in an area called theoretical computer science. The interdisciplinary approach that Matt has taken toward his education exemplifies the kind of opportunity that the College of Arts and Sciences aspires to provide for all of our students. As much as he enjoys math simply for its own sake, Matt understands that math has contexts and applications, such as developing better and faster ways of dealing with computer-based pattern recognition, image processing, cryptographic analysis, or artificial intelligence. Matt has participated in math programs at other universities, including the University of Minnesota's research experience for undergraduates, and the University of Central Florida's NSF-funded undergraduate research project on 'Cooperative Control of Autonomous Robots', one goal of which is to develop mathematical models for understanding emergent properties of interactive systems. For many of our students, mature intellectual interests and goals grow out of interdisciplinary experiences they have in the College, or under the auspices of the College. Matt and his family (Mom and Dad, Debora and Michael Elder) hail from Lexington, SC, but Matt, who graduates in May 2006, has his eyes on hybrid math-computer science graduate programs beyond SC, on the west coast and in the northeast, including the prestigious programs at the California Institute of Technology, MIT, and Carnegie-Mellon. Matt has a natural enthusiasm for problem solving and using mathematical approaches to discover relationships in science and engineering. He has used his time well in the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Engineering and Information Technology, and has developed skills that will carry him to the frontiers of knowledge, a path we hope all our students will have the chance to travel. We applaud his enthusiasm and enterprise, as well as his intellectual rigor, and are proud to name Matt Elder student of the month in our College.
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