Wrapping Up

Our last full day at Disney started early for some of us on Tuesday.  A group of seven went to Hollywood Studios for a final couple of rides on the Tower of Terror.  They had a fun time and bid farewell to one of the group’s favorite rides.

The entire class met after lunch in what has become our classroom away from Furman --- Room 440 (a.k.a. Dr. Harris and Dr. Hutson’s common room).  Groups of three each gave presentations on the projects on which they have been working.  Each group had prepared a poster (digital for now, but to be printed back at Furman) containing a description of the project and the findings.  The first two groups spoke about throughput and single rider lines (topics discussed in the previous two blog posts).  The final two groups discussed the third major project of the class.

Making the Rounds

As you may have read on the blog over the last few weeks, the students have been involved in a project that relates to the mathematically well-known Traveling Salesman Problem.  This problem concerns the discovery of shortest routes in a network of locations, and it is known to be very difficult to solve on a large scale.  The students developed networks that modeled the attractions at Epcot’s Future World and in the Magic Kingdom.  Using data collected by hand (and foot!) and from special distance-measuring iPad apps, the students determined all appropriate distances they needed to model these places.  A small group of students generated an algorithm that worked to find strategic routes through these parks.  The algorithm involved distances between attractions, average wait time for the attractions, and the ride times themselves.

Showing Your Work

The poster presentations were very well done.  Everyone was involved at some level with every project, and so each person was able to contribute to the content of the presentations.  The students will present these posters again as part of Furman Engaged (a day celebrating student research) in the spring of 2015.

After the poster portion of the meeting, the students spent some time discussing possible t-shirt ideas for our class.  They were excited about getting a t-shirt to commemorate what has been a great experience for them --- educationally, intellectually, personally, and socially.

The Final Evening

For dinner, the group went to Boma, a well-known restaurant in the Animal Kingdom Lodge.  This was a buffet style feast of food from Africa, and we enjoyed it so much we wished we could be carried out afterwards (some called this a Boma Coma).

After dinner, the group gathered by the pool and presented Dr. Bouzarth with a surprise “Golden Mickey” award --- recognizing the fact that the wonderful experience we all have had (students and faculty alike) would not have been possible without her foresight, inspiration, and dedication to making it all happen.

We finished off the evening by one last trip to the Magic Kingdom --- a fitting way to end the trip as this was where the trip began three weeks ago.  We stayed until the midnight closing and enjoyed being with one another as we experienced the magic that makes up Walt Disney World.

Signing Off

We hope you have enjoyed reading our blog posts over the past three weeks.  If you have read all of them or just one or two of them, we appreciate knowing that others have been interested in what we have been doing. 

There are many people and groups who have made this experience possible.  We appreciate the support of Furman, the Office of Study Away, and the Mathematics Department.  Most of all, we want to end our posts by thanking the families of all of the participants whose contributions of many types made this the wonderful experience that it was.

As they say around here, we’ll see ya real soon!