The Mathematics Clinic: A Review of Its First Decade

Anyone who has attempted to teach realistic applied mathematics in a course has no doubt been impressed with the difficulty of this task. In the first place, realworld problems are usually stated in an open-ended fashion, using imprecise terms, and hence require considerable effort to explain and to understand. Secondly, the models and techniques needed to treat such problems are often not covered in traditional courses and sometimes even require an extrapolation of known techniques to situations not covered in the technical literature. Finally, computer implementation of a solution of the problem is apt to be very lengthy, taxing, and without intellectual challenge. The net effect may be a bored and largely disinterested class.