Brief BioBrief BioA Ph.D. and faculty member from MIT, Paul S. Wang (王 士 弘) became a Computer Science professor (Kent State University) in 1981, and served as a Director at the Institute for Computational Mathematics at Kent from 1986 to 2011. He retired in 2012 and is now professor emeritus at Kent State University.
Paul is a leading expert in Symbolic and Algebraic Computation (SAC), most noted for his work on polynomial factoring and GCD algorithms. He has conducted over forty research projects funded by government and industry, authored many well-regarded Computer Science textbooks, most also translated from English to other languages, and released many software tools. He received the Ohio Governor's Award for University Faculty Entrepreneurship (2001). Paul supervised 14 Ph.D. and over 26 Master-degree students.
His Ph.D. dissertation, advised by Joel Moses at MIT, was on Evaluation of Definite Integrals by Symbolic Manipulation.
Paul's expertise is in automation of mathematical computation. His main research interests include
Symbolic and Algebraic Computation (SAC),
polynomial factoring and GCD algorithms, automatic code generation,
Internet Accessible Mathematical Computation (IAMC), enabling technologies
for and classroom delivery of Web-based Mathematics Education (WME),
as well as parallel and distributed SAC.
As a member of the MIT Macsyma research group, Paul has made significant contributions
to many parts of the MAXIMA computer algebra system (derived from Macsyma, free and open source). He has designed,
tested and implemented programs that combine new, improved, and known algorithms together with heuristics to completely automate the factoring of polynomials with one or more variables--reducing the complicated and time consuming tasks to a matter of just a few seconds. See
these online demos
for a hands-on experience with MAXIMA.
See these WME online lessons developed for and used at Kimptom Middle School, Stow Ohio.
Paul continues to work jointly with others nationally and internationally in computer science teaching and research, Web-based mathematics education (WME), write books and articles, IT consult as sofpower.com, and manage webtong.com, a Web developer. He also plays tennis and exercises regularly to keep well and fit.
Most recently, his focus is on the study, introduction, application, and promotion of Computational Thinking.