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Background
Akalu Tefera is a professor in the Department of Mathematics at Grand Valley State University. He earned his BSc and MSc degrees in mathematics from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. He earned his PhD in Mathematics from Temple University.
Interests
Tefera’s research interests include computer algebra, automated theorem proving, and combinatorics and their “derivatives” or “equivalence classes.” As a 2006-07 MLK Visiting Professor at MIT, Tefera was hosted by the Department of Mathematics. Strongly interested in collaborative research with undergraduates, he was actively involved in undergraduate teaching and participated in dynamic combinatorics group seminars. His research involved working on software that facilitates mathematical expressions in symbolic form, resulting in software packages that have useful applications in mathematics, in particular, to computer-generated proofs of combinatorial and integral identities.
Sample Work
Publication
Summation Identities for Representation of Certain Real Numbers
Summation Identities for Representation of Certain Real Numbers, (with G. Grossman and A. Zeleke), International Journal of Mathematics and Mathematical Sciences, Volume 2006, Article ID 78739, 8 pages.
Publication
Enhancing Core Mathematics Courses
Enhancing Core Mathematics Courses, (with E. Billings, S. Schlicker, and K. Novtony), PRIMUS, XIV:3 (2004), 230-252.
Publication
A new triple sum combinatorial identity
A new triple sum combinatorial identity (with Joseph Sinyor),International Journal of Mathematics and Mathematical Sciences, 31:12 (2002), 761-763.
Publication
MultInt, a Maple Package for Multiple Integration by the WZ Method
MultInt, a Maple Package for Multiple Integration by the WZ Method, Journal of Symbolic Computation, 34:5 (2002), 329-353.