 |
|
Subsections
1. What are you studying at MUN?
Applied Mathematics. Specifically, numerical analysis and dynamical systems.
2. Where are you from originally?
St John's, Newfoundland. Lived here basically all my life.
3. What did you do to qualify for Millionaire?
Sacrificed several small animals. No, actually, there were a bunch of steps involved. First, there was a two-week period (or something like that) where you could call in, once a day, and try to qualify. Qualifying involved answering five ``Fastest Finger" questions correctly, in a row. If you did that, your name went into a draw which was broken down by region. I was lucky enough to qualify on my second try.
Newfoundland was part of the Atlantic region (with the three Maritime provinces) and they were only taking one contestant from that region. Fortunately, out of the 180 or so people who qualified from Atlantic Canada, my name was the one that got picked. Once they confirmed that I was actually eligible, I was in the show.
4. The taping was held in New York. What was your agenda for the trip?
Pretty hectic. We arrived around lunchtime on a Wednesday and most of that afternoon was taken up with media interviews. Then we had a production meeting with the producers and the other contestants and their guests, and the big press call with Pamela Wallin after that.
Thursday was almost entirely taken up with the recording of the shows themselves. We went to the studio at around 8:00 am, and the entire morning was spent doing rehearsals, getting make-up and hair done, that kind of thing. We taped one episode, had lunch, then taped the second episode, and after that had another short press scrum. Finally, in the evening we went to the Canadian Consulate General for a reception.
Friday was pretty quiet. We finally had a chance to take in some of New York in the morning, and our flight home left that afternoon.
5. Who did you bring with you, and why? (Sorry if this is two questions.)
I brought my father, Desmond. He's been to New York City before, so I was glad to have someone who knew a bit about the place along with me.
6. Did you meet Regis Philbin?
Ah, the question everybody wants to know! Actually, Regis was on vacation at the time (the American episodes airing around then had all been taped a few weeks earlier) so nope, didn't see hide nor hair of him.
7. What was Pamela Wallin like?
Off set, very nice, very friendly. During the actual recording, I think she was as nervous as any of the contestants. She was in a pretty tough situation, trying to fill Regis' shoes! I know she's taken a lot of flak for her performance, but I thought she did pretty well, under the circumstances, and certainly warmed up throughout the two shows.
8. What were the other contestants like?
Really great for the most part, we all bonded pretty quickly. Some people were pretty intense. They had really been studying hard, or felt a lot of pressure to do well. But most of us were just there to have a good time, have an interesting experience and meet some new people. Well, and win some money, of course.
9. How was the hot seat?
Interesting. When I first made it into the Hot Seat, right at the end of the episode, it was pretty strange. I mean, I knew I had as much time as I wanted to the answer the questions, but you still feel that you should be answering them rapid-fire. So I was in a really weird sort of zone then, and in fact when the break came, I had to ask people just how many questions I'd answered. I couldn't remember!
With the hour break in between the two tapings, it gave me time to catch my breath and refocus, so I was a lot more comfortable for the second show.
10. You were the ``carry-over" person, appearing on both shows. How was the wait?
Wonderful! Like I said, it gave me a chance to just sit back and calm down (and eat). Some of the other contestants said they would have hated to be in that situation, but in all honesty I think it was to my benefit.
11. How much did you win?
$1000. Which, in the grand scheme of things, isn't a lot. But it's still $1000 more than I went in with. So I'm not complaining.
12. Which question did you answer incorrectly, and what was it?
The $16, 000 question. It went something like ``In Nova Scotia, the term Digby chicken is used to refer to what?" The choices were cured herring, rubber duck, smoked lobster and cornish hen. The 50-50 lifeline narrowed it down to cured herring and smoked lobster. I went with the latter, and unfortunately that was wrong.
13. Did you use all of your lifelines?
I used the Ask the Audience on a baseball question that I really should have known the answer to, except that I had the two [World Series] appearances by the Toronto Blue Jays switched around in my head. The thing about Ask the Audience is that it becomes progressively less useful as the game wears on (this was the $4000 question) so I figured it was as good a time as any to use it. I don't think it would have helped me with the Digby chicken question.
Like I said, I used 50-50 on the Digby chicken one. I didn't use Phone a Friend. I was pretty sure no one on my list knew the answer to that one (turns out I was right) so I didn't want to waste it in case I guessed correctly.
14. What did you spend your winnings on?
Absolutely nothing yet! It's safely stored away in my bank account, collecting interest. I'm very tempted to splurge on a DVD player, but the last thing I need is something else to distract me from my studies. So I might just hang on to it for now.
15. Did you have much publicity?
Quite a bit, yeah. Several TV, radio and newspaper interviews in Newfoundland. Some radio stations in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick as well, since I was acting as their representative too. On the national scene there was Canada AM and the CTV National News, the Globe and Mail, the National Post, and the Canadian Press.
It was pretty constant right from the moment my name was announced until the two episodes actually aired, for a total of about two weeks.
16. What has it been like since?
In the immediate aftermath, people were coming up to me constantly. Fortunately, I enjoy that sort of thing so it never really got annoying. I guess I must be a bit of a glory hound!
I still get noticed every now and then, but I'm sure that before too long, everyone will have forgotten about it. But it's nice while it lasts.
17. What are you doing now?
Well, I'm starting my Masters this semester and teaching an undergrad course. That is, I would be, if the term hadn't been interrupted by a faculty strike. So while that's going on, I've been working pretty much non-stop on a movie screenplay that's been percolating in the back of my brain for a while now. Plus I'm maintaining my website, writing movie reviews, and I'm on the Board of Directors for the MUN Graduates Students Union, so it all keeps me pretty busy.
18. Do you have any hobbies, other than these?
I've gotten into movies and movie reviewing in a big way the past two or three years, so I watch a lot of those. I collect comic books which I have done since I was about four or five years old. And I'm a big fan of the old BBC science-fiction TV series ``Doctor Who", so I keep up to date on the latest news about that and write articles about its history for my website.
19. On the show, Pamela Wallin said you were ``reluctantly single". How's that going?
Well, I got a lot of very flattering e-mails after the shows aired, and still correspond with a couple of those people. But I'm not all that keen on an electronic relationship, so I guess from that point of view, things haven't changed too much.
20. If you had to use one word to describe your Millionaire experience, what would it be?
Memorable.
I thank David Isaac Morgan of Memorial University for contributing this article. David is a member of the Student Committee and was one of Shannon's Phone a Friend! -Ed.
Questions from Students
1. How do I apply for an award?
You must complete Form 202, Application for an Undergraduate Student Research Award, which is available from USRA liaison officers at Canadian universities or from NSERC (select Application Forms on the above NSERC page). You should send the application along with your official transcripts to the proposed supervisor at the university at which you would like to hold the award.
2. What is the application deadline for USRA in University applications?
Each university establishes its own internal deadline for submission of USRA applications.
3. What are the selection procedures for these awards?
Each university selects students for USRAs according to its own selection criteria and within broad guidelines that NSERC provides. Once the university has selected its awardees, the information is sent to NSERC.
4. When will I find out if I have received an award?
The university will inform you of its award decisions after it has completed its selection procedure.
5. When can I hold my award?
You may hold your award at any time during the year as permitted by your academic program.
6. When do I receive my award?
NSERC pays the award directly to the university at which you are carrying out the research. The university will issue you payments during the period in which you are carrying out your research project; you will not receive any payments directly from NSERC. You will, however, receive an official letter of award from NSERC during the tenure of your USRA.
Dear Members of the Canadian Mathematics Community: I am writing your department to first inform you that our Canadian Mathematical Society Student Committee has completed a Web page to serve students across Canada. The CMS Student Web page is available on the CMS site under Activities under Students. Second, we need your help in realizing one of our visions of creating a national mathematics student newsletter. Our idea is to have university mathematics departments across Canada select a student webmaster to download the template page at: http://www.dms.umontreal.ca/
girouard/journal
This page contains subsections titled News, Women in Mathematics,
Men in Mathematics, Canadian Mathematicians, Opinions, Papers, Book
review, Fun with Math, and Links, which we intend to use as a framework
for a hard copy. We expect in some cases there might not always be a
willing student to keep up a Web page, but who would be willing to be a
contact and to serve as a link with the other students of your university.
In that case this student will be considered a webmaster anyway.
Initially, your webmaster may be a student working for the department
over the spring and summer months. The student webmaster's task would be
to modify the page with relevant
local information pertaining to your university (with a template page all
that is left to do is fill in the blanks!). These regional newsletters
will be linked to our Student Center Web page
available on the CMS site under Activities under Students at:
http://www.cms.math.ca
Of course student webmasters graduate. So, for the sake of continuity, we
suggest that the department selects the student webmaster from the
departmental student council, or the like. [...]. We intend to inform
each university webmaster in advance that their newsletter is next to be
linked to our Student Center page. Of course, in
order to do this we need to be able to contact your student webmaster.
Once you have recruited a student webmaster please have them
drop me (or Alexandre) a line at
juricev@cicma.concordia.ca (or girouard@dms.umontreal.ca)
Sincerely,
Robert Juricevic
Notice Alexandre is no longer working on the newsletter project and my contact address is now student-editor@cms.math.ca. I would be more than happy to work with many people. If your are interested in working with me, drop me a line. The ability to translate this newsletter into French is an asset and it is my intention to do that for the next issue.
Now that the wave has started out West with Web pages at UNBC, UCAL, and UBC, thanks to Dan, Raymond, and Adrien respectively (see In Your Area), I would like it to continue through central Canada and splash into the Atlantic! That means that for the next issue I would like to establish contacts with the universities of Saskatchewan, Waterloo, and Carleton say (of course any of the 34 universities listed on our website in our links section may establish contact at any time), and for the following issue with UQAM, DAL, and Memorial say. Moreover, I would like the next newsletter to be two column; French à la droit, English à la gauche. This is consistent with other national magazines such as VIA magazine01. Andrew J. Irwin 2001-03-19
News
Math Millionaires?
This past September, mathematics student Shannon Patrick Sullivan of Memorial University of Newfoundland made it into the hot seat on Who Wants To Be a Millionaire-Canadian Edition. We asked him 20 questions.1. What are you studying at MUN?
Applied Mathematics. Specifically, numerical analysis and dynamical systems.
2. Where are you from originally?
St John's, Newfoundland. Lived here basically all my life.
3. What did you do to qualify for Millionaire?
Sacrificed several small animals. No, actually, there were a bunch of steps involved. First, there was a two-week period (or something like that) where you could call in, once a day, and try to qualify. Qualifying involved answering five ``Fastest Finger" questions correctly, in a row. If you did that, your name went into a draw which was broken down by region. I was lucky enough to qualify on my second try.
Newfoundland was part of the Atlantic region (with the three Maritime provinces) and they were only taking one contestant from that region. Fortunately, out of the 180 or so people who qualified from Atlantic Canada, my name was the one that got picked. Once they confirmed that I was actually eligible, I was in the show.
4. The taping was held in New York. What was your agenda for the trip?
Pretty hectic. We arrived around lunchtime on a Wednesday and most of that afternoon was taken up with media interviews. Then we had a production meeting with the producers and the other contestants and their guests, and the big press call with Pamela Wallin after that.
Thursday was almost entirely taken up with the recording of the shows themselves. We went to the studio at around 8:00 am, and the entire morning was spent doing rehearsals, getting make-up and hair done, that kind of thing. We taped one episode, had lunch, then taped the second episode, and after that had another short press scrum. Finally, in the evening we went to the Canadian Consulate General for a reception.
Friday was pretty quiet. We finally had a chance to take in some of New York in the morning, and our flight home left that afternoon.
5. Who did you bring with you, and why? (Sorry if this is two questions.)
I brought my father, Desmond. He's been to New York City before, so I was glad to have someone who knew a bit about the place along with me.
6. Did you meet Regis Philbin?
Ah, the question everybody wants to know! Actually, Regis was on vacation at the time (the American episodes airing around then had all been taped a few weeks earlier) so nope, didn't see hide nor hair of him.
7. What was Pamela Wallin like?
Off set, very nice, very friendly. During the actual recording, I think she was as nervous as any of the contestants. She was in a pretty tough situation, trying to fill Regis' shoes! I know she's taken a lot of flak for her performance, but I thought she did pretty well, under the circumstances, and certainly warmed up throughout the two shows.
8. What were the other contestants like?
Really great for the most part, we all bonded pretty quickly. Some people were pretty intense. They had really been studying hard, or felt a lot of pressure to do well. But most of us were just there to have a good time, have an interesting experience and meet some new people. Well, and win some money, of course.
9. How was the hot seat?
Interesting. When I first made it into the Hot Seat, right at the end of the episode, it was pretty strange. I mean, I knew I had as much time as I wanted to the answer the questions, but you still feel that you should be answering them rapid-fire. So I was in a really weird sort of zone then, and in fact when the break came, I had to ask people just how many questions I'd answered. I couldn't remember!
With the hour break in between the two tapings, it gave me time to catch my breath and refocus, so I was a lot more comfortable for the second show.
10. You were the ``carry-over" person, appearing on both shows. How was the wait?
Wonderful! Like I said, it gave me a chance to just sit back and calm down (and eat). Some of the other contestants said they would have hated to be in that situation, but in all honesty I think it was to my benefit.
11. How much did you win?
$1000. Which, in the grand scheme of things, isn't a lot. But it's still $1000 more than I went in with. So I'm not complaining.
12. Which question did you answer incorrectly, and what was it?
The $16, 000 question. It went something like ``In Nova Scotia, the term Digby chicken is used to refer to what?" The choices were cured herring, rubber duck, smoked lobster and cornish hen. The 50-50 lifeline narrowed it down to cured herring and smoked lobster. I went with the latter, and unfortunately that was wrong.
13. Did you use all of your lifelines?
I used the Ask the Audience on a baseball question that I really should have known the answer to, except that I had the two [World Series] appearances by the Toronto Blue Jays switched around in my head. The thing about Ask the Audience is that it becomes progressively less useful as the game wears on (this was the $4000 question) so I figured it was as good a time as any to use it. I don't think it would have helped me with the Digby chicken question.
Like I said, I used 50-50 on the Digby chicken one. I didn't use Phone a Friend. I was pretty sure no one on my list knew the answer to that one (turns out I was right) so I didn't want to waste it in case I guessed correctly.
14. What did you spend your winnings on?
Absolutely nothing yet! It's safely stored away in my bank account, collecting interest. I'm very tempted to splurge on a DVD player, but the last thing I need is something else to distract me from my studies. So I might just hang on to it for now.
15. Did you have much publicity?
Quite a bit, yeah. Several TV, radio and newspaper interviews in Newfoundland. Some radio stations in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick as well, since I was acting as their representative too. On the national scene there was Canada AM and the CTV National News, the Globe and Mail, the National Post, and the Canadian Press.
It was pretty constant right from the moment my name was announced until the two episodes actually aired, for a total of about two weeks.
16. What has it been like since?
In the immediate aftermath, people were coming up to me constantly. Fortunately, I enjoy that sort of thing so it never really got annoying. I guess I must be a bit of a glory hound!
I still get noticed every now and then, but I'm sure that before too long, everyone will have forgotten about it. But it's nice while it lasts.
17. What are you doing now?
Well, I'm starting my Masters this semester and teaching an undergrad course. That is, I would be, if the term hadn't been interrupted by a faculty strike. So while that's going on, I've been working pretty much non-stop on a movie screenplay that's been percolating in the back of my brain for a while now. Plus I'm maintaining my website, writing movie reviews, and I'm on the Board of Directors for the MUN Graduates Students Union, so it all keeps me pretty busy.
18. Do you have any hobbies, other than these?
I've gotten into movies and movie reviewing in a big way the past two or three years, so I watch a lot of those. I collect comic books which I have done since I was about four or five years old. And I'm a big fan of the old BBC science-fiction TV series ``Doctor Who", so I keep up to date on the latest news about that and write articles about its history for my website.
19. On the show, Pamela Wallin said you were ``reluctantly single". How's that going?
Well, I got a lot of very flattering e-mails after the shows aired, and still correspond with a couple of those people. But I'm not all that keen on an electronic relationship, so I guess from that point of view, things haven't changed too much.
20. If you had to use one word to describe your Millionaire experience, what would it be?
Memorable.
I thank David Isaac Morgan of Memorial University for contributing this article. David is a member of the Student Committee and was one of Shannon's Phone a Friend! -Ed.
Awards: NSERC for Undergrads
NSERC stands for the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada. The following is an excerpt from the Frequently Asked Questions of
http://www.nserc.ca/programs/schol1_e.htm
Questions from Students
1. How do I apply for an award?
You must complete Form 202, Application for an Undergraduate Student Research Award, which is available from USRA liaison officers at Canadian universities or from NSERC (select Application Forms on the above NSERC page). You should send the application along with your official transcripts to the proposed supervisor at the university at which you would like to hold the award.
2. What is the application deadline for USRA in University applications?
Each university establishes its own internal deadline for submission of USRA applications.
3. What are the selection procedures for these awards?
Each university selects students for USRAs according to its own selection criteria and within broad guidelines that NSERC provides. Once the university has selected its awardees, the information is sent to NSERC.
4. When will I find out if I have received an award?
The university will inform you of its award decisions after it has completed its selection procedure.
5. When can I hold my award?
You may hold your award at any time during the year as permitted by your academic program.
6. When do I receive my award?
NSERC pays the award directly to the university at which you are carrying out the research. The university will issue you payments during the period in which you are carrying out your research project; you will not receive any payments directly from NSERC. You will, however, receive an official letter of award from NSERC during the tenure of your USRA.
Some Math Links
- Institutes:
- The Fields Institute
http://www.fields.utoronto.ca
- Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences
http://www.pims.math.ca
- Centre de recherches mathématiques
http://www.crm.umontreal.ca
- Institut des sciences mathématiques
http://www.math.uqam.ca/ISM
- The Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems
http://www.mitacs.math.ca
- The Fields Institute
- Canadian Mathematical Society
http://www.cms.math.ca
- American Mathematical Society
http://www.ams.org
- World wide listing of math departments
http://www.ams.org/mathweb/mi-depts.html
- The Math Forum Internet Mathematics Library
http://forum.swarthmore.edu/library
- The Mathematical Atlas: A Gateway to Modern Mathematics
http://www.math.niu.edu/rusin/known-math/welcome.html
- The Universal Currency Converter
http://www.xe.net/ucc
- Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary
http://www.m-w.com/dictionary
- http://www.cms.math.ca/Students/en/Links
Vision of newsletter project
On Mon, 1 May 2000 21:07:56 -0400 (EDT), I sent the following e-mail to all mathematics departments across Canada. I received 3 replies.Dear Members of the Canadian Mathematics Community: I am writing your department to first inform you that our Canadian Mathematical Society Student Committee has completed a Web page to serve students across Canada. The CMS Student Web page is available on the CMS site under Activities under Students. Second, we need your help in realizing one of our visions of creating a national mathematics student newsletter. Our idea is to have university mathematics departments across Canada select a student webmaster to download the template page at: http://www.dms.umontreal.ca/
girouard/journal
This page contains subsections titled News, Women in Mathematics,
Men in Mathematics, Canadian Mathematicians, Opinions, Papers, Book
review, Fun with Math, and Links, which we intend to use as a framework
for a hard copy. We expect in some cases there might not always be a
willing student to keep up a Web page, but who would be willing to be a
contact and to serve as a link with the other students of your university.
In that case this student will be considered a webmaster anyway.
Initially, your webmaster may be a student working for the department
over the spring and summer months. The student webmaster's task would be
to modify the page with relevant
local information pertaining to your university (with a template page all
that is left to do is fill in the blanks!). These regional newsletters
will be linked to our Student Center Web page
available on the CMS site under Activities under Students at:
http://www.cms.math.ca
Of course student webmasters graduate. So, for the sake of continuity, we
suggest that the department selects the student webmaster from the
departmental student council, or the like. [...]. We intend to inform
each university webmaster in advance that their newsletter is next to be
linked to our Student Center page. Of course, in
order to do this we need to be able to contact your student webmaster.
Once you have recruited a student webmaster please have them
drop me (or Alexandre) a line at
juricev@cicma.concordia.ca (or girouard@dms.umontreal.ca)
Sincerely,
Robert Juricevic
Notice Alexandre is no longer working on the newsletter project and my contact address is now student-editor@cms.math.ca. I would be more than happy to work with many people. If your are interested in working with me, drop me a line. The ability to translate this newsletter into French is an asset and it is my intention to do that for the next issue.
Now that the wave has started out West with Web pages at UNBC, UCAL, and UBC, thanks to Dan, Raymond, and Adrien respectively (see In Your Area), I would like it to continue through central Canada and splash into the Atlantic! That means that for the next issue I would like to establish contacts with the universities of Saskatchewan, Waterloo, and Carleton say (of course any of the 34 universities listed on our website in our links section may establish contact at any time), and for the following issue with UQAM, DAL, and Memorial say. Moreover, I would like the next newsletter to be two column; French à la droit, English à la gauche. This is consistent with other national magazines such as VIA magazine01. Andrew J. Irwin 2001-03-19
