When the terrorists struck on September 11, 2001, Susan Martonosi had just started graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Having spent the previous two years in the Peace Corps, she yearned to effect positive change.

"I wanted to use mathematics in a way that could improve society,” says Martonosi. So she began to conduct research on terrorism and aviation security.

As an assistant professor of mathematics at HMC, Martonosi is continuing that work. Today, she and her students are working on two projects that rely on operations research, a form of mathematical thinking first used by the military during World War II.

“It’s applied math, designed to optimize a process to help reach the best decision given certain constraints,” explains Martonosi, who teaches an intro class on the subject. “Whether it’s maximizing your profit or minimizing the likelihood of a terrorist attack, operations research uses mathematical formulations to tackle real-world problems.”

Daniel Walton ‘07 and Minal Shankar ‘08 spent 10 weeks with Martonosi over the summer using mathematical models and game theory to assess the role of information in deterring terrorism and to determine the best way to allocate resources to prevent attacks.

“The research we did this summer makes grad school seem less intimidating,” notes Shankar, a math major who was born in India. “It also made me more interested in applied math. I like the idea of doing something that is directly related to society.”

Although the work is demanding, Martonosi and her students aren’t tied to their computers.

Walton is a member of the Ultimate Frisbee team, a club sport that draws students from four of The Claremont Colleges. Shankar, who takes Russian and hopes to spend a semester abroad, has been teaching herself to play guitar. Martonosi, a drummer, runner and self-confessed Sudoku addict, is faculty-in-residence at Sontag Hall.

“There is a lot of interaction between faculty and students on campus,” says Martonosi. “The residence program is another way to promote the close community we have here.”