About Me
My name is Roy Simpson and I am a Professor of Mathematics at Cosumnes River College in Sacramento, CA. I have been a full-time faculty member at Cosumnes River College since 2007.
In addition to my teaching responsibilities, I am the administrator for the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year College's Student Mathematics League examination. This examination is held once in the Fall semester (usually late October) and once in the Spring semester (usually in mid-February). If you are interested in participating in this examination, please go my AMATYC SML page.
In 2004, after attending Cosumnes River, Sacramento City, and American River Colleges, I transferred to the University of California, Davis where I received a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics. During my years as an undergraduate at U.C. Davis, I was awarded a fellowship to work on research in mathematics (specifically, finding a better algorithm to solve large systems of linear equations). After I graduated from U.C. Davis, I was accepted into the highly competitive Ph.D. program in Computational Applied Mathematics at Stony Brook University (New York). My thesis was on modeling the flame fronts of type IIa supernovae. Unfortunately, family circummstances forced me to leave the Ph.D. program a year early. Luckily, I had already completed all of my graduate-level coursework so I left Stony Brook University with a Master of Science in Computational Applied Mathematics.
So what is my teaching methodology? I believe that hard work and conceptual understanding is what is necessary to do well in mathematics. My courses are built around this philosophy and I expect nothing but the best from my students. Some students may initially think that I am a "jerk" or a mean teacher, but it's only a facade. I try my best to kick out the students who are not serious about their education so that those who want to learn can get a quality experience. I am also a huge fan of applying the knowledge that we gain in the classroom. As such, my courses tend to have more applications than most other math courses. While theory is beautiful and knowledge of concepts is extremely important, mathematics means nothing to the larger populace if there is no way to apply it. If you decide to enroll in one of my math courses, please be aware that we will be applying mathematics.
Finally, an "About Me" page would be slim without some little tidbit about me that many students would never have guessed. I spent my 20's as a lead singer for a rock/funk/groove band. The name of the band was Ro-Sham-Bo and we toured around a bit and released two albums. It was a great time.