Stephen Davies

Welcome!  I'm a lucky professor in the Computer Science department at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia.  My goal here is to connect with students in a myriad of different ways, investing in their lives and helping them to discover who they are and who they want to be.

I'm also the creator of the All The Math educational materials, and the Position of Privilege blog.

 

Courses

allthemath A fun, non-traditional, self-paced curriculum that aims to teach All The Math You Need For Computer Science.
CPSC 240Object-oriented Analysis & Design
DATA 420Modeling and Simulation

Open Educational Resources

A Cool Brisk Walk Through Discrete Mathematics A practical introduction to Discrete Math for Computer Science majors. (hardcopies on LeanPub, Blurb and Amazon)
A Quick Steep Climb Up Linear Algebra An introduction to Applied Linear Algebra for Computer Science majors. (hardcopies on Blurb and Amazon)
Blueprints: Creating, Describing, and Implementing Designs for Larger-scale Software Projects A text for a second computer programming course, focused on Object-oriented Analysis & Design. (hardcopies on Blurb and Amazon)
The Crystal Ball Instruction Manual, Volume One: Introduction to Data Science. (hardcopies on Blurb and Amazon)
The Crystal Ball Instruction Manual, Volume Two: Foundations for Data Science. (hardcopies on Blurb and Amazon)

Recent publications

Mittereder, J., Carroll, R., Frulla, B., Davies, S., "Exploring the Impact of Social Network Density and Agent Openness on Societal Polarization", Presented at The Computational Social Science Society of the Americas annual conference, Santa Fe, New Mexico (virtual), Nov.4-7, 2021.
Venkatachalapathy, R., Davies, S., Nehrboss, W., "Wealth dynamics in the presence of network structure and primitive cooperation", Presented at The Computational Social Science Society of the Americas annual conference, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Oct.24-27, 2019.
Davies, S., "The Twin Impact of Homophily and Accessibility on Ideological Polarization", Presented at The Computational Social Science Society of the Americas annual conference, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Oct.19-22, 2017.
Davies, S., Zontine, H., "The Surprising Effect of Implementation Choices on the Rate of Convergence of Opinion Dynamics Models", Presented at The Computational Social Science Society of the Americas annual conference, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Nov.17-20, 2016.
Davies, S., Brown, M., "Toward an Agent-Based Simulation of the Factors Impacting Diversity Within a College Student Body", Proceedings of the 47th Winter Simulation Conference (WSC15), Yilmaz, L. et al., Eds., December 2015, pp.3973-3984.
Crawford, M., Davies, S., Griffith, A., "Predicting Metapopulation Responses of a Tidal Wetland Annual to Environmental Stochasticity and Water Dispersal Through an Individual-based Model," Ecological Modelling, vol.316, November 2015, pp.217-229.

All publications


Curriculum vitae

The Other Side 

Life is so full of fascinating things to learn and do that I've always had a multitude of interests.  In addition to being a computer geek and professor, I am:

Pro-Christ: A Christian whose love relationship with God pervades everything I do.
Anti-Trump: A steadfast opponent of the worst leader, and the least Christ-like public figure, I have ever known.
A devoted family man with a terrific wife and three grown-up kids.
A die-hard fan of UMW athletics, especially women's basketball.
A sinophile (student and devotee of all things Chinese.)
A lover of literature, especially science fiction, fantasy, and the 19th century novel.  My favorite modern novelists are Ethan Canin and Sheri Tepper; my favorite dead novelists are Charlotte Brontë and Fyodor Dostoevsky; my favorite non-fiction writers are C.S. Lewis and Evelyn Underhill.
An enthusiast and student of the constructed language Esperanto.
An INFJ on the Myers-Briggs personality indicator, if you know what that means.
A Star Wars trilogy fanatic, having grown up with the series from an early age.
A slow but steady bicyclist who has participated in several long races.
An undying fan of pop artist Annie Herring.  Her musical expression and spiritual passion are among the most inspiring wonders I have been privileged to witness on this earth.
 

Contact Info

Stephen Davies
James Farmer Hall - 044
Department of Computer Science
University of Mary Washington
1301 College Ave.
Fredericksburg, VA  22401
(540)654-1317

E-mail: my first name, followed by the domain name "umw dot edu."
Mastodon: divilian@datasci.social

RSA public key
fingerprint: MD5:2d:ef:9e:8a:19:23:7c:0f:d4:7c:a9:78:90:3f:87:fe
 

Stephen Davies

Last modified: May 20, 2023