Bruce Piper

Bruce Piper is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, with contact information including email piperb@rpi.edu and phone number 518-276-6892.

His research interests include:

• Mathematics Education
• Computer Aided Geometric Design
• Approximation Theory
• Shape Preserving Interpolation
• Data Analysis Techniques

Dr. Piper's work spans both theoretical and applied mathematics. In theoretical domains, he has investigated shape preserving interpolation, specifically focusing on the preservation of monotonic curvature and 3-convexity problems. He has developed novel surface representations for convexity preserving interpolation. His applied research bridges mathematical techniques with antenna engineering, particularly in spherical conformal antenna design using NURBS techniques and electromagnetic modeling of conformal wideband antennas.

His publication record reveals a progression from geometric design fundamentals to practical engineering applications. The research shows strong interdisciplinary connections between pure mathematics and electrical engineering, with significant contributions to both fields. His work on cubic spirals and Hermite interpolation has theoretical importance, while his antenna modeling research has practical implications for wireless communications technology.

Dr. Piper has contributed to mathematics education through curriculum development for undergraduate math majors, creating courses that teach data visualization, classification, clustering, and ridge regression. He has also implemented mentorship programs where upper-class students guide first-year students in Calculus courses to improve STEM retention rates.