Adding Something Positive
Find that surprising? You’re not alone.
“I had no idea — I haven’t touched that [part of the website] in 20 years,” says Cheever, the Edward Hicks Magill Professor Emeritus of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, who retired from the College in May. “To have thousands of people using it was never really my goal, but it’s satisfying.”
In the early days of the site, Cheever would post notes from lectures, as an aid to his students. But the site grew, demonstrating an appeal to a broader community.
Cheever ascribes the site’s success to the “quick and dirty” mathematical estimates it outlines, as well as animations to help users visualize what they’re learning. Ames Bielenberg ’12 helped with the former, and Patrick Wheeler ’23, with a subpage on Bode plots, while they were students. Cheever worked on the site when he wasn’t teaching at the College, and that work continues in retirement. He has done a lot of other programming in his life, but says none has been as rewarding.
“I enjoy doing it, and see it as a way of giving back,” he says, “just to add something positive.” It’s not a solitary pursuit: Cheever receives regular communication from visitors to the site. A few years ago, around the holidays, he received five or six frantic messages when his corner of the College’s website was down. There are also users who don’t hesitate to let Cheever know about typos, and still another subsection of users who amuse him.
“Sometimes it’s people who are clearly just asking me to do their homework for them,” he says.