St. Edward's Math Department

On April 14th, Dr. Mitch and Dr. Kaitlyn Phillipson traveled to Texas A&M to give invited talks.  Dr. Mitch presented at the Algebra & Combinatorics Seminar on his ongoing research “Counting Foldings in RNA.”  Dr. Phillipson presented at the Geometry Seminar on her recently submitted paper “Groebner Bases of Neural Ideals,”  which was work done in collaboration with undergraduates as part of two REU programs (PURE Math Program and the Texas A&M REU).  Both presenters received helpful and constructive feedback to further their research programs.

Dr. Kaitlyn Phillipson and 9 students attended the 97th Annual Meeting of the MAA at Texas A&M-Commerce March 30th-April 2nd.  All nine students participated in the Calculus Bowl on Thursday night, and both teams made it to the final round.  The students attended a variety of undergraduate research talks as well as several invited lectures.  A favorite among many students was the Student Forum: “The Mathematics of Hank in Finding Dory” by Kevin Singleton, Senior Technical Director of Pixar Animation Studios, Inc.

Three students presented on their research:

• Amira Mahler – American Roulette: How Long Can You Play? (as part of her research with Dr. Jason Callahan)
• Stephanie Thrash – Mathematical Analysis of Voting (as part of her REU project at Grand Valley State)
• Crisel Suarez – North Carolina and Pennsylvania for Boardwalk? Trade Values for Monopoly Real Estate (as part of her summer research with Dr. Michael Kart)

The remaining 6 students were:

• Jacob Belmares
• Sarah Dale
• Sarah Goldrup
• Valeria Gonzalez
• Bianca “B” Salinas
• Adrian Silva

Congratulations to all our students for their performance in the Calculus Bowl!  We look forward to next year’s MAA conference, hosted at El Centro College in Dallas, April 5-7.

Happy Pi Day!

Today is 3/14, also known as Pi(=3.14…) Day.  The Math Department celebrated this momentous day early this year on March 7th, referred to as “Poorly Approximated Pi Day.”

Students and Faculty enjoyed 4 pi(e)s  (made by Dr. Mitch and Dr. Phillipson) and ice cream. Dr. Kaitlyn Phillipson also led an activity on constructing modular origami.  Several dedicated students stayed well into the evening to work together to assemble an icosahedron. Here is a link to a photo album.

https://goo.gl/photos/hVoSM4ZrjTXMTToVA
Thank you to Math Club and Dr. Mitch for organizing and advertising the event.  

Drs. Jason Callahan and Carol Gee recently had a co-authored paper entitled “Aesthetics in a Mathematics for Liberal Arts Project” published in the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics (Volume 7, Issue 1, pages 139-146, January 2017).

Last year Dr. Callahan also had a paper entitled “Assessing Online Homework in First-Semester Calculus” published in PRIMUS: Problems, Resources, and Issues in Mathematics Undergraduate Studies (Volume 26, Issue 6: Special Issue on Teaching with Technology, pages 545-556, 2016).

Congratulations to Drs. Callahan and Gee!

Math major Stephanie Thrash earned a Mathematical Association of America (MAA) Student Travel Grant to give a presentation entitled, “Mathematical Analysis of Lottery Voting,” at the 2017 Joint Mathematics Meetings (JMM) of the MAA and American Mathematical Society (AMS), the largest math conference in the world, held January 4-7 in Atlanta, GA.

Also at the 2017 JMM, Dr. Carol Gee gave presentation entitled, “Cut-Apart Proofs: a hands-on activity in varied contexts” while Dr. Jason Callahan gave two presentations entitled, “Analysis of a Coupled, $n$-Patch Population Model with Ceiling Density Dependence” and “Chutes, Ladders, and Markov Chains” based on research he conducted with math alum Harris Greenwood. In addition, Dr. Callahan served on the MAA Panel “Research Support Networks,” co-organized the AMS Special Session “ApREUF: Applied Research Experience for Undergraduate Faculty,” and staffed the Exhibit Hall booth for the AMS Mathematical Research Communities, for which he also served in a focus group. Congratulations to Stephanie and Drs. Gee and Callahan for presenting and serving at the largest math conference in the world!

Math major Crisel Suarez presented at a national McNair Scholars Research Conference at Florida International University, October 19-21, 2016. Her presentation, “Online SPARC Visualization: Drawing and Animating with Answer Set Programs,” was based on research she conducted in a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program on Declarative Programming and Its Applications sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) at Texas Tech University from June 5 to August 13, 2016.

Crisel and fellow math major Stephanie Thrash also attended the National Alliance for Doctoral Studies in the Mathematical Sciences Field of Dreams Conference in St. Louis, MO, November 4-6, 2016; both were nominated by Alliance Mentor Dr. Jason Callahan. Congratulations to both Crisel and Stephanie for taking advantage of opportunities to attend and present at national conferences!

On Friday October 28, the Math club carved some pumpkins! The event was organized primarily by Crisel Suarez. The club purchased 8 pumpkins and there were 8 participants.

We were sure to take many pictures, all of which can be seen at this link:

Link to Pictures

We should be sure to thank Crisel for her hard work in organizing this event.

Dr. Mitch Phillipson and Dr. Kaitlyn Phillipson brought 12 students to the Texas Undergraduate Math Conference (TUMC) at Lamar University in Beaumont October 7-8, a new St. Edward’s record!  The students attended a variety of undergraduate research talks as well as two plenary talks.  Of the 12 students, four presented on their research:

• Crisel Suarez – Winning Strategies at TETRIS (as part of her research with Dr. Jason Callahan)
• Stephanie Thrash – Mathematical Analysis of Voting (as part of her REU project at Grand Valley State)
• Maria Mota – Combinatorics in Candy Crush (as part of her summer research with Dr. Jason Callahan)
• Amira Mahler – American Roulette: How Long Can you Play? (as part of her summer research with Dr. Jason Callahan)

The remaining 8 students were:

• Valeria Gonzalez
• Jacob Belmares
• Sarah Goldrup
• Bianca “B” Salinas
• Joshua Saldivar
• Ayesha Gonzalez
• Daniel Sanchez
• Adrian Silva

Congratulations to all students and faculty who attended, we’ve set a high bar that will be hard to pass next year.

Here is a link to all the pictures from the conference: Link

 

Congratulations to our Math Club officers for 2016-17:

President: Crisel Suarez
Vice President: Stephanie Thrash
Secretary: Antoine Chamoun-Farah
Social Chair: Valeria Gonzalez
Treasurer: Bianca “B” Salinas

Please thank them for their willingness to lead our Math Club, whose faculty sponsor and advisor is Dr. Jason Callahan. Anyone may join our Math Club on CollegiateLink to receive announcements of future meetings, events, and opportunities, and any member may suggest an activity or event — just contact one of the officers or send a message on CollegiateLink.

On November 16, 2010, the U.S. House of Representatives declared the week of April 11, 2011, “Undergraduate Research Week.” Each year since then, the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) has designated a week in April as “Undergraduate Research Week.”  This year Undergraduate Research Week was celebrated the week of April 11, during which math majors Crisel Suarez, Valeria Gonzalez, Toni Galvan, and Trenton Barnett presented research conducted with Drs. Jason Callahan, Edward Early, and Michael Saclolo respectively. These talks were featured on CUR’s Undergraduate Research Week website.