Author: kphillip

Over the weekend of September 8th through the 10th, Dr. Kaitlyn Phillipson and Dr. Mitch Phillipson traveled to the AMS Fall Central Sectional Meeting at the University of North Texas in Denton, TX.  Both faculty members were invited to give talks in Special Sessions: Dr. Mitch spoke in the Special Session on Generalizations in Graph Theory on “Generalized RNA foldings and their move graphs,” while Dr. Kaitlyn Phillipson spoke in the Special Session on Applicable and Computational Algebraic Geometry on the “Structure of the neural ideal for convex and non-convex codes.”  Between talks, the Phillipsons met new colleagues at nearby universities and caught up with friends and research collaborators.

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.