Graduate Student Activities

Workshop

What’s the Story? A Graduate Student Workshop on Formulating a Research Presentation for a General Audience

Wednesday, August 5, 1:00 PM - 2:20 PM, Marriott Wardman Park, Maryland C

Presenting our research to undergraduate students can be both fun and rewarding. It can also be difficult, however, since the gory details of our results often require a great deal of specific jargon and background. Nonetheless, the big ideas can almost always be presented at a variety of levels, and this workshop is designed to interactively help participants develop the skills needed to formulate a presentation on their research that is appropriate for an audience of undergraduate students. Since many colleges and universities require giving such a talk as part of a job interview, almost any graduate student will have the opportunity to do so, and the ability to communicate complex mathematical ideas to students is a valued trait in a candidate. This workshop will consist of hands-on activities and audience interaction aimed toward developing and improving the necessary skills for creating an engaging and accessible presentation for undergraduates. Participants should be prepared to discuss in groups a potential presentation on their research or other related topic.

Rachel Schwell, Central Connecticut State University
May Mei, Denison University

Committee on Graduate Students and Young Mathematicians Network

Graduate Student Q&A

Thursday, August 6, 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM, Marriott Wardman Park, Park Tower 8224
Friday, August 7, 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM, Marriott Wardman Park, Park Tower 8224

This session is only for graduate students intending to present in the session "Great Talks for a General Audience: Coached Presentations by Graduate Students" on Saturday, August 8th. This will be an informal Q&A session with the organizers of "Great Talks" and the workshop "What's the Story? A Graduate Student Workshop on Formulating a Research Presentation for a General Audience," where presenters can drop in at any time to get individual feedback on their presentations.

Rachel Schwell, Central Connecticut State University
James Freeman, Cornell College
May Mei, Denison University
Aliza Steurer, Dominican University

Social Event

Graduate Student Reception

Thursday, August 6, 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM, Marriot Wardman Park, The Chef's Table at Stone's Throw

Graduate students are invited for some refreshments and to meet several of the invited speakers.

Estela A. Gavosto, University of Kansas
James Freeman, Cornell College

Panel Session

Nonacademic Career Paths for Mathematicians

Friday, August 7, 2:35 PM - 3:55 PM, Marriott Wardman Park, Salon 1

You’re about to earn a degree in mathematics, now what? You may be surprised to know that teaching isn’t your only option; in the “real world” mathematical knowledge is a valued commodity and there are many interesting job opportunities for mathematicians in nonacademic settings. So, whether you are a mathematics student looking for a job once you graduate or an advisor looking for advice to give to future job-seeking students, this session will help you gain new perspectives on nonacademic career experiences and what employers value in their employees. Panelists will share their paths to their current positions and offer advice to others looking for employment in similar venues.

Poster Session

PosterFest 2015: A Poster Session of Scholarship by Early Career Mathematicians and Graduate Students

Friday, August 7, 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM, Marriott Wardman Park, Exhibit Hall A

This poster session will allow early career mathematicians, including untenured faculty and graduate students, to present and discuss their scholarly activities with other attendees in an informal atmosphere. Examples of scholarly activities suitable for this poster session include expository work, preliminary reports, scholarship of teaching and learning, and research reports. Presenters should have their materials prepared in advance and will be provided with a self-standing, trifold tabletop poster approximately 48 in wide by 36 in high. Proposals should be submitted at www.maa.org/mathfest/abstracts. Questions regarding this session should be sent to the organizers.

Doug Ensley, Shippensburg College
Jenny McNulty, University of Montana

MAA Committee on Early Career Mathematicians
Project NExT
Young Mathematicians Network

Great Talks for a General Audience: Coached Presentations by Graduate Students

Part A - Saturday, August 8, 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM, Marriott Wardman Park, Virginia C
Part B - Saturday, August 8, 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM, Marriott Wardman Park, Maryland C
Part C - Saturday, August 8, 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM, Marriott Wardman Park, Salon 1, Balcony A

Presenters in this session must be graduate students. While many graduate students will be asked to give a lecture to a general audience, which includes undergraduates and non-mathematicians as part of a job interview, most students do not have experience talking to a non-research audience. This session gives graduate students the opportunity to give a 20-minute talk aimed at an undergraduate audience, which has been exposed to calculus and some linear algebra. Both the talks and abstracts should be designed to excite a wide range of undergraduates about mathematics. All participants in this session will receive private feedback on their presentations from an established faculty member and an undergraduate student. Time permitting, a discussion of effective techniques for delivering great general-audience talks will occur at the end of the session. Contact Jim Freeman (jfreeman@cornellcollege.edu),Rachel Schwell (schwellrac@ccsu.edu) or Aliza Steurer (asteurer@dom.edu) for help on writing an abstract and preparing a talk for a general audience. Informal optional sessions will be held on Thursday and Friday for session participants to get feedback on their presentations from the session organizers. Graduate student participants in this session should also attend the graduate student workshop (What’s the Story?) on mathematical presentations. A limited amount of travel support is available and will be processed in the order received. Contact a session organizer on how to apply for funds. Abstracts must be submitted by May 1, 2015.

James Freeman, Cornell College
Rachel Schwell, Central Connecticut State University
Aliza Steurer, Dominican University

MAA Committee on Graduate Students

Part A

Saturday, August 8, 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM, Marriott Wardman Park, Virginia C

Histomorphometry-Based Modeling and Simulation of Multiple Myeloma Bone Disease

1:00 PM - 1:25 PM
Catherine Patterson, University of Iowa

Mathematical Modeling of Kidney Function

1:30 PM - 1:50 PM
Julia Walk, University of Iowa

Classifying Tangles

2:20 PM - 2:40 PM
Christine Caples, University of Iowa

Knot Theory through Quandles

2:45 PM - 3:05 PM
Indu Rasika Hamudra, University of South Florida
Mohamed Elhamdadi, University of South Florida

Loops and Operads: An Introduction

3:10 PM - 3:30 PM
Jason Lucas, Purdue University

What is an Orderable Group?

3:35 PM - 3:55 PM
Kelli Karcher, Virginia Tech

Part B

Saturday, August 8, 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM, Marriott Wardman Park, Maryland C

Polynomials: An Exploration

1:00 PM - 1:25 PM
Joshua Cape, Johns Hopkins University

Demystifying Matrix Multiplication

1:30 PM - 1:50 PM
Erin Griesenauer, University of Iowa

Hopf Algebras: Linear Algebra in Action

1:55 PM - 2:15 PM
Kevin Gerstle, University of Iowa

The Marriage of Two Series: An Exciting Approach to Obtaining Definite Integral Solutions

2:20 PM - 2:40 PM
James Rosado, Rowan University
Tom Osler, Rowan University

A Simple Way to Ruin Bacteria's Social Life— Mixing and Chemotaxis

2:45 PM - 3:05 PM
Xiaoqian Xu, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Alexander Kiselev, Rice University

Mixing Times for Sorry! Game

3:10 PM - 3:30 PM
Serena Yuan, New York University

Ironing Out the Wrinkles in a Black Hole Horizon

3:35 PM - 3:55 PM
Brian Allen, University of Tennessee

Part C

Saturday, August 8, 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM, Marriott Wardman Park, Salon 1, Balcony A

Can You Reconstruct a Tiger from Its Stripes? The Mathematical Reconstruction of a Medical Image

1:00 PM - 1:25 PM
Rachel Grotheer, Clemson University

Could Topology Provide Insight into Huntington's Disease?

1:30 PM - 1:50 PM
Leyda Almodovar Velazquez, University of Iowa

Tiling the Bathroom Floor: An Exercise in Counting

1:55 PM - 2:15 PM
Ranjan Rhatgi, Indiana University

Realizing Reality on the Drawing Board

2:20 PM - 2:40 PM
Natalie Hobson, University of Georgia

Spider Graphs

2:45 PM - 3:05 PM
Zoey Guo, Northwestern University

Coloring your World: An Introduction to Ramsey Numbers

3:10 PM - 3:30 PM
Kendra Pleasant, Howard University

Fourier, Duality, and the Uncertainty Principle

3:35 PM - 3:55 PM
Zhengqing Chen, Clarkson University