Professor of Mathematics Fumiko Futamura gave a talk titled “Circles and Perspective in Ancient Roman Wall Paintings” and co-led a workshop titled “Developing a Mathematical Art Manifesto” at the Bridges Conference in Galway, Ireland from August 5–9. The Bridges Conference is the world’s largest annual international gathering focused on connections between mathematics, arts, and culture.

The Mathematics and Computer Science Department was well represented at MathFest, the Mathematical Association of America’s (MAA) Annual Summer Meeting, held August 5–8 in Boston. Faculty, students, and an alumna presented research, led professional development sessions, and received national recognition. Associate Professor of Mathematics John Ross presented “Pedagogy, Identity, and Community: A Decade of NExT,” discussing the impact of Project NExT and his progression from participant to leader at the Texas Section NExT level. Mathematics majors Ioana Burlacu ’26 and Ashlyn Cadena ’27 presented “Perimeter-minimizing rectangles using density M|x|^p + N|y|^q” in the MAA Undergraduate Poster Session. Their research was supervised by Ross as part of SURF 2025. Garey Chair and Professor of Mathematics Alison Marr co-organized the session “Rewriting Who Counts” and presented “Women Count!,” highlighting courses she has taught at Southwestern. As Chair of the MAA Council on Prizes and Awards, Marr also participated in the Meeting of the MAA Congress and presented several prizes and awards during the conference. Associate Professor of Mathematics Therese Shelton co-organized the session “Innovative Modeling Approaches to Teaching and Applying ODEs” and presented “Modeling-First DE: Learning to Teach, and Teaching to Learn” with fellow professional development leaders in differential equations. She also participated in an all-day working session for an upcoming book by MAA OPEN Math, a National Science Foundation-supported project focused on improving mathematics instruction through active-learning professional development. Mathematics and computer science graduate Emma Kathryn Groves ’17, now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the United States Military Academy at West Point, was a co-author of the presentation “Teaching to the Surface: Using Physical Models to Move Multivariable Calculus Beyond Formulas.” Finally, Professor of Mathematics Fumiko Futamura and co-authors Annalisa Crannell and Marc Frantz received the Daniel Solow Author’s Award for their 2019 inquiry-based learning textbook, Perspective and Projective Geometry, published by Princeton University Press.

Duncan Chair and Professor of Mathematics Fumiko Futamura, along with her co-authors Annalisa Crannell and Marc Frantz, were honored with the Daniel Solow Author’s Award by the Mathematical Association of America for their 2019 IBL textbook, Perspective and Projective Geometry, published by Princeton University Press. Established to recognize excellence in undergraduate mathematics education, this annual award honors the author(s) of outstanding teaching materials. Selection is based primarily on the impact these materials have on undergraduate education in mathematics and related disciplines. More information is available here.

Duncan Chair and Professor of Mathematics Fumiko Futamura, along with her collaborator, artist Jiabao Li, gave a talk at The Association for the Study of Play (TASP) 52nd annual conference, organized by Professor of Education Michael Kamen and held at Southwestern University. The talk, titled “Math/Art Collaboration Through Play: A Report From the Triangle Program,” focused on the role of play in our interdisciplinary collaboration, which ultimately culminated in the idea of the math playground.

Duncan Chair and Professor of Mathematics Fumiko Futamura gave a talk at the Gathering 4 Gardner 16 in San Francisco, CA, a puzzle/magic/art/math conference to celebrate the popular recreational math writer Martin Gardner. During each day were dozens of six-minute lightning talks given by attendees on projects they are working on. Futamura discussed three projects, updates from the mathematical art manifesto group she has been organizing over the past six months, the math playground funded by the Simons Foundation Triangle Program, and a general audience book on what can be gleaned from understanding the geometry of space in art and other 2D media, to be published by Princeton University Press.