Five students presented four talks at the Texas Undergraduate Mathematics Conference (TUMC), and four more students attended. The conference was held at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, on October 27-28, 2023. Adrianna Flores-Vivas ’24 presented “Wolf Reintegration in Yellowstone National Park.” Ashley Odell ’24 and Madison Williams ’24 presented “Does Money Really Buy Happiness?”. Blue Goodson ’24 presented “The Mathematical Artistry of Portrait Making.” Johanna Campbell ’24 presented “To the Heart of the Milky Way.” The speakers gave preliminary presentations of their mathematics capstone projects under the supervision of Associate Professor of Mathematics Therese Shelton. Associate Professor of Physics Mark Bottorf co-supervised Cambell’s. Shelton also moderated two sessions of student talks. Zoe Kincaid ’24 attended, and first-year S-STEM/EQUIP students Amanda Mejia ’27, Juliana Elizondo ’27, and Alyanna Martinez ’27 also attended. The TUMC is partially supported by the National Science Foundation grant DMS-2226539. The Atkin Junior Professorship in Mathematics for Assistant Professor of Mathematics Noelle Sawyer provided funding.

A wonderful interdisciplinary group from Southwestern participated in the 17th Annual Texas Undergraduate Mathematics Conference (TUMC), held this year at the University of Texas at Austin on October 29. Carson Vogel ’23 presented “Modeling Heat Transfer.” This project is a continuation of the 2021 and 2022 SCOPE projects under the supervision of Professor of Physics Steven Alexander and Associate Professor of Physics Mark Bottorf. This work is part of ongoing efforts for the eventual development of a solar energy storage cell; a problem brought to Southwestern by Coordinator of Science Facilities and Equipment Oscar Lee Fellows. Melanie Richey ’23 presented “Rats on the Run: Modeling of Hippocampal Cell Activity Using Plasticity.” Her project is a continuation of a 2022 Research Experience for Undergraduates at Southern Methodist University under the supervision of Dr. Katie Hedrick in collaboration with Dr. Brad E. Pfeiffer, Department of Neuroscience, UT Southwestern Medical Center. Professor of Mathematics Alison Marr and Associate Professor of Mathematics Therese Shelton also attended the conference. Marr chaired a student presentation session. Shelton supervised Vogel’s and Richey’s current work, preliminary results for their mathematics capstone projects. Jillian Reese ’23 and Emma Lewis ’23 joined with their counterparts from the University of North Texas-Denton in research with Shelton and Dr. Joe Iaia, funded through the Council for Undergraduate Research in Mathematics. Other students also attended: Oliver Johnson ’23, Jess Kazmir ’23, Lauren Calzado ’23, Rowan Via ’23, Kathryn Altman ’24, and Aidan Bujanda-Moore ’23. Majors and minors among our student attendees included Mathematics, Computational Mathematics, Physics, Economics, Education, Spanish, and Political Science.

A wonderful interdisciplinary group from Southwestern participated in the 17th Annual Texas Undergraduate Mathematics Conference (TUMC), held this year at the University of Texas at Austin on October 29. Carson Vogel ’23 presented “Modeling Heat Transfer.” This project is a continuation of the 2021 and 2022 SCOPE projects under the supervision of Professor of Physics Steven Alexander and Associate Professor of Physics Mark Bottorf. This work is part of ongoing efforts for the eventual development of a solar energy storage cell; a problem brought to Southwestern by Coordinator of Science Facilities and Equipment Oscar Lee Fellows. Melanie Richey ’23 presented “Rats on the Run: Modeling of Hippocampal Cell Activity Using Plasticity.” Her project is a continuation of a 2022 Research Experience for Undergraduates at Southern Methodist University under the supervision of Dr. Katie Hedrick in collaboration with Dr. Brad E. Pfeiffer, Department of Neuroscience, UT Southwestern Medical Center. Professor of Mathematics Alison Marr and Associate Professor of Mathematics Therese Shelton also attended the conference. Marr chaired a student presentation session. Shelton supervised Vogel’s and Richey’s current work, preliminary results for their mathematics capstone projects. Jillian Reese ’23 and Emma Lewis ’23 joined with their counterparts from the University of North Texas-Denton in research with Shelton and Dr. Joe Iaia, funded through the Council for Undergraduate Research in Mathematics. Other students also attended: Oliver Johnson ’23, Jess Kazmir ’23, Lauren Calzado ’23, Rowan Via ’23, Kathryn Altman ’24, and Aidan Bujanda-Moore ’23. Majors and minors among our student attendees included Mathematics, Computational Mathematics, Physics, Economics, Education, Spanish, and Political Science.

Southwestern University had a strong showing at the 2019 Texas Section Meeting of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), held March 28–30 at Tarleton State University, in Stephenville, TX.

• Katie Dyo ’20 presented “Women’s Golf: An NCAA Comparison Using Mathematical Modeling,” preliminary results from her signature work with Associate Professor of Mathematics Therese Shelton. Dyo is a mathematics major and data-science minor, and she is a member of the SU Women’s Golf Team.
• Claire Harding ’19 and Madison Godleski ’19 presented “Rocket Projections,” supervised by Associate Professor of Physics Mark Bottorff. Harding is a physics major, and Godleski is a physics major with a mathematics minor.
• Daniela Beckelhymer ’20, Charlie Ellison ’20, Hannah Freeman ’20, and Gerardo Gonzalez also attended the meeting.
• President and Professor of Mathematics Edward Burger gave the invited address, “Making up Your Own Mind through Practices of (Mathematical) Effective Thinking.”
• Professor of Mathematics Alison Marr co-led and participated in the Mathematics Learning by Inquiry organizational meetings, held in conjunction with the Texas MAA meeting.
• Assistant Professor of Mathematics John Ross attended the professional-development program of Texas New Experiences in Teaching (NExT), held in conjunction with the Texas MAA meeting. Ross also supported the student attendees.
• Professor of Mathematics Kendall Richards and Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics John Osborne participated in the Texas MAA meeting.

Student lodging, registration, and meals were provided by the Fleming Student Travel Fund and the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science. Southwestern students accounted for five of the 57 presentations, along with 20 other colleges and universities.

Southwestern had a great showing at the Joint Mathematics Meeting, the largest meeting of mathematicians in the world, held Jan. 4–7 in Atlanta, Ga. Six faculty, eight students, and an alumna participated in multiple ways.

• Associate Professor of Mathematics Alison Marr was very active at this meeting.  As the Secretary/Treasurer of the IBL SIGMAA (Inquiry-Based Learning Special Interest Group of the Mathematical Association of America), she helped organize the MAA Session on Inquiry-Based Teaching and Learning; this topic needed five sessions because of its importance, relevance, and national attention. She also co-organized the MAA Panel “Perspectives on Inquiry-Based Learning: Novice, Experienced, and Master,” and helped run the first IBL SIGMAA business meeting. She also presented “Broadening the Net: Promoting Success in the Sciences for All Students” at the MAA Poster Session on Projects Supported by the NSF Division of Undergraduate Education. Poster co-authors include  Professor of Chemistry Emily D. Niemeyer, Associate Professor of Physics Mark Bottorff, Associate Professor of Computer Science Barbara Anthony, and Director of General Chemistry Labs Willis A. Weigand. She was also a co-author on a paper, “Coprime and prime labelings of ladder graphs and complete bipartite graphs,” presented in the AMS Special Session on RE(UF)search on Graphs and Matrices.
• Visiting Assistant Professor John Ross and Associate Professor of Mathematics Therese Shelton co-presented “Supermarkets, Highways, and Oil Production: Statistics and Social Justice.” This work began with participation in an ACS workshop, “Mathematics and Social Justice,” May 21–22, 2016 at Rollins College.
• Ross and Visiting Assistant Professor Linda DiLullo participated in the workshop “Preparing Students for Success in Calculus: Aligning Placement, Curriculum, and Assessment” offered through the MAA under an NSF grant.
• Shelton co-presented the MAA Minicourse on Teaching Modeling-First Differential Equations—Technology and Complete End Game Effort, attended the MAA Section Officers’ Meeting as Past Chair of the Texas Section, and organized funding and logistics for Southwestern’s student and alum presenters and attendees.
• Professor of Mathematics Kendall Richards co-organized the AMS Special Session on Complex Analysis and Special Functions.
• Alumna Julia R. Sykora ’16 presented “3D Mathematical Models For the Blind” in the MAA Session on Methods of Engaging Math Learners with Physical Impairments. This was based on her 2015–16 King Creativity Project with Allison K. Young ’16 supervised by Shelton.
• Southwestern students also presented at the AMS Contributed Paper Session on Undergraduate Research:
  • William Soller, Class of 2017, and Kristen McCrary, Class of 2018, presented “Existence, Uniqueness, and Cost-Optimizing Results of Mathematical Trusses” based on their 2016 SCOPE work supervised by Ross.
  • Morgan Engle and Penny Phan, both Class of 2018, presented “Green Math: Models of Greenhouse Gasses” from the 2016 SCOPE work supervised by Shelton.
  • Oliver Sale, Class of 2017, presented “Investigation of Central Texas Surface Ozone Concentrations 1980–2015” on work that began in 2016 SCOPE supervised by Part-Time Assistant Professor of Physics Rebecca Edwards. In Fall 2016, Sale continued the work in his mathematics capstone; Edwards continued to primarily oversee the project, and Shelton oversaw the math capstone and prepared Sale for the presentation.
  • Victoria Gore, Class of 2017, presented “Extreme Precipitation: Changes in Rain Frequency from 1895–2015 in Central Texas” from the 2016 SCOPE work supervised by Edwards.
  • Beulah Agyemang-Barimah, Class of 2017, received funding from Southwestern’s Keck Foundation grant to attend sessions on mathematical and computational biology.
  • Emma Kathryn Groves, Class of 2017, also attended the meetings.