Contact

Jenya Soprunova
esopruno [at] kent.edu

    COF Meetings Schedule, year 2023-2024

    Most of our meetings will be held on Wednesdays. If you have a scheduling conflict please fill out a form.

    • COF Welcome Event, 4-6 pm Wed August 30, Risman Plaza

    • Welcome to Math COF, 5:10-6 pm Th Sept 14, MSB 106

    • Graduate directors speaker panel with Drs. John Johnson (Director School of Biomedical Sciences), Michael Tubergen (Graduate Program director Chemistry), and Artem Zvavitch (Graduate Program director Mathematics), 5-6 pm Wed September 27, Cunningham Hall 101.

    • Math Program Summer Internships Panel with Austin Angell, Rachel Berry, Lauren Klodt, and Lauren Tan at 5:15-6:05 on Wed Oct 11 in MSB 108.

    • Career Fair, Wed Oct 25, Aeronautics and Engineering Career Fair 10 am – 3 pm, see the information in Handshake.

    • Panel with Math COF alumni, Wed Nov 15 at 5:10-6:00 pm, Zoom link will be e-mailed.

      Recent alumni, Cameren Hicks (BS Applied Math, 2022), Lauren Garner (BS Applied Math, 2022, MA Economics, 2023), and Maddy Meiser (BS in Education, 2022) will tell us about their job search and careers. Cameren is currently a Fraud Modeling and Analytics Associate at Key Bank, Lauren is an Operations Analyst at BNY Melon, and Maddy is a Mathematics Instructor at Coshocton County Career Center.

    • Career Preparation and Readiness event, November 29th, 3-5 pm in Student Center Room 310. More information is sent over e-mail.

    • COF-MST meeting: Dr. Bev Reed will talk about Pathways curriculum used in Algebra for Calculus classes at KSU, Tuesday November 21 at 4:25-5:15. Zoom link will be e-mailed.

    • COF-MST meeting: CCP info session on Tuesday Dec 12 at 4:15-5:15 pm. Kristin Bechter from the CCP office will explain how CCP works at KSU and in general. Zoom link will be e-mailed.

    COF Meetings Schedule, year 2022-2023

    Most of our meetings will be on Wednesdays at 5:10 - 6 pm in MSB 108. If you have a scheduling conflict please fill out a form. If you have a recurring conflict (for example, a class overlapping with the meetings), please fill out the form only once.

    • "Welcome to COF", Wednesday, Sep 14, 5:10 - 6 pm, MSB 115.

    • Mikhail Chebotar "Cheating in math and using math", Wednesday, Sep 21, 5:10 - 6 pm, MSB 108.

      We will present several examples when one party does not act in good faith and uses math as a tool for cheating. We will discuss some strategies to prevent possible troubles.

    • Jenya Soprunova "Generating Functions and Fibonacci Numbers", Wednesday, Sep 28, 5:10 - 6 pm, MSB 108.

    • Panel on COF posters, Alexis Lytle, Nathan Lukcso, JT Raber, Taylor Innocenti, Jenny Courts, and Colby Reinhart, Wednesday, Oct 5, 5:10 - 6 pm, MSB 108.

    • Nicholas Tietz-Sokolowsky, Remesh Inc, "You get paid to do what?", Monday, Oct 10, 5:10 - 6 pm, Smith Hall 110.

      Nicholas will talk about some of the surprising aspects of a career in software engineering and some of the decision points along the way.

    • Panel on Summer Internships, Lauren Klodt, Garrett Stallsmith, Colby Reinhart, Wednesday, Oct 19, 5:10 - 6 pm, MSB 108.

    • Benjamin Mackey, The University of Akron, "Imaginary numbers, random paths, and geometric oddities", Wednesday, Oct 26, 5:10 - 6 pm, MSB 108.

    • Dr. Joanne Caniglia will lead a panel with three in-service mathematics teachers, Caleb LePage, Abigail Large, and Natalie Alfano, Wednesday, Nov 2, 5:10 - 6 pm, on Zoom, link will be e-mailed.

    • Nathan Ritchey "Some Mathematics on How America Chooses Its Presidents", Wednesday, Nov 9, 5:10 - 6 pm, MSB 108.

      Every 4 years the United States of America elects its president. It may come as a surprise that the president is not directly determined by the popular vote. Rather, the Electoral College makes this determination. Over time, there have been several instances where the decision made by the Electoral College was contrary to the popular vote. In each case, however, there was not enormous support for one candidate over the other candidate. Imagine if a U. S. President was chosen based on only 22% of the popular vote. In 1963 George Polya showed that this scary scenario is possible. In this presentation, the mathematics behind electing a president, as well as how to compute the probability of a tie through generating functions will be given.

    • Jenya Soprunova "Stable Marriages", Wednesday, Nov 16, 5:10 - 6 pm, MSB 108.

      Given n boys and n girls, our goal is to break them into pairs so that no boy and girl prefer each over their spouses. Gale and Shapley showed in the 1960's that this can always be done. In 2012 Shapley and Roth received a Nobel Prize in Economics for their work based on the Gale-Shapley algorithm. The algorithm and its modifications have applications in college admissions, matching medical school graduates to hospitals for their residency programs, donor/patient matching, etc.

    • Movie Night! We will watch "Radioactive", on Wednesday, Jan 18, 6-8 pm, in Bowman Hall 137. Please make sure to email ksucof@kent.edu to RSVP.

    • Short Practice Presentations I, Wed Feb 1, 5-6 pm on Zoom, link will be e-mailed.

    • Short Practice Presentations II, Wed Feb 8, 5-6 pm on Zoom, link will be e-mailed.

    • Choose Ohio First Career Preparation Speaker Event, Wed Feb 15, 6-8 pm, Cunningham Hall 101

      Speaker: Kay Fakelis-Colón, the Senior Manager Talent Acquisition for R&D, Engineering, and Regulatory Affairs, Quality Assurance, and Compliance, at Stryker.

      Stryker is one of the world’s leading medical technology companies developing and offering innovative products and services in Medical and Surgical, Neurotechnology, and Orthopedics. Mrs. Fakelis-Colón is a global talent acquisition leader with proven achievements in building and leading world-class talent acquisition teams. She will speak to the Choose Ohio First students about the process of talent acquisition from the companies’ perspective. What do recruiters look for in candidates? How do they lead searches? What is the typical application and interview process?

    COF Meetings Schedule, year 2021-2022

    Most of our meetings will be on Wednesdays at 5-6 pm on Zoom. If you have a scheduling conflict please fill out a form. If you have a recurring conflict (for example, a class overlapping with the meetings), please fill out the form only once.

    • "Welcome to COF", Wednesday, Sep 8, 5-6 pm on Zoom, link will be e-mailed.

    • "What is a COF project?", Wednesday, Sep 15, 5-6 pm on Zoom, link will be e-mailed. Many thanks to Natalie Grace, Samantha Banziger, Colby Reinhart, Chris Seitz, and JT Raber for presenting their projects.

    • Mark Lewis "Counting with groups", Sep 22, 5-6 pm on Zoom, link will be e-mailed.

        We begin by considering some counting problems. We next introduce the idea of groups, and we discuss how groups can be used to solve these counting problems. No prior knowledge of group theory will be needed to understand this lecture.

    • Teachers' Panel featuring last year's COF graduates Natalie Alfano, Clare Dubecky, and Rebecca Delozier, Wed Sep 29, 5-6 pm on Zoom, link will be e-mailed.

    • Jody Patterson, Associate Director, Career Exploration and Development, "The Job Search", Wed Oct 6, 5-6 pm on Zoom, link will be e-mailed.

    • Theresa Sharp, "The Golden Ratio and Fibonacci Sequence", Wed Oct 20, 5-6 pm on Zoom, link will be e-mailed.

    • Andrew Kendall, Instructional Resource Center, "How to make a poster", Wed Oct 27, 5-6 pm on Zoom, link will be e-mailed.

    • Angela Guercio "Has your job been invented yet? A look at the careers of today and tomorrow.", Nov 3, 5-6 pm on Zoom, link will be e-mailed.

    • Joanne Caniglia "Gerrymandering", Nov 17, 5-6 pm on Zoom, link will be e-mailed.

    • Casey Stella, "Software Engineering for Fun and Profit", Wed Dec 1, 5-6 pm on Zoom, link will be e-mailed.

      Casey Stella, the current Pillar Tech Lead for Stripe (a FinTech company), has spent the last 15 years working in software across many companies and many domains. He will spend 50 minutes describing the field, it's many benefits and it's several occasional drawbacks.

    • Jenya Soprunova "The Four Numbers Game", Wed Feb 2 5-6 pm on Zoom, link will be e-mailed.

      Abstract: I will talk about the Four Numbers game, which a simple game played by one person according to the following rules: Start with four numbers written at the vertices of a square. For each side of the square, compute the positive difference of the two numbers written at the two vertices and write the result at the midpoint of the side. The four midpoints form a square and we have a number written at each of them. Now we can repeat the step for this square. We continue doing this until we arrive at four zeroes.

      We will analyze this seemingly simple game and explain why each game will eventually terminate. We will then show that for each N>0 there exists a game that takes N steps to terminate. Check out https://demonstrations.wolfram.com/TheFourNumberGame for a game demonstration. See how long a game you can get by varying j,k,l, and m on the top left.

    • Short Practice Presentations, Wed Feb 9, 5-6 pm on Zoom, link will be e-mailed.

    • COF Showcase, Wed Feb 16, 1:30-3:00 pm, link will be e-mailed.

    COF Meetings Schedule, year 2020-2021

    Most of our meetings will be on Wednesdays 4:15-5:05 or 5-6 pm on Zoom. If you have a scheduling conflict please fill out a form. If you have a recurring conflict (for example, a class overlapping with the meetings), please fill out the form only once.

    • "Welcome to COF", Wednesday, Sep 16, 5-6 pm on Zoom, link will be e-mailed.

    • Mikhail Nestrenko "Partitionable Asynchronous Blockchain" Sep 23, 4:15-5:05 pm on Zoom, link will be e-mailed.

        We consider operation of blockchain in case of partitioning. We define the Partitionable Blockchain Consensus Problem. The problem is interesting because the partitions may potentially proceed independently if the accounts are split. We prove that this problem is not solvable in the asynchronous system. The peers in the two partitions may not agree on the last jointly mined block or, alternatively, on the starting point of independent concurrent computation. We introduce a family of detectors that enable a solution. We establish the relationship between detectors. We present the algorithm that solves the Partitionable Blockchain Consensus Problem using our detectors. We simulate and evaluate the performance of detectors, discuss the implementation of the detectors and future work

    • Software Engineers Panel featuring COF alumni Sean Pavlak (OneSky Flight), Tess Sage (Northrop Grumman), Nicholas Tietz-Sokolsky (Remesh, Inc) and Kyle Swartz (Microsoft) Sep 30, 5-6 pm on Zoom, link will be e-mailed.

    • Mona Matar (NASA), "My Journey to the Human Research Program at NASA", Oct 7, 5-6 pm on Zoom, link will be e-mailed.

        From an introvert who found joy and peace in solving math problems, to engineering and computer science, to stay-at-home mom, then back to mathematics. I would like to share with you how I ended up working at NASA supporting the Human Research Program (HRP) to enable space exploration beyond Low Earth Orbit by reducing the risks to human health and performance. As a research mathematician, I perform mathematical, statistical, and machine learning models to help assess space effects on astronauts? health as NASA prepares to launch to the Moon and Mars.

    • Anna Levina (KeyBank), "Intersectional Skills for Any Adventure (Results Not Guaranteed)", Wed Oct 14, 5-6 pm on Zoom, link will be e-mailed.

        As a student, I believed that the path that I selected would be fixed, so I spent lots of time deciding - Industry, content-based grad school, k12 education, quitting everything to rock climb and brew beer?

        After dipping my toe into all of the above realms, I learned the following:

        1) You can do whatever you want.
        2) #1 is not easy, so it is best to come prepared.
        3) At the intersection of all options is a set of skills that makes one valuable across all fields.

        In this talk, we will touch on 1 and 2 by focusing on number 3. We will also have a special guest.

    • PhD track Panel featuring COF alumni David Carlyn, Ph.D. student at OSU studying machine learning, and Ola Sobieska, Van Vleck Assistant Professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Thursday Oct 22, 2:05-2:55 pm on Zoom, link will be e-mailed.

    • Teachers' Panel featuring COF alumni Marisa Rickel (Bio-Med Science Academy STEM School in Rootstown), Paul Billing (Notre Dame Cathedral Latin School in Chardon), Elizabeth Collins (Akron Public Schools), and Casey Dykes (Los Angeles Unified School District), Wed Oct 28, 5-6 pm on Zoom, link will be e-mailed.

    • Actuarial Panel featuring COF alumni Garrett Anderson (Progressive Insurance), Sarah Cook (Allen Bailey and Associates), and Anita Mizer (Schwab Retirement Plan Services), Wed Nov 4, 5-6 pm on Zoom, link will be e-mailed.

    • Artem Zvavitch "Dimension and Geometry - why it is cool!", Nov 18, 5-6 pm on Zoom, link will be e-mailed.

    • Amanda Shah, Director of the Academic Success Center Feb 3, 5-6 pm on Zoom, link will be e-mailed.

    • Andrew Kendall, Instructional Resource Center, "How to make a presentation", Feb 10, 5-6 pm on Zoom, link will be e-mailed.

    • Practice COF presentations I, fill out a form to sign up, Feb 24, 5-6 pm on Zoom, link will be e-mailed.

    • Allison Smolinsky, Senior Career Advisor & Handshake Coordinator, Career Exploration and Development, "Internships and Co-ops", March 3, 5-6 pm on Zoom, link will be e-mailed.

    • Leigh Ann Tomaswick will speak on how to give a presentation, March 10, 5-6 pm on Zoom, link will be e-mailed.

    • Practice COF presentations II, fill out a form to sign up, March 17, 5-6 pm on Zoom, link will be e-mailed.

    • Virtual COF Scholar Showcase, Thursday March 25 at noon to 1:30 p.m. Register by Tuesday March 23.

    • Joanne Caniglia will speak on organizing NASA Nights at Akron Public Schools and will then lead a presentation critique activity, March 31, 5-6 pm on Zoom, link will be e-mailed.

    COF Meetings Schedule, year 2019-2020

    Most of our meetings will be on Fridays 12:05-12:55 in MSB 228. If you have a scheduling conflict please fill out a form. If you have a recurring conflict (for example, a class overlapping with the meetings), please fill out the form only once.

    • "Welcome to COF", Friday, Sep 13, 12:05-12:55 in MSB 228.

    • Jenya Soprunova "COF projects and Pancake Flipping", Friday, Sep 20, 12:05 -12:55 in MSB 228.

        I will talk about COF projects and then as an example of such a project I will tell a little bit about the pancake flipping problem, investigated, among others, by Bill Gates and David X. Cohen (Futurama Co-director).

    • Luis Carlos Garcia Lirola "The Game of Hex", Friday, Sep 27, 12:05 -12:55 in MSB 228.
        Hex is a board game for two players invented in 1942 by Peit Hein and John Nash. The goal for each player is to establish an unbroken chain with the own pieces connecting the two sides of the board marked with their own color. We will follow Nash steps to show that the first player has always a winning strategy. Besides, we present a beautiful argument of David Gale showing that the fact that there aren't draws in Hex implies a celebrated result in Topology, Brouwer's fixed point theorem. The talk should be accessible to everybody.

    • Mikhail Chebotar "On some agreements in mathematics and beyond", Friday Oct 4, 1:10 -2 pm in MSB 228

        Like many other exact sciences mathematics is built on certain agreements. We will discuss the role of agreements in mathematics, and how some of them have evolved over time. In particular, we will talk about "unfortunate definitions" and modern understanding of "mathematical proofs".

    • Daisy Arokiasamy "Hurricanes Strikes again! Forecasting power outages for Tropical Cyclones", Friday Oct 18, 12:05 - 12:55 pm in MSB 228

        Regression is an important statistical tool used in data analysis. In this talk, I will discuss how regression methods have evolved over the years and discuss a few scenarios where regularized regression methods are used. I will also discuss how regression is an important ingredient in Machine Learning and discuss a real time data example that I worked on with others at the IMSM workshop held in July 2019.

    • Fedja Nazarov "Playing with linear dependence", Friday Oct 25, 12:05 - 12:55 pm in MSB 228

    • Stan Zalewski, Westfield Insurance, "More than just exams", Friday Nov 1st, 12:05 - 12:55 pm in MSB 228

    • Michael Hicks, NASA, "How to clean contaminated water? Just burn it! The story of hydrothermal flames form experiments to advanced technology.", Friday, Nov 8, 12:05-12:55 in MSB 228.

    • Dale Schroeder, Eaton Corporation, "The full circle from receiving guidance to giving back", Friday, Nov 15, 12:05-12:55 in MSB 228.

        Please join us to hear about the experiences and career path of a KSU alum. Dale Schroeder is a Senior Manager in the Information Technology function at Eaton. He will share details about Eaton and his path to his current role and the work he does to attract and develop talent in our communities and at Eaton.

    • Joanne Caniglia "No Problem! Problem-Solving through the Eyes of George Polya and Alan Schoenfeld", Friday Nov 22, 12:05 - 12:55, in MSB 228.

    COF Meetings Schedule, year 2018-2019

    Most of our meetings will be on Mondays 12:05-12:55 in MSB 228. If you have a scheduling conflict please fill out a form. If you have a recurring conflict (for example, a class overlapping with the meetings), please fill out the form only once.

  • "Welcome to COF", Monday, September 10, 12:05-12:55 in MSB 228.

  • Artem Zvavitch "Convex Geometry: from the Triangle Inequality to High Dimensional Phenomena", Monday, September 17, 12:05-12:55 in MSB 228.

      In this talk we will discuss some amazing mathematics that one can reveal by studying the geometry of convex objects. It is hard to believe, but there is a number of long time open problems connected with geometry of the ball (or even disc). Would you imagine, that to understand the geometry of a cube one needs mathematical tools?

      We will show connections of Convex Geometry to such subjects as Functional Analysis, Fourier Analysis and Probability. We will discuss a number of open problems. Most of those problems would require a minimal mathematical background to start the fight for a solution, but would require a lot of interesting mathematical techniques to win such a fight.

  • Jenya Soprunova "COF projects and Group Testing". There will be three meetings with the same content. Please attend one of them.
    • Monday, September 24, 11-11:50 am, in MSB 228;
    • Monday, September 24, 12:05-12:55 pm, in MSB 228;
    • Thursday, September 27, 11-11:50 am, in MSB 115.

  • Marit Meyer (NASA Glenn Research Center), "Air Quality on the International Space Station", October 1, 12:05-12:55 in MSB 228.

    The International Space Station (ISS) gives a 6-member astronaut crew the ability to live and work in low Earth orbit. It is a unique indoor environment, which has served as both home and workplace to over 230 people in 55 increments since the year 2000. In this low gravity environment, smoke does not rise and cookie crumbs do not settle the way they do on Earth, causing aerosols to behave differently and pose unique hazards for crewmembers. In its existence, virtually the same volume of ISS air has been continuously conditioned and revitalized, including the removal of particles by filtration. While gaseous constituents of ISS air are monitored meticulously, sparse data exists on indoor aerosols. The quantity and types of ISS airborne debris have been investigated in the recent Aerosol Sampling Experiment. Both active and passive samplers successfully collected aerosols in U.S. segments of the ISS. Results of the particle collection and implications for the air quality in future spacecraft will be presented.

  • Anna Levina, "Life After COF", October 8, 12:05-12:55 in MSB 228.

    One of the goals of the Choose Ohio First scholarship is to educate a work force that will contribute positively to STEM fields here in the state of Ohio. I will discuss that how that goal empowered me to perform undergraduate research at Cornell University, be selected as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow for my graduate studies in Math Education, and then leverage that education into a variety of innovation driven experiences as a STEM educator in low-income communities. I somehow talked my way into founding a school, serving as a robotics coach of a team that went to the World's Championship, being an ecology instructor that supervised students on month long trips across the National Parks, an AP Calculus teacher, a brewery intern, a math department head, a "soccer coach", an Arduino programming coach, a fabrication lab supervisor, a district STEM coordinator, among other things. Most importantly, I remained friends with many other former COF students, whose experiences I will also highlight (my friends are much cooler than me). Now, I am back at Kent State to pursue graduate work in Applied Mathematics. The world is big and full of opportunities, and the secret is that you can do whatever you want!

  • Sandra Olson (NASA Glenn Research Center), "Rocket science from mineshafts to space stations", October 15, 12:05-12:55 in MSB 228.

    Dr. Sandra Olson will share her experiences researching microgravity combustion for NASA. She will discuss the work/life compromises along the way as she simultaneously raised a family, worked full time, and completed her MS and PhDs. She will discuss how she found research opportunities and built international collaborations to set fires in space and on Earth, all to improve spacecraft fire safety.

    Sandra Olson has a Ph. D. in Mechanical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University. She has worked for NASA Glenn Research Center since 1983, specializing for most of that time in microgravity combustion of solid fuels. She is the recipient of NASA's Exceptional Service Medal and the Astronaut's Silver Snoopy. She has served as Principal Investigator, Co-Investigator, and/or Project Scientist for numerous ground-based and flight experiments. These included drop tower tests, aircraft parabolic tests, sounding rocket experiments, space shuttle experiments, and ISS experiments. She is currently the Principal Investigator for the BASS-II ISS experiment, a Co-Investigator for SoFIE (NASA) and FLARE (JAXA) ISS experiments, and part of the international science team for the Saffire flight experiment.

  • Gokarna Sharma "Robot Coverage Algorithms Under Constraints", Monday, October 22, 12:05 - 12:55, in MSB 228.

    Robots have been widely used recently in numerous day-to-day applications, such as vacuum cleaning, lawn mowing, and sweeping, besides their use in industrial applications, such as delivery. The Roomba vacuum cleaner robot is a common name in most households in the U.S. and abroad. In these applications, the robots typically start from a location (which is called the base) and they will return to it after completing the job. An underlying fundamental principle robots have to employ in these applications (and many others) is to plan path(s) such that the robots fully cover an area that needs to be cleaned, mowed, or swept. The path(s) needs to be planned in such a way that the robots can visit every point in the area (this is called the robot coverage problem). For example, the Roomba needs to visit each point in the rooms to make sure that the dirt is picked. In this talk, I will discuss some techniques to solve the robot coverage problem under different constraints, such as energy budget, cable length, the area (known or unknown) and its size, obstacles, and number of charging stations/power outlets.

  • Jong-Hoon Kim, "Telepresence beyond physical limits", Monday, November 5, 12:20 - 1 pm, in MSB 228.

    Telecommunication technology has dramatically advanced over the past decade and has significantly affected the way of individual communication as well as their social engagement. Especially, advanced wireless network and smartphone technology connect you anywhere and anytime instantaneously such as participating your friend's birthday party from the other side of the world through FaceTime. Those technologies extend your social life beyond distance limit. However, they only allow passive engagement due to lack of physical interaction and weak immersiveness.

    Advanced telepresence robotic technologies will provide the revolutionary way allowing users to get virtual experience through a physical avatar during their social involvement. The end goal of these technologies are to build such a system which allows you to connect your robotic avatar and create a psionic link for temporarily transferring the consciousness from your body into the avatar, providing your control over all its motion and senses so that you can use the artificial body as your own from any place in the world. In this talk, cutting-edge technologies toward on this end goal will be introduced and current limitations, challenges, and potential solutions will be addressed along with innovative research activities in the advanced telerobotics research laboratory at Kent State University.

  • Sara Jensen (Carthage College), "Counting Christmas Stockings", Friday, November 9, 12:05 - 12:55 pm in MSB 228.

    Fair Isle knitting is a type of knitting using two colors at a time to create patterns, with restrictions on the number of stitches in a row that can be the same color. When knitting a Fair Isle Christmas stocking, I began wondering just how many different Fair Isle patterns were possible given n stitches. Although an innocent enough question to ask, the solution to this problem is anything but straightforward. The journey to a solution involved some computer programming, some Abstract Algebra, and a surprise appearance by the partition function.

  • Marcy O'Connell (Retired Analyst, Progressive Insurance), "Opportunities for Mathematics Majors", Monday, November 19, 12:05 - 12:55, in MSB 228.

    In this presentation, Marcy will share her mathematics background and her work at Progressive Insurance. She will share the many opportunities for math majors from her thirty-four years of experience.

  • Joanne Caniglia "Mathematics in the Service to the Community", Monday, November 26, 12:05 - 12:55, in MSB 228.

    Service Learning combines community service with classroom instruction, focusing on critical and reflective thinking as well as personal and civic responsibility. Three examples of mathematics in service will be explored: An optimal routing system for Meals on Wheels (using a space-filling algorithm); serving schools with Family Math Nights, and providing statistical support to non-profit organizations.

    COF Meetings Schedule, year 2017-2018

    Most of our meetings will be on Mondays 3:45-4:35 in MSB 102. If you have a scheduling conflict please fill out a form. If you have a recurring conflict (for example, a class overlapping with the meetings), please fill out the form only once.

  • Jenya Soprunova "Welcome to COF" Monday, September 25th, 3:45-4:35, MSB 102.

  • Tristan Hearn and Calvin Robinson (NASA Glenn) "Introduction to scientific computing and visualization at NASA Glenn Research Center", Monday, October 2nd, 3:45-4:35, MSB 102.

    In this talk, Tristan Hearn and Calvin Robinson from NASA Glenn Research Center will give an overview of NASA, and selections of ongoing work in the areas of mathematics, scientific computing, and data visualization. Internship and other student opportunities will also be described.

  • Maria Mandlis, Senior Software engineer (Google) "Life of a Software Engineer @ Google", Thursday October 12th, 3:45 - 4:45, in HND 201 (ROOM CHANGE!).

    Learn about Google's hiring process, culture, job and/ internship opportunities, and more directly from a Googler. Important: you need to fill out an RSVP form.

  • On Monday October 16th, 3:45 - 4:35, in MSB 102, Mike Donzella will tell us about the Academic Success Center. Many of our COF students work as tutors or receive tutoring at the ASC.

  • Joanne Caniglia "Math in the Movies" Monday, October 23rd, 3:45-4:35, MSB 102.

  • On Monday October 30th, 3:45 - 4:35, in MSB 102, David Martin, the Chief Data Scientist of Root Insurance, will provide an overview of interesting math problems that arise in his industry, with a particular focus on pricing accuracy and smartphone risk scoring in his talk "Math + Car Insurance = Fun ^ 2!"

  • Mikhail Chebotar "Cryptography" Nov 6, in MSB 102 at 3:45-4:35 pm.

    One of the most challenging mathematical problems is connected with the protection of the private information. We will discuss how this problem has evolved over the times.

  • Jenya Soprunova "Stable Marriages" Nov 13, in MSB 102 at 3:45-4:35 pm.

    Given n boys and n girls, our goal is to break them into pairs so that no boy and girl prefer each over their spouses. Gale and Shapley showed in the 1960's that this can always be done. In 2012 Shapley and Roth received a Nobel Prize in Economics for their work based on the Gale-Shapley algorithm. The algorithm and its modifications have applications in college admissions, matching medical school graduates to hospitals for their residency programs, donor/patient matching, etc.

  • Barb Emig, Progressive, "A Day in the Life of an Actuary" Nov 20, in MSB 102 at 4:00-4:50 pm.

    In this talk, the speaker will explain what it's like to be an actuary and will also describe alternate career paths of employees that work closely with actuaries.

  • Michael J. Kulis and Cameron J. Bodenshatz (NASA Glenn Research Center) "Student Research Opportunities within the Environmental and Coatings Branch at NASA Glenn Research Center.", Monday, Nov 27, 3:45-4:35, MSB 102.

    This presentation will briefly summarize the research we do within the Environmental Effects and Coatings branch at NASA Glenn Research Center. We will discuss possible NASA-related research opportunities for student interns during Summer 2018 and beyond. Possible research activities include but are not limited to thermodynamic and kinetic modeling, machine learning, and general Python programming.

  • Sofya Lyakhova (Swansea University) will speak on "The Future of Mathematics Education in Wales", Thursday April 19th, 4:15-5:05, MSB 228.

    Curriculum reform in mathematics education is as ubiquitous in modern societies as the technological revolution, the emphasis on STEM education, and the advocacy for technology usage. It is not surprising that the small UK country of Wales is experiencing a new emphasis on mathematics in the ongoing school curriculum reform. While one may think that constructing a school mathematics curriculum should be done by curriculum specialists, the Welsh reform involves wider stakeholders such as school teachers, college lecturers, university academics as well as parents. In the talk I will share the experience of my university mathematics department working alongside school teachers tasked with developing the new mathematics curriculum using a big ideas approach.

    I will first explain how school mathematics education and teachers training is organized in Wales. I will then introduce the aims and scope of the Welsh reform. The audience will have a chance to have a go at interpreting the reform for mathematics. I will also explain the idea of the "subject against skill/competency" debate and my views on the debate. We will discuss the purposes and contexts of learning mathematics provided by the Welsh reform on the one hand, and the nature of mathematics on the other. For the latter, we will consult the book by Fields Medallist Timothy Gowers "Mathematics. A very short introduction" written for non-specialist audience. While some propositions of the Welsh reform, such as the teaching of the Welsh language, are specific to Wales, the ideas underpinning the proposed reform have much in common with many curricular policy worldwide.

  • Luise-Charlotte Kappe (Binghamton University) "It's a wonderful life! - Reflections on a career as a mathematician", Wednesday, Apr 25, 3:45-4:35, MSB 104

    We all have our doubts off and on if life is really so wonderful. But that is not what I want to address here. Watching the Jimmy Stewart movie with this title, there was one scene which captured my imagination: the Guardian Angel shows George Bailey how the world would have been without him.

    Personally, I never had much need to know how the world would have looked without me. However, all other things equal, how would life have been if I had lived in a different time and place, would be something of interest to me! This is the stuff of movies and fairy tales. But at least it is possible to play this as an intellectual game.

    I was born and raised in Germany before WW II. After getting my Ph.D. in 1962, I married a fellow mathematician and we immigrated to the US one year later, where we taught at a university until our retirements, first at Ohio State and then at Binghamton University. What would life have been if I stayed in Germany, did not get married, were born fifty or hundred years earlier, or were born in another country? Looking at actual and potential role models over the centuries helped me answer some of these questions. In essence, it got me back to the roots of what shaped my life.

  • Luise-Charlotte Kappe (Binghamton University) "Cantor's Diagonalization Revisited: Constructing Transcendental Numbers", Thursday, Apr 26, 4:15-5:05, MSB 228

    An evolving awareness of the deep nature of the real numbers began over 2,500 years ago, when the Pythagoreans were startled by their discovery that numbers such as the square root of 2 were not rational. A recurring theme in their history is that the set of real numbers is richer and much more complex than is generally assumed. The demonstration by Cantor, that the reals cannot be enumerated, is a well-known landmark of these developments. Knowing that the rationals can be enumerated, it follows from Cantor's diagonalization that there exist irrational numbers. Similarly, knowing that the algebraic numbers can be enumerated, it follows that there exist transcendental numbers.

    But can one use Cantor's diagonalization for the construction of such numbers? The topic of this talk is the explicit construction of a transcendental number using Cantor's diagonalization.

    COF Meetings Schedule, year 2016-2017

    Jenya Soprunova "COF and games" Monday, Oct 10 (MSB 106, 4-5 pm).
    Ben Jaye "Capsets" Monday, Oct 17 (MSB 106, 4-5 pm).
    Paata Ivanisvili "Edge-Isoperimetric inequalities on the Hamming cube" Monday, Oct 24 (MSB 106, 4-5 pm).
    Barton Yadlowski "Combating Online Harassment with Math" Monday, Oct 31 (MSB 106, 4-5 pm).
    Abdul Alajmi "Count it! Prove it!" Monday, Nov 7 (MSB 106, 4-5 pm).
    Wayne Fincher "Coding Theory" Monday Nov 14 (MSB 106, 4-5 pm).
    Paul Billig "Mobius Strip" Monday Nov 14 (MSB 106, 4-5 pm).
    Jenya Soprunova "Cheater's Rubik's Cube" Monday, Dec 5 (MSB 106, 4-5 pm).
    COF Projects, Tuesday Jan 24, MSB 115 at 4-5 pm

    COF Meetings Schedule, year 2015-2016

    If you have a scheduling conflict please fill out a form. If you have a recurring conflict (for example, a class overlapping with the meetings), please fill out the form only once.

    Jenya Soprunova "Group Testing" Th, Oct 15 (MSB 102, 4-5 pm).
    Shawn D. Ryan "How can mathematical modeling help endangered species?" Th, Oct 22 (MSB 102, 4-5 pm).
    Mikhail Chebotar "Basic Logic Through Examples", Wed, Oct 28, (MSB 102, 4-5 pm).
    We will discuss some basic ideas of logic through entertaining examples. We will see that certain brain teasers may have quite deep ideas behind them.
    Xiaoyu Zheng "Spherical conics", Th, Nov 5 (MSB 102, 4-5 pm).
    Isaac Defrain "Points at infinity; Stereographic projection and projective plane", Th, Nov 12, (MSB 102, 4-5 pm).
    Artem Zvavitch "TBA", Th, Nov 19 (MSB 102, 4-5 pm).
    Jenya Soprunova "COF Projects" Th, Dec 3 (MSB 102, 4-5 pm).

    COF Meetings Schedule, year 2014-2015

    General COF meeting, Sept 18th, 5-7 pm, Oscar Ritchie Hall, Room 250, RSVP form.

    Jenya Soprunova "What is an REU program and cheater's Rubik's cube." Wed, Oct 1 (MSB 109, 4-5 pm).
    I will talk a bit about REU in general and will then give an example of a problem that my REU group worked on in Summer 2009.

    Artem Zvavitch "Convex Geometry: from the Triangle Inequality to High Dimensional Phenomena", Wed, Oct 8 (MSB 109, 4-5 pm).

    In this talk we will discuss some amazing mathematics that one can reveal by studying the geometry of convex objects. It is hard to believe, but there is a number of long time open problems connected with geometry of the ball (or even disc). Would you imagine, that to understand the geometry of a cube one needs mathematical tools?

    We will show connections of Convex Geometry to such subjects as Functional Analysis, Fourier Analysis and Probability. We will discuss a number of open problems. Most of those problems would require a minimal mathematical background to start the fight for a solution, but would require a lot of interesting mathematical techniques to win such a fight.

    Mikhail Chebotar "Cryptography and Coding Theory: some basic ideas." Oct 15, (MSB 109, 4-5 pm).
    We often transmit data through insecure and noisy channels (think of cellphone talk or text messaging). Two natural problems are how to protect our private information and how to improve the reliability of communication. These are two main goals of Cryptography and Coding Theory respectively. The purpose of this talk is to demonstrate how some little knowledge of Linear Algebra can be used to achieve these goals.

    Fedja Nazarov "Throwing for a number: a game of chance and calculation." Oct 22, (MSB 109, 4 - 5 pm).

    Darci Kracht "He Shoots, He Scores! Simpson's Paradox in KSU Basketball Shooting Statistics." Oct 29, (MSB 109, 4-5 pm).

    Shawn D. Ryan "Collective Motion: Why 2 is better than 1", Nov 5, (MSB 109, 4-5 pm).

    Scott Courtney "University Introductory Calculus Courses: Addressing Students Prior Knowledge and Skills Regarding Limits", Nov 12, (MSB 109, 4-5 pm).

    Isaac Defrain "Chvátal's art gallery theorem", Nov 19, (MSB 109, 4-5 pm).

    Jack Neuzil and Michelle Cordier "The knot theory square dance," Feb 3 (MSB 115 at 4:15pm).

    NASA Career Seminar, March 5th, at 4:15pm, MSB 228.

    Four scientists from the* NASA Glenn Research center in Cleveland* will visit to discuss their research and their experiences working at NASA. Find out about projects in the areas of:

    Materials Research - Michael J. Kulis: Chemistry in Extreme Environments

    Combustion Science - Michael C. Hicks: International Space Station (ISS) Experiments

    Aerosol Science - Marit E. Meyer: Fire Detection and Ambient Air Quality in Spacecraft

    Applied Mathematics - Tristan A. Hearn: Multidisciplinary Design Analysis and Optimization

    Information on internships and other student programs at NASA will be presented. A question and answer session will follow, including opportunities to speak one-on-one with researchers.

    COF Meetings Schedule, year 2013-2014

    Fedja Nazarov "Putnam Exam", Jan 30 (MSB 228 at 3:30 -- 4:30 pm).

    Jack Neuzil and his Math Seminar team "Checker Board Problems", Nov 25 (MSB 114 at 2:15 -- 3:05 pm).

    Morley Davidson "Solving Rubik's Cube group with few memorized move sequences.", Nov 19 (MSB 228 at 4:15 -- 5:05 pm).

    David Martin, "Usage Based Insurance / Network Analysis", Nov 12 (MSB 228 at 4:15 -- 5:05 pm).

    Gwenn Volkert "The Dark Side of Google Search", Nov 5 (MSB 228 at 4:15 -- 5:05 pm).

    Joanne Caniglia "Math in the Movies: Popcorn Included." A tour of mathematics through your favorite movies. Oct 29 (MSB 228 at 4:15 -- 5:05 pm).

    Darci Kracht "Sicherman dice", Oct 22 (MSB 228 at 4:15 -- 5:05 pm).

    Jenya Soprunova "Stable Marriages", Oct 15 (MSB 228 at 4:15 -- 5:05 pm).

    Richard Aron "Finding good things in the middle of a mess.", Oct 8 (MSB 228 at 4:15 -- 5:05 pm).

    COF Meetings Schedule, year 2012-2013

    Galyna Livshyts "Are all the triangles equilateral?", Feb 12 (MSB 121 at 4:15 -- 5:05 pm).

    Jing Li "Is 0.1 in my computer really 0.1, and does it matter?", Feb 5 (MSB 121 at 4:15 -- 5:05 pm).

    Richard Shoop "Actuarial Mathematics: The Study of Risk", Jan 29 (MSB 121 at 4:15 -- 5:05 pm).

    John Hoffman "Calculus of Zombies and Star Wars", Jan 22 (MSB 121 at 4:15 -- 5:05 pm).

    Dmitry Ryabogin "How one would apply The Fundamental Theorem of Calculus to Medicine?", Nov 27 (MSB 228 at 4:15 -- 5:05 pm).

    Jenya Soprunova "The Four Numbers Game", Nov 13 (MSB 228 at 4:15 -- 5:05 pm).

    Michelle Cordier "The Putnam Exam", Nov 6 (MSB 228 at 4:15 -- 5:05 pm).

    Artem Zvavitch "Brunn-Minkowski inequality and many fun applications to geometry", Oct 23 (MSB 228 4:15 -- 5:05 pm).

    COF Meetings Schedule, year 2011-2012

    Ben Jaye "A short path to the shortest path'" Feb 28 (MSB 228 at 4:15pm).

    Chuck Gartland "The Brachistochrone Problem and the Calculus of Variations" Feb 21 (MSB 228 at 4:15pm).

    Jack Neuzil and Michelle Cordier "Puzzles with recursive solution," Feb 7 (MSB 228 at 4:15pm).

    Fedor Nazarov "How your calculator computes the square root of 2," Jan 31st (MSB 228 at 4:15pm).

    Xiaoyu Zheng "How to solve the cubic equation with your bare hands?" Jan 24 (MSB 228 at 4:15pm).

    Gang Yu "Wiener indices of molecular graphs," Jan 17 (MSB 228 at 4:15pm).

    Morley Davidson "Rubik's cube," Nov 29 (MSB 228 at 4:15pm).

    Artem Zvavitch "The birthday paradox," Nov 8 (MSB 228 at 4:15pm).

    Misha Chebotar "Nash equilibrium and real life," Nov 1 (MSB 228 at 4:15pm).

    Mark Lewis "Counting with groups," Oct 25 (MSB 228 at 4 pm).

    Jenya Soprunova "Regular polygons with integer vertices," Oct 18 (MSB 228 at 4pm).