Ohio Xi Youngstown State University Chapter Report

 

Advisors and Officers

Advisors: Dr. George Yates and Dr. Angela Spalsbury

PFC : Dr. Angela Spalsbury

President: Krista Foster

Vice-President: Moriah Wright

Secretary: Doug Wajda

Treasurer: Erica Cross

Historian: Allison Wiland

Webmaster: W. Ryan Livingston

Chapter Website

Number of New Members Inducted:

24

Number of Continuing Members:

20

Describe the two most interesting or unusual chapter activities this year:

(1) We hosted our 11th annual Regional PME conference on our campus in February. Over 100 students and faculty from 15 colleges and universities in the area attended and presented their mathematical research. (2) In the MCM COMAP Mathematical Modeling Competition, the team of Doug Wajda, Matt Guidesh, and Josh Mike received a “Meritorious” designation for their work on the discrete problem. The team of Matt Alexander, Krista Foster, and Moriah Wright also received a “Meritorious” for their work on the continuous problem. (3) At the 2008 national PME conference held in Madison, WI, Jared Ruiz and W. Ryan Livingston received PME “Best Talk” awards for their presentations, Doug Wajda received a “Best Talk” award from SIAM, and Matt Alexander received a MAA “Best Speaker”.

Do any of your chapter members plan to attend or present a paper at the 2009 PME national meeting at MathFest in Portland, Oregon?

Yes, we plan to send 10 PME and 2 MAA students to give presentations in the PME and MAA sessions.

Do you have any news about current students or recent graduates, for example, scholarships or other awards, acceptances to graduate school, paper presentations at conferences?

At the Joint Mathematics Meeting held in January 2009 in Washington, DC, John Hoffman, Jared Ruiz, and W. Ryan Livingston presented a poster on their research in number theory and were advised by Dr. Jasek Fabrykoswki. Several PME members graduated this year and have been accepted to graduate schools: Erica Cross (Florida State University), Scott Eddy (Youngstown State University), Tyler Drombowsky (University of Maryland), Krista Foster (Penn State University), John Hoffman (Kent State University), W. Ryan Livingston (University of Georgia) Jared Ruiz (University of Nebraska). Former YSU PME member, Thomas Wakefield, who recently received his Ph.D. in group theory from Kent State University was hired as faculty at YSU specializing in abstract algebra. PME members Josh Mike, Kristi Mraz, Lisa Curll, and Moriah Wright were selected to participate in the year-long MBUR Biomath REU held at YSU. They will jointly conduct research with another undergraduate biology major under the supervision of both mathematics and biology faculty. They plan to present this research at both the national PME conference held in Portland, OR, this summer and at the NIMBIOS conference held in Knoxville, TN, this fall.