Institution: University of South Carolina

Reporting Year: 2019-2020

Advisor: Ronda Sanders

Advisor's Email Address: sanders@math.sc.edu

Has There Been a Change in Chapter Advisor During the Past Year?: Yes - Josh Cooper

Permanent Faculty Correspondent: 

Permanent Faculty Correspondent's Email Address: 

Officers: President - Thomas Elgin Vice President - Julia Sultz Treasurer - Noelle Pendergraft Secretary - Emily Cunningham

Chapter Website: http://people.math.sc.edu/pme/

Number of New Members: 11

Number of Continuing Members: 21

Activities: Jean Keita, Product Industrialization Materials/Chemical Engineer, spoke to students about the role of undergraduate mathematics in industry. Polymeric materials represent the most complex fluids that an engineer will encounter. These materials are still a mystery to most chemical engineers and our ability to explain their behavior requires the help from the more mathematically inclined amongst chemical engineers. An undergraduate degree in mathematics can go a long way towards helping to make sense of rheological data that are frequently discussed in industry. Katherine Thompson, Director of Graduate Studies and Statistics at the University of Kentucky conducted a data analytics workshop for students. Students used publicly available Airbnb data and create both plots and geographic visualizations of the data - which they used to identify listing characteristics related to the price and/or quality of the rental. Students worked in JMP and/or R depending on their preference. Methods and code were provided for both new and experienced programmers.

Do any of your chapter members plan to attend or present at the PME National Meeting this year? No.

Do you have any news about current students or recent graduations? For example, scholarships or other awards, acceptances to graduate school, paper presentations at conferences, etc.
No.

If you were awarded a PME Lectureship, Conference, or Prize Grant within the past year, please briefly describe the results.