Institution: University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Reporting Year: 2017-2018

Advisor: Alexandra Seceleanu

Advisor's Email Address: aseceleanu@unl.edu

Has There Been a Change in Chapter Advisor During the Past Year?: yes

Permanent Faculty Correspondent: 

Permanent Faculty Correspondent's Email Address: 

Officers: President: Lawrence Seminario-Romero Vice President: Xuehua (Diana) Zhong Primary Programmer: Shannyn Bird Secretary: Jared Ott

Chapter Website: http://www.math.unl.edu/math-club/pme

Number of New Members: 11

Number of Continuing Members: 5

Activities: 1. The 11th Annual Pi Mu Epsilon Lecture was given on Wednesday, November 1, 2017 by Professor Ileana Streinu, the Charles N. Clark Professor of Computer Science and Mathematics at Smith College. Her presentation was titled "Maxwell's Problem, 150 years later: from bridges to nano-mechanics”. More details on this lecture, including a detailed abstract can be found on our web page http://www.math.unl.edu/math-club/pme/lecture A picture of the new inductees with Ileana Streinu accompanies this report. 2. The 5th Career Perspectives in Mathematics lecture featured a UNL mathematics alumna from the class of 1997, Tina Sposato.  Tina shared her education and career experience with our students and introduced them to career opportunities for mathematicians in the microprocessors fabrication industry. http://www.math.unl.edu/math-club/career

Do any of your chapter members plan to attend or present at the PME National Meeting this year? Rebecca Sorsen gave a talk at the PME National Meeting this year. Dereck Chew also attended the PME National Meeting as a chapter delegate.

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.
The following students will start PhD programs in mathematics in the fall of 2018: - Lawrence Seminario-Romero and Collin Victor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln - Rebecca Sorsen at the University of Iowa - Xuehua (Diana) Zhong at North Carolina State University Lawrence Seminario-Romero, Collin Victor and Xuehua (Diana) Zhong presented on their research at the Central States Mathematics Undergraduate Conference. Rebecca Sorsen presented at the Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics.

If you were awarded a PME Lectureship, Conference, or Prize Grant within the past year, please briefly describe the results.
Our chapter, in collaboration with other department faculty, has been organizing a regular Math Challenge event open to all undergraduates. This program has received $100 in PME support  for prize money in 2018 (each prize is a $5 gift card to a coffee shop).  Every problem is advertised for two weeks: on the math club website, via emails to our math majors, and with hard copy stacks posted in the mathematics department. Afterwards the best correct solution selected among the ones submitted by students is posted. The Math Challenge features about 15 problems every academic year and there are usually several prizes for the best solutions to each problem. The Math Challenge will continue in the fall of 2018. We are very excited to have organized, with the aid of a $300 conference grant from PME, the fourth Central States Mathematics Undergraduate Research Conference (CeSMUR). This conference is a celebration of research in mathematics performed by undergraduate students. We had 22 presentations by undergraduate students as well as two presentations by distinguished faculty and several panels on graduate and summer program and social events. The conference was attended by about 50 undergraduate students and 2 invited graduate students from across the US in addition to our local undergraduates.