Four Bethany Lutheran College mathematics students recently returned from the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) and American Mathematical Society (AMS) joint Mathematics Meetings in Boston, Massachusetts. The MAA and AMS Meetings are said to be the largest annual mathematics meetings in the world with nearly 7,200 people registered for this January meeting in Boston. To qualify to present, students must submit an abstract for review.
Three of these Bethany students gave conference presentations:
Anna Cepek gave a poster presentation titled Zero Forcing Number, Maximum Nullity and Path. Cover Number of Edge Subdivided Graphs
Angie Kraft also gave a poster presentation titled Matrix Completion Problems
Sara Krueger presented a formal talk titled A Reservoir Model of Chagas Disease
These three students also were participants in REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) during the summer of 2011. These programs, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), are very limited and highly competitive.
Professor Kyle Jore Ph.D. (mathematics) talked about the value of attending professional conferences; “The students realize both an appreciation for the scope of their topic and, more importantly, the field of mathematics as a whole. Professionally, they make connections to other individuals engaged in similar work.”