Moises Ponce and Rachel Wood after receiving the Outstanding Student Talk on Applied Mathematics Award
Lee University students Blayne Carroll, Andrew Franklin, John Iluno, Rihen Khatri, Rebekah Petrosky, Moises Ponce, and Rachel Wood presented at MathFest, the annual national conference of the Mathematical Association of America. Dr. Jason Schmurr, associate professor of mathematics, led the trip.
“All the students did a wonderful job with their presentations and represented both themselves and Lee impressively,” said Dr. Schmurr. “The students received compliments from several faculty from other institutions on the quality of their presentations, and it was also a great opportunity for our students to network, to be exposed to cutting-edge mathematics, and to experience the mathematical community at the national level.”
Mr. Ponce and Ms. Wood received the Outstanding Student Talk on Applied Mathematics Award for their presentation “Quest for the Mathematically Ideal Font Using Principal Component Analysis.” Their talk, based on research completed over the summer, focused on using mathematics to find hidden patterns in the way fonts are seen and leveraging that knowledge to design a new useful font. Mr. Ponce, a McNair Scholar, and Ms. Wood, a Ledford Scholar, were advised by Dr. Richard Moy and Schmurr.
“Attending MAA MathFest was such an incredible experience,” said Ms. Wood. “The math community is amazing and being surrounded by so many like-minded people gave me quite a bit of confidence about the path I am on. Winning the award was exciting and surprising, to say the least, and would not have been possible without the guidance and support of our mentors, Dr. Moy and Dr. Schmurr. I’m so thankful to have had this opportunity and experience with such a great team.”
The other students presented in three groups on a joint research project they conducted, focusing on developing a way to make lithium ion rechargeable batteries safer by using the mathematical technique known as Fourier Analysis.
Mr. Franklin, a Ledford Scholar, gave the talk, “Detecting and Identifying Abnormalities in a Battery’s Electrical Waveform as Dendritic Formation.”
Mr. Carroll and Mr. Iluno gave the talk, “Prediction of Dendrite Growth in Lithium Ion Batteries.”
Mr. Khatri and Ms. Petrosky presented on “Modeling Impedance Change in a Simulated Lithium Ion Battery.”
Their research is in collaboration with Dr. Robert Sacci, a scientist at Oak Ridge Labs in Oak Ridge. Dr. Debra Gladden and Schmurr advised the five students.
For more information about MAA and MathFest, visit https://www.maa.org/.
Lee students who attended the MAA MathFest conference from left, Andrew Franklin, John Iluno, Rebekah Petrosky, Blayne Carroll, Rihen Khatri, Rachel Wood, Dr. Jason Schmurr, and Moises Ponce