Marinela Cruz, junior math and chemistry double major at Southern Adventist University, presented her research titled “Cycles in Grid Graphs and Toroidal Variants” at the Joint Mathematics Meetings, the largest mathematics conference in the world, earlier this semester.
“I wanted to do research before deciding if graduate school was something I should pursue, and through the Southern Scholars honors program, I was pointed to Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) programs,” Cruz explains.
REU programs exist at universities across the United States, providing undergraduate students crucial investigative experience.
“Much of the current research in mathematics is not accessible to undergraduate students since they lack the necessary foundations to complete this work,” says Patricia Anderson, PhD, professor in Southern’s Mathematics Department. “When a student can contribute to mathematical research through an REU, it provides a preliminary introduction to the vast arena of knowledge that is mathematics.”
Cruz joined the summer REU program at Andrews University in Michigan, a sister school of Southern. She worked with knot theory, graph theory, and combinatorics to generalize the constraints of a Hamiltonian cycle inside a traditional grid graph as well as within a toroidal graph.
Southern’s math courses provided Cruz with a strong foundation for the research undertaking. “Before the REU, I took Set Theory and Logic, which is Southern’s introduction to proofs class,” she explains. “Math research is all about proving, and that class taught me to think in the very specific way needed to demonstrate truth and existence mathematically.” Cruz also learned how to use LaTeX, a typesetting software used across research in the discipline to type equations.
Cruz applied to present her summer research findings in the undergraduate poster session at the Joint Mathematics Meetings, held in Seattle earlier this year. Not only was she accepted, but she also applied for and earned a grant from the American Mathematical Society to cover all travel expenses for the trip.
“I loved being in a community that matched my passion for math and research,” Cruz shares. “I’d never attended a conference before, and it was interesting learning about everyone’s unique area of interest in such a broad discipline.” Throughout the conference, she visited several other presentations, including a graduate school fair.
“I was impressed by the quality of Marinela’s work and her enthusiasm,” notes Anderson. “It can be daunting for an undergraduate student to present at a conference filled with professional mathematicians, and she did a credible job.”