News Archives - 2007-08
Mathematical Sciences Department hosted the 20th annual Math Meet
For the 12th year in a row, Lexington High School won WPI's annual Invitational Math Meet, held Oct. 17. Worcester Academy came in second, followed by Shrewsbury High. In all, 79 teams competed and more than $100,000 in team and individual scholarships to WPI were awarded. Top individual winners were Noah Arbesfeld of Lexington High School, Sway Chen of Lexington High School, and Pornchai Kaewsapsah of Worcester Academy. They earned $3,000, $2000, and $1,500 in WPI scholarships, respectively. The top scorer on each team won a $1,000 scholarship.
Awards and Recognition
Peter Christopher received the 2008 Board of Trustees' Award for Outstanding Teaching. This award recognizes an outstanding teacher who met or exceeded the expectations of the students. During his 45 years teaching at WPI, Professor Christopher's ability to connect with his students and to communicate challenging concepts in a way that everyone understands has been a trait of a truly great teacher.
Dalin Tang received the 2008 Kalenian Award for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. Dalin Tang, Ph.D., won for inventing a Diagnostic Tool for Analysis of Cardiovascular Disease. Professor Tang will receive $25,000 to help develop his invention-a medical software diagnostic tool for analysis and indexing of cardiovascular disease. The Kalenian Award was established in 2006 through the generosity of Alba Kalenian in memory of her late husband Aram Kalenian (Class of 1933).
Student Awards 2008
Undergraduate students were recognized for departmental and university distinction in the 2007-2008 Mathematical Sciences Awards Ceremony, held in April.
Tyler Chase received the Salisbury Award from WPI, following nomination by the Department. This award is made to the most meritorious seniors and was established by Stephen Salisbury II, a WPI founder and the first president of the board of Trustees.
The 2008 Senior Math Award recipient was Jonathan D. Adler. The award is presented annually to senior mathematical sciences majors who have shown outstanding performance and who have made valuable contributions to the WPI community.
Yurong Mao was the recipient of the Olson Award which recognizes excellence in freshman and sophomore mathematics courses and outstanding overall academic achievement. This award was established to honor the memory of mathematics Professor Richard V. Olson, who taught at WPI from 1962 until his death in 1983.
Project Presentation Day Awards, 2008
The annual WPI Project Presentation Day took place on April 15 in the Higgins House Great Hall. The following projects were presented:
- Chase Johnson: "Group Theory and Chemistry," advisor Brigitte Servatius
- Brian Duncan: "Portfolio Optimization," advisor Marcel Blais
- Eyuel D. Abebe: "Qualitative Behavior of Solutions for Shallow Water Wave Equations with Relaxation," advisor Tao Luo
- Will Owens: "Cracks in Half Plane, Cracks in Disks," advisor Darko Volkov (Provost's MQP Award, Honorable Mention)
- Maxwell Simpson: "Gravity Waves Over Topography," advisor Mayer Humi
- Nicholas Facchiano, Ashley Kingman, Amanda Olore, David Zuniga: "Sampling Strategies for Error Rate Estimation and Quality Control," Jon Abraham and Jayson Wilbur, advisors; John Hancock sponsor
- Jessica Copp, Cindy Mao, Alec Tolivaisa: "Pricing an Insurance Product-Roller Coaster Insurance," advisor Jon Abraham
- Jeremy Brokaw, Karl Shen, Zijing Yin: "Pricing and Insurance Product-Boat Insurance," advisor Jon Abraham
- Tyler Chase and Michael Tiu: "Discussions of No Arbitrage in Financial Markets," advisor Hasanjan Sayit
- Eric D. Mbakop: "Analysis on Fractals," advisor Jun Masamune, Bogdan M. Vernescu (Provost's MQP Award)
- (Project completed but not presented) Fernando Olloqui, Daniel Ossa, Esteban Paez: "Price Optimization and Revenue Maximization," advisor Jon Abraham; Tillinghast sponsor
Graduate Research Achievement Day
On Graduate Research day, March 19, 2008, five graduate students participated with posters: Emily Evans, Xueying Huang, Haodong Liang, Peng Ni and Criselda Toto. In the Science division, the First Prize was awarded to Emily J. Evans, for the research project: "Numerical and Analytical Results for Fractal Boundary Value Problems," advised by Professor Umberto Mosco.
Graduate Degrees Awarded, May, 2008
MS in Applied Mathematics:
Angela Leo, John Potter II and Brian Skjerven
MS in Applied Statistics:
Ruijuan Guo
MS in Financial Mathematics:
Hai Ling, Xinjia Liu and Marek Twarog
MS in Industrial Mathematics:
Maurice Lamontagne
Master of Mathematics for Educators:
Nargess Hakim, Michele Hall, Kim Kolaczyk, Michael Pailler, Wendy Cleaves, Matthew Tarallo, Joanne Vakil and Michael Young
Ph.D. in Mathematical Sciences:
Casey Richardson, (advisor: Christopher Larsen) and Rebecca Wasyk (advisor: Umberto Mosco).
Rebecca Wasyk is currently at Metron Inc. and Casey Richardson is currently a postdoc at UCLA.
Summer Programs, 2008
Mathematics Problems in Industry Workshop
The twenty-fourth Annual Workshop on Mathematical Problems in Industry was held on June 16-20, 2008 at WPI. The organizers were Joseph Fehribach, Bogdan Vernescu, Suzanne Weekes and Burt Tilley. The industrial presenters were John Abbott, Greg Coxson Jacqueline Ashmore and David Clatterbuck. The industrial problems presented were:
- Evolution of an Elliptical Bubble in an Accelerating Extensional Flow Field (Corning, Inc., Corning, NY)
- Do the Barker Codes End? (Greg Coxson, Technology Service Corporation, Washington office, Silver Springs, MD)
- Modeling Battery Electrode Properties (TIAX LLC, Cambridge, MA)
The workshop was attended by over 50 faculty and students from the U.S., England and Canada and was funded through a grant from the National Science Foundation and with support from the American Mathematical Society, the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics and from the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications. The workshop had the largest number of graduate student participants of any of the MPIs.
Research Experience for Undergraduates, Summer, 2008
In 2008, Jayson Wilbur and Suzanne Weekes organized CIMS' 11th year of the REU in Industrial Mathematics and Statistics at WPI with funding from the National Science Foundation. WPI ran the first industrial math REU program in the nation in 1998; since then, the NSF has added similar industrial math summer programs at UCLA and North Carolina State University.
Twelve students participated in the 2008 REU at WPI: Sara Adler, Case Western Reserve University, Ohio; Jennifer Boyko, Haverford College, Pennsylvania; David B. Brown, North Carolina State University; David P. Brown, Miami University, Ohio; Stephanie Browne-Schlack, Northern Arizona University; Pulak Goswami, Carnegie Mellon University, Pennsylvania; Xiao Han, Mt. Holyoke College, Massachusetts; Evan Herring, University of Michigan; Laura Hou, Cornell University, New York; Thomas Seaquist, University of Texas – Arlington; Erin Vinnedge, Simpson College, Iowa; Jian Wang, University of Tennessee. This year's REU assistant was Heather Standring from WPI.
Three projects were completed in the 2008 program: Disposition Effect and Momentum: Modeling Irrational Behavior to Explain Apparent Momentum in Stock Prices, sponsored by State Street global Advisors (SSgA) and advised by Marcel Blais. Modeling Glioblastoma Multiforme, sponsored by IBM and advised by Suzanne Weekes. Statistical approaches to the missing data problem in clinical trials of potential disease-modifying therapies for Alzheimer's Disease, sponsored by Pfizer and advised by Jayson Wilbur.The REU final presentations were held on July 23, 2008. The students presented to an audience that included the project sponsors, CIMS advisory board members, faculty, family and friends.
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