Mathematics Majors and Faculty Participated in Regional Meeting
Posted on Friday, April 15, 2011
Students and faculty from Westminster College's Department of Mathematics and Computer Science participated in the Mathematical Association of America's (MAA) Allegheny Mountain Section annual meeting April 8-9 at Clarion University.
The meeting included presentations by students and faculty from western Pennsylvania and West Virginia, invited talks by three nationally-known speakers, a problem-solving competition for undergraduates, and social events.
Westminster sophomore mathematics and philosophy major Gregory Clark presented a talk on "Tesselations: Properties and Periodicity." Clark is a son of Jeffrey and Shari Clark of Cranberry Township and a graduate of Seneca Valley High School.
Senior mathematics major Richard Ligo spoke on "The Subgraph Summability Number of a Graph." Ligo is a son of Jesse and Amy Ligo of Mercer and a graduate of Mercer Area High School.
Additional Westminster students attending included:
Junior mathematics major Adam Carter is a son of Duane and Lisa Carter of Oil City and a graduate of Oil City Area High School.
Sophomore mathematics major Lisa Kaylor is a daughter of Karen Kaylor of Chicora and the late Terry Kaylor and a graduate of Karns City Area High School.
Sophomore mathematics and Spanish major Sydney Spain is a daughter of Thomas and Pamela Spain of Batavia, Ill., and a graduate of Batavia High School.
Westminster mathematics faculty participation included:
Dr. Natacha Fontes-Merz, associate professor, presented a talk on "The Chromatic Polynomial of the Join of Two Groups."
Dr. David Offner, assistant professor, presented his research on "Packing the Hypercube."
Fontes-Merz and Dr. Pamela Richardson, assistant professor, who serve as section officers, attended an officers meeting and organized a student problem-solving competition for about 60 students from schools throughout the region.
Fontes-Merz, Offner, Richardson, and Dr. Jeffrey Boerner, assistant professor, participated in the Section NExT workshop for new faculty. The speaker was Ivars Peterson, MAA director of publications and communications, who shared tips on writing mathematics well.
Also attending were Dr. Carolyn Cuff, professor, and Dr. Barbara Faires, professor emerita and MAA secretary.
Contact Offner at (724) 946-7293 or email offnerde@westminster.edu for additional information.
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