Two YSU students win excellence awards at national MathFest

Two Youngstown State University mathematics students attending MathFest 2017 in Chicago earned awards for excellence in student exposition and research.

Monica Busser of Hubbard, who presented research titled “Induced Representations,” and Christine Langer of North Canton, whose research was titled “Surprising Nontransitive Games,” won the awards. It’s the third consecutive year that Busser won an award at MathFest, the annual summer meeting of the Mathematical Association of America and Pi Mu Epsilon.

“This is a remarkable achievement for our students,” said Alicia Prieto Langarica, associate professor, Mathematics. “They continue to win more awards than any other school and serve as examples at this national meeting of the outstanding students at YSU, the STEM College and the Department of Mathematics and Statistics.”

Prieto also noted that seven freshmen women presented their research this year. “Getting students active in research and presenting results early in their education is important in helping them pursue and succeed in STEM careers,” Prieto said.

In all, 15 students represented YSU and gave oral presentations on their research projects. Other YSU students making presentations were:

• John Gaboriault-Whitcomb (Burke, Va.). “Integration by Parts and Series”.
• Hannah Haynie (Hubbard) and Sarah Elisabeth Odidika (Fort Worth, Texas). “Life Saving Myogenesis: A Mathematical Representation of Muscle Formation, Part 1”.
• Mirella Boulos (Canfield) and Alanis Chew (Poland). “Life Saving Myogenesis: A Mathematical Representation of Muscle Formation, Part 2”.
• Julie Phillis (Salem). “A Mathematical Simulation of Bone Cell Behavior Part 1”.
• Jacquelyn Chapman (Columbiana) and Ashley Amendol (Austintown). “A Mathematical Simulation of Bone Cell Behavior Part 2”.
• Elise Eckman (Poland). “Evaluating Kostant’s Multiplicity Formula”.
• Lexi Elaine Rager (Bristolville). “Helping Students Make Wise Data Driven Academic Decisions”.
• Natalie Halavick (Vienna), Khang Nguyen (Boardman) and Sara O'Kane (Youngstown). “Analyzing New Health Care Placement of Mercy Health Facilities”.

The following two students also gave presentations at a contributed paper session on Math Potluck- A Student Swap Session:

• Monica E. Busser. “Bigs and Littles Mentoring Program: Confronting the Leaky Pipeline Effect".
• Natalie Halavick. “The PME Ohio Xi Chapter Regional Conference: A How-To Guide”.

Tom Wakefield, associate professor; Angela Spalsbury, professor and chair; Prieto Langarica; and George Yates, professor, attended MathFest with the students. Faculty advising students included Wakefield; Prieto Langarica; Thomas Madsen, assistant professor, and David Pollack, associate professor.