Math News

May, 2018

• College of Education Scholarship Winners

On Friday, May 18, several Mathematics Education scholarship recipients were honored at the celebratory breakfast at Cranston Marche. (Click here for photos.) Congratulations to the following students:

Alexis Wydysh (Mathematics/Adolescent Education - Elma, NY) - Tom Everett Memorial Scholarship, that recognizes students who demonstrate a strong spirit of community and collegiality and exhibit qualities of leadership.

Megan Little (Mathematics/Adolescent Education - Caledonia, NY) - Class of 1965 Reunion Endowment, given to a student deemed "deserving" by faculty.

Mary DiCioccio (Mathematics/Adolescent Education - Buffalo, NY) - Sanford and Lillian Zeman Award, given to a student in good academic standing who "shows promise" as an educator, and will be enrolled full time in the upcoming Fall semester.

Dakota Morano (MSED, Mathematics Education - Sinclairville, NY) - Professionalism Award, given to students for their outstanding commitment to professional values associated with excellence in the classroom.

April, 2018

• Senior Lecturer Recipient of the President's Award for Teaching at Luncheon

Mrs. Kimberly Conti, senior lecturer, was this year's recipient of the President's Award for Teaching. Mrs. Conti has taught in the department for over 20 years, primarily teaching Mathematics for School Teachers courses. She recently redesigned the precalculus curriculum, incorporating a recitation component taught by a graduate assistant that she mentors.

• Mathematics Students Compete in 2018 SCUDEM modeling competition

Under the direction of Dr. Lan Chen, three students recently competed in the SCUDEM modeling competition. The participants were Chad Berggren (a senior mathematics major from Westfield), Michael Khaimraj (a junior mathematics major from Ozone Park) and Joshua Corwin (a junior Math-Physics major from Bellmore, NY). From among three problems, they chose to work on Problem A involving the use of a fan to sort paper products for recycling. They worked on this problem from April 13th through Saturday, April 21st. Starting on Saturday, they were given an additional question to answer, and they worked on this until late Saturday night. The additional question was "Which aspect of your model results in the largest difference in sorting quality if that aspect undergoes a small change. For example, does a small change in the height of the drop make a bigger difference in the final results as compared to a small change in the wind speed associated with the fans?" The final requirement of the competition required them to present their solution to an audience on April 27.

• Senior Valerie Andryshak recipient of Tau Sigma Honor Society Scholarship

Valerie Andryshak, a senior Mathematics Adolescence Education major was awarded the Tau Sigma scholarship. This scholarship is awarded to students who transfer to Fredonia from another institution that has significant academic contributions to Fredonia.  https://www.fredonia.edu/about/offices/faculty-student-association/abou… academic contributions to Fredonia.

• Dr. Nancy Boynton Announces Retirement

Dr. Nancy Boynton, professor of mathematics, will retire after the spring 2018 semester. Dr. Boynton, who joined SUNY Fredonia in the early 1980's, has been a tremendous contributor to the department in teaching, advising and service during her tenure. She was instrumental in designing the Fredonia's undergraduate minor in statistics.

February, 2018

• Alumni have paper accepted by the Journal of Physics Communications

Sarah Chamberlain, 2017, Applied Mathematics and Physics, and John Tucker, 2015, Physics and Mathematics, have had their paper, "Waxman's algorithm for non-Hermitian Hamiltonian operators," accepted for publication. This is joint work with Professor Justin Conroy of the Physics Department and fellow student Hank Miller. Click here to see the paper.

Sarah is currently a Ph.D. student in biophysics at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, while John is pursuing his Ph.D. in Physics at Stony Brook University.

• Fredonia Team Participates in the Mathematical Contest in Modeling

A team from Fredonia competed in the 2018 Mathematical Contest in Modeling, held February 8 - 12. The contest is sponsored by COMAP, the Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications, and typically attracts teams from over 900 institutions worldwide.

Fredonia's team members were Chadwick Berggren, a senior mathematics major from Westfield, with minors in computer science and statistics, Anna Chiacchia, a junior double major in applied mathematics and computer science from Hamburg, and Michael Eusanio, a junior major in applied mathematics, with a minor in Business Administration, from Orchard Park.

The contest began at 5:00 pm on Thursday. Teams use the first several hours to digest the problems and choose one to work on. Our team chose to work on Problem C: Energy Production. Teams spend the next several days working, literally, around the clock on their chosen problem. Problem C, for instance, required analysis of 50 years worth of data in 605 variables on energy production and consumption by four states. Finally, teams must submit a professional report by the contest deadline of 8:00 pm Monday, This report includes a one-page summary, a memo to the "client" - in the case of Problem C, the governors of the four states - and up to 20 pages of supporting documentation, including tables and graphs.

Click here to see a photo of our team!

November, 2017

• Rachel Schank, Class of 2017, presents, "The Future is Data"

On November 9, Rachel, who works as a Data Scientist for SRC, Inc. in Syracuse, described a "typical" day on the job. From her abstract: "I wear many hats as a data scientist, from data visualization, to coding mathematical functions, to analyzing millions of rows of data at a time. I never do the same thing two days in a row. Walking through a day at the office will give you some great insight into the world of data, and what it takes to be a data scientist." Students enjoyed Rachel's talk and the chance to speak wiith her afterward in the Fishbowl over pizza and soda. Click here for photo.

• Fredonians contribute to the success of the annual AMTNYS conference

Fredonia had a large and significant presence at the 67th Annual Conference of the Association of Mathematics Teachers of New York State, which was held November 3 and 4 in Buffalo. Click here for more information and photos.

October, 2017

• Mark Heiler talks about how to get "the sexiest job of the 21st century"

On October 11th, Mark Heiler (Class of 2012) gave a presentation to a packed audience of students and faculty about his career path after graduating with a degree in Mathematics. Mark currently works as a data scientist at Paychex, a Rochester-based payroll and human resources solutions company. Afterwards, Mark chatted with students over pizza in the Fish Bowl. Click here for photo.

• MAA Seaway Section Conference at SUNY Broome

On October 20-21, Mathematical Sciences faculty led undergraduate and graduate students to SUNY Broome Community College in Binghamton, NY for the fall conference of the Mathematical Association of America Seaway Section. Dr. Jonathan Cox presented his work in an "IBL for All" section, and also chaired the executive committee, extended executive committee and business meetings. Undergraduate student Mary DiCioccio also gave a presentation entitled, "A Generalized Linear Model of Passing in Courses Taken with Peer-Led Team Learning at CSU Channel Islands." Click here to see photos. 

April, 2017

• MAA Seaway Section Conference at SUNY Oswego

On April 1-2, Mathematical Sciences faculty took over twenty students to Oswego, NY, for the spring conference of the MAA Seaway Section. A number of our undergraduate and graduate students gave presentations on their recent work. Dr. Jonathan Cox and Dr. Meral Arnavut attended a workshop on IBL (Inquiry Based Learning).

• Department Awards Banquet

On April 20, the department held its annual Awards Banquet at the Dunkirk Clarion. Thirty-one of our students received awards in the form of scholarships and memberships in professional organizations, and fifteen students were newly inducted into Pi Mu Epsilon, the honorary national mathematics society. Dr. Joseph Straight was our emcee, and a number of our emeritus faculty were on hand to help present the awards. We are so proud of our students and their accomplishments! For more information, click here.

March, 2017

• Pi Day 2017!!!

For the seventeenth consecutive year, the department will celebrate Pi Day. As all geek-minded folk know, March 14 (3-14) is a day to celebrate the constant Pi in all its mathematical glory. Because of our upcoming Spring Break, we'll be celebrating a little early, on Wednesday, March 8, with a scavenger hunt starting at noon and the evening festivities in McEwen 209 6:00-8:00 pm. Our theme this year is "Su-Pi Heroes and Villains." Teams of four to six students can sign up outside the Fish Bowl. Costumes are encouraged!

February, 2017

• Dr. Teodora Cox publishes paper in Australian journal

A paper by Dr. Teodora Cox, titled "Integrating literature into the teaching of mathematics," appeared in the Winter 2016 issue of the journal The Australian Mathematics Teacher. The abstract describes the paper: "Mathematics teachers are frequently looking for real-life applications and meaningful integration of mathematics and other content areas. Many genuinely seek to reach out to students and help them make connections between the often abstract topics taught in school. In this article I share several ideas to help teachers foster student curiosity about mathematical ideas, by exploring children's literature and other fiction."

• Sarah Chamberlain wins Lanford Prize

Sarah Chamberlain, class of 2017, a double major in Applied Mathematics and Physics, is this year's winner of the Lanford Prize, the most prestigious award given to a graduating senior at Fredonia. A native of Grand Island, NY, Sarah discovered her passion for math in high school. She has served as Vice President of the Math Club (Chi Tau Omega) and President of the Engineering and Physics Society, and she is a member of the Honor Society, the Golden Key International Honour Society, Sigma Pi Sigma, and Pi Mu Epsilon. Sarah will receive the Lanford Prize at Fredonia's Commencement on May 13. Congratulations, Sarah!!!!

January, 2017

• Biostatistics and Statistics are the top two best choices in masters degrees

​Forbes Magazine has compiled its yearly list of the best and worst masters degrees for the purposes of employment, and the two topping the list of best degrees are Biostatistics and Statistics! See the full article here.

November, 2016

• Dr. Kwong publishes paper

A paper by Dr. Harris Kwong and his coauthor, Sin-Min Lee, titled "On friendly index sets and product-cordial index sets of subdivided Mobius ladders," has appeared in the Journal of Combinatorics and Number Theory, Volume 8 (2016), pp. 193-206. The abstract summarizes their work: "Let G be a simple graph, and let Z₂ be the field with two elements. Any vertex labeling f : V(G) → Z₂ induces an edge labeling f ⁺: E(G) → Z₂ defined by f ⁺(uv) = f(u) + f(v) for each edge uv in E(G). For each i in Z₂, define v_f (i) = |f ^-1(i)|, and e⁺_f (i) = |(f ⁺)^-1(i)|. The friendly index set of a graph G is defined as the set of all possible values of |e⁺_f (1) - e⁺_f (0)| taken over all vertex labeling f with the property that |v_f (1) – v_f (0)| is less than or equal to 1. The corresponding multiplicative version is called the product-cordial index set. In this paper, we determine the friendly index sets and the product-cordial index sets of subdivided Mobius ladders."

• Math Club members help out at Taste of College Event

​On Saturday, November 5, members of the Math Club worked with local Girl Scouts who were on campus for a Taste of College Event. They helped introduce the girls to STEM ideas at the Science Center. Marleah Roseman and Priscilla Pitt ran the Barbie Bungee Jumping station, where the girls dropped Barbie dolls on rubber band bungees from the balcony; the winner was the one whose Barbie got closest to the floor without hitting it. Michelle Persaud worked at the name tag station, helping the girls making light-up name tags using LEDs and a circuit.

• Dr. Rogers on tour

Dr. Bob Rogers has been sharing his passion for mathematics with high school students all over the state. On October 29 he put in his third annual appearance as a guest instructor for the Institute of MERIT (Mathematics Education, Research, and Instructional Technology), a program for talented math students on Long Island. This highly competitive program accepted only 85 students out of 800 applications. The students were distributed into several levels (grades 5/6, grades 7/8, grades 9/10, and a research level for grades 11/12). Dr. Rogers worked with the research level students, introducing them to number theory, with the expectation that the students would eventually do a research project for a future expo. Then later in the day he adopted his alter ego of "Fredonia Rogers," the maverick mathematician inspired by Indiana Jones, and gave a presentation on the history of solving the cubic equation. Dr. Rogers reports that the students are very talented and a joy to work with.

On November 4, Dr. Rogers was the invited guest speaker for the TIME 2000 Conference at Queens College, where he presented mathematics and STEM ideas to two groups of about twenty to twenty-five high school seniors and their teachers. These students are possible mathematics majors and future math teachers. The conference had about 400 students in attendance from various high schools in Queens.

• Dr. Cox tutors at-risk students in Dunkirk

​During his Fall 2016 sabbatical, Dr. Jonathan Cox has been serving as mathematics tutor at the Dunkirk Middle School through Chautauqua Striders, Inc. This pilot program works with about ten at-risk students in an after-school setting, and also features an English language arts tutor. Dr. Cox is working through this program to try out and investigate the effectiveness of the JUMP Math curriculum, as well as other instructional approaches. On a given day, the students might work on homework, materials from the curriculum, or a special activity. Topics for the activities have included the hardest math problem ever solved (Fermat's Last Theorem), Pascal's triangle, determining the number of coffee cups that would fit on a football field, the minimum number of states needed to win the electoral college vote, and various puzzles. Highlights of the program have included a cryogenics demonstration by Praxair, and guest presentations from a K-9 police unit and from Dr. Bob Rogers of the Department of Mathematical Sciences. The experience has been a challenge requiring patience, perseverance, and compassion. However, in addition to establishing a connection with the community, it has yielded a number of insights applicable to teaching at the college level. The opportunity is available for a student to continue this work in the Spring 2017 semester via an internship through Chautauqua Striders, which includes both compensation and academic credit. Feel free to contact Dr. Cox for more information.

• Dr. Boynton provides stats education workshop in Jamestown

​On Friday, November 4, Dr. Nancy Boynton worked with Angela (Beck) Raynor, one of our graduates and currently on the faculty in the Mathematical Sciences Department, and fellow alum Ashley (Myers) Hnatyszyn to present a workshop at Jamestown Community College for faculty teaching statistics in area high schools. The group examined websites and activities designed to help students learn statistics.

• MAA Seaway Section conference at RIT

​On October 21-22, Mathematical Sciences faculty took almost twenty students to Rochester, NY for the semi-annual conference of the MAA Seaway Section. Dr. Boynton took four students over early on Friday, the 21st, to attend a micro-course titled "RMarkdown for beginners: Formatted documents that update through code." Dr. Wilson and Dr. Rogers followed later in the afternoon with two vanloads of students. The attended an opening banquet followed by a keynote speaker that evening, and talks in various sessions all the next day.

• AMTNYS Conference in Rye, NY

Once again, Fredonia’s foot print was large at AMTNYS. Dr Cox, Dr. Howard, and Dr. Rogers provided multiple individual sessions at the conference that was attended by over 500 mathematics educators from throughout the state. Graduate students Jacob Brostrom, Danielle Czerwinski, and Nicole Sottilaro spearheaded a workshop that explored innovative review strategies in math classrooms – complete with a PLINKO Board and a balloon launcher. Undergraduate Math-Adolescence Education Majors presented lesson and project ideas to a full house on Friday afternoon, while Childhood Ed Mathematics Concentration Majors were headliners at the Make It -- Take It venue. The ‘Godfather’ Dr. Straight presented the Underground Dance Off trophy to SUNY Potsdam, breaking Fredonia’s three-year strangle hold on the crown. Plans for returning the trophy to Fredonia are already in place as the conference is scheduled to take place in Buffalo in November of 2017.

• Paper by Dr. Cheng accepted for publication

​Dr. Lan Cheng and her co-author, Xuguang Simon Sheng at American University, had a paper, "Combination of 'Combinations of P-Values'" accepted for publication in the journal Empirical Economics. The abstract summarizes their work: "We investigate the impact of an uncertain number of false individual null hypotheses on commonly used p-value combination methods. Under such uncertainty, these methods perform quite differently and often yield conflicting results. Consequently, we develop a combination of “combinations of p-values” (CCP) test aimed at maintaining good power properties across such uncertainty. The CCP test is based on a simple union-intersection principle that exploits the weak correspondence between two underlying p-value combination methods. Monte Carlo simulations show that the CCP test controls size and closely tracks the power of the best individual methods. We empirically apply the CCP test to explore the stationarity in real exchange rates and the information rigidity in inflation and output growth forecasts."

October, 2016

• Math Knight at Silver Creek Middle School

Students in our Middle School and Secondary Math Methods courses put together Math Knight: A Spooktacular Good Time at Silver Creek Middle School on Monday, October 24, with help from Dr. Keary Howard and Dr. Tedi Cox. This event for grades 6-8 featured Halloween-themed math activities such as Witch Pitch, Sealed and Collected with a Candy Kiss, The Dark Knight's Ultimate Defense, Pokemon Says Gotta Catch 'Em All, Down the Rabbit Hole (an "Egg'citing Challenge"), and Zombies Designed by Pi. Our students and faculty host regular Family Math Nights in area schools.

• Internship Opportunity with Chautauqua Striders

Dr. Jonathan Cox has created an internship opportunity with Chautauqua Striders Inc. for Spring, 2017. The internship involves tutoring at-risk middle school students in Dunkirk using an innovative curriculum. For more information, contact Dr. Cox.

September, 2016

• New Chair:

Dr. Julia Wilson has taken the helm as chair of the department starting Fall 2016. Dr. Wilson joined the department as Assistant Professor in 2000. She received tenure and promotion to Associate Professor in 2007. She has served on the University Senate, the General Education Committee, and the Planning and Budget Committee, in addition to various ad hoc committees and task forces, and she currently sits on the Sustainability Committee. Dr. Wilson has published several papers in her research area of geometric topology, and has more recently published articles on math and music. Dr. Wilson is excited about the potential for growth in several of the department’s programs, and she is very appreciative of the support she has received from the students and faculty, especially from former chairs Dr. Joseph Straight and Dr. Nancy Boynton. Dr. Straight steps down this year after six years as chair, having formerly served as chair from 1998-2004, while Dr. Boynton served from 2004-2010.

• Dr. Rogers inducted into NYS Mathematics Educators' Hall of Fame:

Dr. Robert Rogers will be inducted into the New York State Mathematics Educators' Hall of Fame on September 23, 2016, in Suffern, NY. The Hall of Fame is administered by the New York State Association of Mathematics Supervisors, and inductees are chosen based on their extraordinary contributions to the advancement of mathematics education in New York State.

Dr. Rogers joined the department as Assistant Professor in 1987. He received tenure and promotion to Associate Professor in 1993. He was promoted to Full Professor in 2003, and he received the SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor rank in 2015. He has published extensively on analysis, the history of mathematics, mathematics education, and STEM education. He has mentored seven students in undergraduate mathematics research and is a faculty advisor for the State University of New York at Fredonia Problem Solving Group, which regularly submits solutions for publication in journals. He is the Editor of the New York State Mathematics Teachers' Journal, and has coauthored the book How We Got from There to Here: A Story of Real Analysis, available through the SUNY Open Textbook Program. He is a Past President of the Association of Mathematics Teachers of New York State and is a former Chair and Governor of the Mathematical Association of America -- Seaway Section. He is a recipient of the State University of New York at Fredonia President's Award for Excellence in Teaching, the MAA-Seaway Section's Distinguished Teaching Award, and the MAA-Seaway Section Meritorious Service Award. Dr. Rogers regularly visits middle and high schools to provide STEM outreach for students, and he speaks at a number of mathematics and mathematics teachers' conferences about utilizing both history and STEM to teach mathematical ideas.

• Dr. Cox on sabbatical:

​Dr. Jonathan Cox is on sabbatical for the Fall 2016 semester. He is conducting research into a form of pedagogy called Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL), and developing course materials implementing IBL. IBL is a problem-based approach to teaching mathematics which aims to develop in students the ability to investigate problems independently. It does this by posing a carefully constructed sequence of tasks and problems for students to explore and solve. There is a significant and growing body of evidence demonstrating that IBL is more effective than the traditional lecture method by a variety of measures. Dr. Cox has already implemented the IBL approach in MATH 341 Geometry, and he is preparing those materials for dissemination. He is also preparing IBL materials for MATH 381 History of Math, and he eventually plans to develop materials for the University Calculus sequence and for MATH 210 Mathematical Structures and Proofs, possibly incorporating aspects of the JUMP Math method of John Mighton.

• Dr. Kwong accepts editorial position:

​Dr. Harris Kwong has accepted an invitation to take over the editorship of the Elementary Problems Section of The Fibonacci Quarterly. His work in this capacity will appear in the first issue of 2017. The Fibonacci Quarterly is the primary publication of the Fibonacci Association, with a focus on the Fibonacci number sequence and related mathematics. Dr. Kwong has had many articles appear in The Fibonacci Quarterly, as well as other journals.

• Internships at Erie Insurance:

Erie Insurance is offering paid internships in a variety of areas through their Future Focus Internship program, at their corporate headquarters in Erie, PA. Internships are available in the following departments: Actuarial, Claims, Customer Service, Finance, Human Resources, Internal Audit, IT, Marketing, and Underwriting. Students should be attending college full-time and pursuing a four-year degree, completing their sophomore or junior year, and have a minimum 3.0 cumulative GPA. Interested students should apply today on the ERIE Careers website.