WOU Mathematics Department News and Activities

Π Μ Ε (The National Mathematics Honor Society)

Kady Hossner '11 and Heather Johnston '12 were delegates to the 2011 Pi Mu Epsilon National Meeting held in conjunction with MathFest , August 3-6 in Lexington, Kentucky. Heather presented "Oregon Blackberry Invasion Analyzed by Spatial Stochastic Modeling." Kady spoke on "Cayley-Sudoku Tables and Loop Theory," which won an Outstanding Student Speaker award.

To learn about how students qualify for membership for Π Μ Ε at Western Oregon University, click here.

To learn more about Π Μ Ε, visit the national Π Μ Ε home page.

Math Club Meetings

See the WOU Math Club Web Page

Student News

Undergraduates in Mathematics Scholarship Winners 2011 - 2012

Ernie and LaVerne Cummins Scholarship: Lyubov Belobrovchuk

Charlie Dolezal Scholarship: Anna Kralovec and Rosanna Mercereau

REUs 2012
The following students were accepted to REU's: Ariel Setniker at UW Stout, Madelyn Twain at Texas A&M, Cassy Hanson at Texas A&M, James Dolciamore at Texas A&M, and Molly Stubblefield at MSRI-UP. Molly was also accepted to the Budapest Semesters in Mathematics for Fall 2012.

Conferences 2011-2012

Ariel Setniker attended the 2011 MAA-MathFest in Kentucky and presented her results from the REU she attended at Michigan State in 2011, "Inverse Modeling of Dynamical Systems".

Heather Johnston attended the 2012 Joint MAA/AMS Meeting in Boston where she presented the research from her Summer 2011 Texas REU at a talk entitled
"Oregon Blackberry Invasion Analyzed by Spatial Stochastic Modeling".

Ariel Setniker attended the 2012 Joint MAA/AMS Meeting in Boston where she presented the research from her Summer 2011Michigan State REU in a poster entitled "Inverse Modeling of Dynamical Systems".

Ariel Setniker and Molly Stubblefield attended the Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in January 2012.

Matt Bruck, Jamie Gilman, Kelli Zehr, Heather Johnston, Keenan Kriegel, and Brittney Rigtrup presented their Senior Projects at the April 2012 PNW-MAA Conference at the University of Portland.

Problem solving partnership with local elementary school
Winter and spring terms, the Mathematics 396 "Problem Solving" classes have been piloting a "Math Buddy" project with about 100 fourth and fifth graders at the local Ash Creek Elementary School. Winter term ended with a big "Pi Day--Meet your Math Buddy" event on 3/14/2012. Pi Day was very exciting for everyone (kids and WOU students alike). This WOU Spotlight has some nice pictures of the winter event!