- Sections
2007
BYU math team places in top 20 of international competition
Brigham Young University's Department of Mathematics recently placed in the top 20 in an international mathematics competition, with four students earning scores in the top 10 percent.
BYU's team, composed of junior Yu Yang Edison and seniors Wayne Rosengren and Russell Howes coached by faculty member Darrin Doud, placed 18th in this year's Putman Exam competition. Twenty-one other BYU students participated individually in the competition as well.
Four BYU students received scores in the top ten percent, including Edison (140th), Howes and Nathan Grigg (tied for 239th) and Russell Ricks (282nd) out of 3,640 participants.
"This is a significant accomplishment. This is the biggest and most competitive contest in college mathematics in the United States, sort of like an NCAA tournament for math," said Tyler Jarvis, chair of the Department of Mathematics. "For our team to place 18th out of more than 400 teams nationally is very impressive."
The Putnam Exam, sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America, is designed to find the best mathematical problem solvers from universities in the United States and Canada. The contest consists of 12 problems to be solved in a six-hour period.
The Mathematical Association of America is the largest professional society that focuses on mathematics taught at the undergraduate level. Members include university teachers, computer scientists, statisticians and graduate and undergraduate students. For more information, contact Tyler Jarvis at (801) 422-5925.
Mathematics Association of America honors BYU undergraduate
The Mathematical Association of America recently selected Julian Tay, a mathematics major at Brigham Young University, as a winner of its 2007 National Undergraduate Student Poster Session.
Tay was awarded $100 for his efforts.
The contest took place in New Orleans in January during the AMS/MAA Joint Meeting. Tay’s poster, "Tropical Derivatives and Duality," reflected his research with the BYU Tropical Geometry and Algebra Group. The poster is on display outside the math lab in the James E. Talmage Building on campus.
"The AMS/MAA Joint Meeting is the biggest professional meeting in mathematics every year," said Tyler Jarvis, professor of mathematics and Tay's adviser. "Winning the poster contest is the best accomplishment you could expect from an undergraduate."
For more information, contact Tyler Jarvis at (801) 422-5925.
November, 2006
Kening Lu to receive Distinguished Teaching Award, deliver lecture Nov. 30
The Distinguished Teaching Award from the Department of Mathematics at Brigham Young University will be presented on Thursday, Nov. 30, at 4 p.m. in 1170 Talmage Math Sciences/Computer Building.
Kening Lu will receive the award and will deliver a lecture on “Dynamical Behavior of Differential Equations.” A reception will take place in the hallway next to the lecture room at 3:30 p.m.
The Distinguished Teaching Award was established by a gift from Carolyn Savage Wright and the Kenneth C. Savage Foundation as a tribute to teachers in the BYU Department of Mathematics. Recipients must demonstrate teaching effectiveness, influence in teaching beyond their own classrooms and the ability to foster curiosity and excitement about mathematics in their students.
The associate chair of graduate studies in the department, Lu received the BYU Karl G. Maeser Award for research and was a co-founder of the Math Circle program at BYU, which provides exciting math to instruction elementary and middle school students.
For more information, contact David Wright at (801) 422-4027.
September, 2006
BYU Math Department to spread mentoring model to other schools
When it comes to mentoring undergraduate mathematics students, Brigham Young University professors are leading the way. And thanks to a $1.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation, they will be showing that way to scholars at other universities.
CITES Mathematics Grant Award Announced
The Brigham Young University-Public School Partnership was recently awarded a grant of $513,000 by the Utah State Office of Education. This award is part of a competitive grant program authorized by the Federal No Child Left Behind legislation to improve the academic achievement of students in the areas of mathematics and science. The funding program encourages their applicants to improve instruction in mathematics and science teaching—exactly what the BYU-PSP plans to do.
Getting Good IDeAs: National Science Foundation Backs BYU Laboratories
IDeA Labs is a collaboration between the computer science, mathematics and statistics departments that study Algorithmic Decision Processes. Whether in business, engineering or government, a decision process becomes algorithmic when it is made scientifically, or based on measurements or data.
Professor uses 'math biology' to understand scarring
BYU mathematician John Dallon is using complex equations and computer models to understand how a protein present in adults results in scarring. His findings were published in the current issue of “Philosophical Transactions of Royal Society, Series A.”
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Radio Interview
BYU mathematics professor earns Fulbright grant
Wayne Barrett, a Brigham Young University mathematics professor, has been named a Fulbright Scholar and will be visiting Israel for the 2006-2007 academic year under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.
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