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Three Lafayette students presented their research last month at the Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.
With more than 150 participants from colleges and universities throughout the country, the event is perhaps the premier conference of its type, says Louis Zulli, assistant professor of mathematics. He accompanied math majors Blerta Shtylla ’05 (Tirana, Albania), Lis Edwards ’04(Belle Mead, N.J.), and Carrie Abildgaard ’04 (North Haven, Conn.), a Marquis Scholar who is pursuing a second degree in Spanish.
Both Edwards and Abildgaard are members of the varsity swimming and diving team. Abildgaard and Shtylla have been invited to join the Phi Beta Kappa academic honor society.
“It was a great experience to be able to talk to so many women mathematicians, and to be able to present some of my summer’s work,” says Shtylla, who was recently awarded a prestigious summer fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, where she will conduct biomedical engineering research. Last year, she impressed researchers during the Summer Undergraduate Research Conference in Mathematics at Ohio State University
“Blerta did a fine job under challenging circumstances,” says Zulli. “She presented a significant amount of new mathematics in just 15 minutes to a roomful of students and faculty who were generally unfamiliar with her topic. She was enthusiastic and clear, and gave good answers to the questions she was asked.”
In a talk entitled “Knots, Ortho-projection Matrices and Jones Polynomials,” Shtylla “discussed some surprising connections between knots (non-self-intersecting closed curves in space) and ortho-projection matrices (certain square arrays of zeros and ones),” he says. “The material she discussed was an interesting blend of topology and linear algebra, two large subfields of mathematics.”
She conducted the research with Zulli as part of the National Science Foundation’s Research Experience for Undergraduates at Lafayette last summer. Her project was supported by Lafayette’s EXCEL Scholars program, in which students assist faculty with research while earning a stipend. Many of the more than 160 students who participate in EXCEL each year go on to share their research through academic journal articles and/or conference presentations.
Shtylla is treasurer of International Students Association, a resident adviser in Marquis Hall, and a lab assistant and proctor for the mathematics department. She is a recipient of the Eugene P. Chase Phi Beta Kappa Prize, awarded to sophomores who have demonstrated scholarship as a first-year student.
Edwards presented research on “Isometries and Wallpaper Groups.” Her work focused on two-dimensional symmetries and their manifestations in the art of M.C. Escher. The presentation combined geometry, abstract algebra, and art appreciation, notes Zulli. The research is part of a yearlong honors thesis project Edwards is conducting under the guidance of Gary Gordon, professor of mathematics.
“Lafayette is a great place for a project like a thesis,” says Edwards. “The professors want to help the students and see them succeed. It’s a very nurturing environment.”
“Lis’ poster was visually striking — an interesting blend of mathematics and art –and attracted a lot of attention,” notes Zulli.
Edwards plans to attend graduate school in mathematics and has already gained acceptance to one school.
“The conference was very beneficial in getting a glimpse of what that experience may be like,” she says. “There were panels of those who were currently attending as well as those who were finished with graduate school. Some of them attended a small liberal arts college, like Lafayette, so it was especially good to hear how they handled the transition.”
“I love my major,” she adds. “The math department is amazing. All of the professors are incredibly intelligent and willing to share their knowledge and help any student at almost any time.”
In addition to competing in varsity swimming, Edwards is a community service assistant for Lafayette’s Landis Community Outreach Center, a teaching assistant for calculus classes, a peer tutor, and a member of Marquis Players, a student group that produces and performs an annual musical to raise money for local charities. She has served as philanthropy chair of Alpha Gamma Delta sorority.
Abildgaard shared research on “Utility Functions in the Theory of Financial Decision Making,” including several proofs that she had worked through concerning the Consumer’s Allocation Problem, both with and without risk. Her work, which combines mathematics and economics, is part of a yearlong honors thesis supervised by Derek Smith, assistant professor of mathematics.
“Carrie’s poster presented a substantial amount of technical work clearly and concisely,” Zulli says. “Both Lis and Carrie seemed quite comfortable ‘defending’ their posters, handling questions from a crowd of students and faculty members.”
“Presenting at the conference was a valuable experience,” says Abildgaard. “I was able to share the work I’d been doing with other individuals, and having to explain it, I knew that I truly understood the material. Research is an excellent avenue through which to delve into a subject and explore the various aspects of it.I have been quite fortunate that I’ve had some very talented individuals to work with and support me.”
Abildgaard is a member of the Pi Mu Epsilon (math), Sigma Delta Pi (Spanish), and Omicron Delta Epsilon (economics and business) honor societies. In addition to varsity diving, she volunteers as a swim coach for individuals with Down Syndrome training for the Special Olympics. She also is a peer mentor and calculus teaching assistant. She traveled to South American in January 2003 for a Lafayette interim session course and served an internship last summer at the Yale Investments Office.
“This was my first time at NCUWM, which has quickly become a leading undergraduate research conference in mathematics,” says Zulli. “I enjoyed the conference very much, and it was encouraging to see so many talented and enthusiastic young mathematicians. The talks I attended were typically quite good, and several were truly outstanding.”
As a national leader in undergraduate research, Lafayette sends one of the largest contingents to the National Conference on Undergraduate Research each year. Over the past decade, an average of 34 Lafayette students each year have presented results from research conducted with faculty mentors, or under their guidance, at the conference. Forty-two Lafayette students have had their proposals accepted for presentation at the next annual conference in April.