Math majors’ research presentations earn high marks at national conference

After choosing to do original research in mathematics instead of spending a summer savoring surf and sun, a group of McDaniel Mathematics majors took their papers to MathFest and three of them returned with Outstanding Presentation awards.

Seniors Josh Bussiere of Westminster, Md., and Blake Schildhauer of Hampstead, Md., with junior Computer Mathematics major Chung Truong of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, claimed awards for their presentations. Bussiere, who partnered with senior Christina Wroblewski of Glen Mills, Pa., on the research, gave a talk on “Hausdorff Dimension of Fibonacci Word Fractals with Overlap.” Schildhauer and Truong presented their research, “Sums of Quaternion Cubes,” while junior Samantha Smith of Baltimore presented “Sums of Squares in Hurwitz Quaternion Rings,” on research she conducted with sophomore Ann Marshall of Ijamsville, Md.

Although difficult to translate for the non-mathematically minded, the research is both original and rooted in pure mathematics, according to Mathematics professors Spencer Hamblen and Ben Steinhurst, who attended the conference with their students.

“It’s sparked by intellectual curiosity,” says Steinhurst of the research topics that reflect both students’ and professors’ interest in exploring and understanding mathematical ideas.

“MathFest is a fun and excellent experience for students,” says Hamblen of the annual Mathematics Association of America (MAA) conference attended by students and faculty of more than 830 colleges and universities. “Unless they go to these conferences, it's not always clear to students what constitutes research in mathematics.”

This year’s MathFest was Schildhauer’s fourth time presenting her work at a professional conference, and she once again learned something new.

“I was able to meet and interact with many other mathematicians as well as listen to some really great talks,” says Schildhauer, who was one of 312 undergraduates among the 1,583 professors, students and researchers at the conference.