Applied Mathematics News

On Friday, the students of the Summer Science Scholar Research Program (S³RP) at Stevenson University attended a tour at the Montebello Water Filtration Plant in Baltimore, MD (picture above). It was very interesting to learn about the chemical treatment processes that our water undergoes before we are able to use it. We first stopped at an old wooden pipe and learned about the beginnings and history of the Baltimore water system. After this we were able to see flocculation and sedimentation of the water which removes the impurities. This was very interesting; you could see how much clearer the water got in this process. From here we were able to see some of the filtration process where the water passes through sand. We really enjoyed being able to walk through and see the purification process up close!

After the tour, students returned to SU for a picnic and some games. Shown below are Applied Math Majors, Billy Heidel (left, back) and Evan Williams (right) playing croquet with Asia Robison, a biology participant in S³RP.

Some summer math fun!

Math faculty, Dr. Ben Wilson (shown on left in both pictures), attended the Academy of Inquiry Based Learning (AIBL) Workshop in Washington D.C. this summer. According to the AIBL website “Inquiry Based Learning, or IBL for short, is a broad range of empirically validated teaching methods which emphasize (a) deeply engaging students and (b) providing students with opportunities to authentically learn by collaborating with their peers.” The Department of Mathematics and Physics at Stevenson has been incorporating IBL teaching methods into several math courses for a few years including the Calculus sequence and many of the upper level math courses. The workshop gave Dr. Wilson a chance to develop skills and practice necessary for successful implementation of IBL, in addition to networking with other math faculty also interested in IBL. The workshop was a big success and Dr. Wilson is excited to use much of what he learned there in his classes this fall and beyond! Photographs taken by Katie Kahle are the property of AIBL and used by permission for this story.

Applied Math rising senior, Jess Rega, is taking part in a 12 week internship program at Santander Bank N.A in Dorchester, MA. She is an intern on the CIO Data & Corporate Functions, and specifically a part of the Enterprise Data Management team within the department. Jess is primarily assisting with the Universal Staging Area (USA). The department is trying to basically create a program to go through files and organize the major database. Other projects she will be participating in include learning the intake process analysis for USA, creating weekly reports of the status of all the projects within the team, doing technical writing, and business analysis for USA.

In Jess’ words, “The project I am working on right now is writing up advanced macros to connect to the daily reports and pull the data we need from other Microsoft tools. I will be doing a lot of analysis and programming which is exactly what I want to do. The business analytical skills and the technical coding languages that I learn here will help me a lot with my future. I want to become an analyst so the tools that I learn here would definitely tie into my future plans.”

While a student at SU, Gerald Roman-Gonzalez (BS Applied Math ’18) designed a logo for our department. We have featured our logo on math jackets and math shirts. Now, we are excited to have our logo installed by the School of Design as a vinyl decal on the door to our Collaboratory!