Applied Mathematics News

Stevenson’s chapter of the AWM (Association for Women in Mathematics) and English 256 – Intro to Digital Publishing hosted the STEMinar “Hair Braiding is a S.T.E.M.” presented by Emalia Denoon. Emalia created and patented a hair braiding tool to teach hair braiding cornrow at an intermediate level in under 15mins. Without realizing it, she had created a scientific approach for a skill that takes years to master. She created a STEM framework and inclusive curriculum to teach hair, hair braiding, and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.

Here’s a clue from our Pi Day Jeopardy competition in the category HAPPY “PI” DAY. Correct responses begin with the letters “PI”. Can you figure it out?

The Department of Math and Physics held a Pi Day celebration with pizza, pie, and Pi(e) Jeopardy!

Applied Mathematics major Shannon Baily is interning at WTW this semester as a Strategic Risk Consultant Intern, where she assists in the risk analysis for multiple clients. At WTW they consult with clients to figure out the best insurance plan for them which typically depends on how much risk they are willing to take on. Shannon is graduating in May 2023 and is on the Actuarial Track.

Applied Math majors Brittney Johnson, Chris Villanueva, and Julian Cha are working on an independent research project this semester under the guidance of Associate Professor of Mathematics, Dr. Benjamin Wilson. The group is researching connections between information theory and the word game Wordle. The goal of Wordle is to guess a secret 5-letter word in at most 6 attempts. After each attempt, the guesser is told if the letters in their guess are in the solution and in the correct place, in the solution but in the incorrect place, or not in the solution.

Some goals of the research group are to apply topics in information theory, like entropy, to code bots that will solve Wordle. Depending on the information a bot learns with each guess, it can make successive guesses to try to find the solution as quickly as possible.

In addition to creating a Wordle bots, the group is making different versions of Wordle by changing the dictionary of possible answers from common English words to words found in other corpora like the works of Shakespeare or other authors or Twitter. They are also using these corpora as the basis for the bot to make guesses to see how well Shakespeare or someone’s Twitter account could do if they were playing Wordle.