student activities

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The LA-MS Section of the MAA will hold its annual Student Paper Competition at the Spring section meeting. Papers are solicited in two categories; graduate and undergraduate. The graduate category is limited to master's students. Ph.D. students are encouraged to submit for the contributed paper sessions. Presentations at the meeting will be limited to 12 minutes. A written paper of 6 pages or less must be received and include the author's name, institutional affiliation, faculty advisor and an e-mail address. Late entries will not be considered.

 

See a student paper template in PDF or in LaTeX.

POSTER SESSION


Criteria

Eligibility: Research must have been conducted while you were an undergraduate. This includes first-year graduate students who want to present their undergraduate research projects. Each student may only participate in one poster.

Time Commitment: Please be prepared to stay for the full session length.

Poster Content: Appropriate poster topics may include: expository topics, a new proof of a known result, a new mathematical model, an innovative solution to a Putnam problem, a method of solution for an applied problem.

Poster Evaluation: Each student receives helpful feedback and research advice from meeting attendees. All attendees will be provided a rubric to submit anonymous feedback to the students. We encourage students to use the feedback to return for the following spring Section Meeting’s Student Paper Competition.

Poster Design and Display: Please bring your 48" by 36" poster with a tri-fold display. We will provide several binder clips so that your poster can be quickly pinned to the tri-fold. Tri-folds will not be provided.

Note: Do not crowd the poster with too much content or too small of font size (recommended is the Arial font with 25 point size). Choose colors that are easy on the eyes and don't use too many colors as it will make the poster look too busy.

STUDENTS' TEAM COMPETITION


Student Competition Rules

The student team competition will be held at the Spring Section Meeting.


Contest Rules

1. Each institution may send at most two teams, each team consisting of at most four students. The four students within one team may work together on problems. Students may not get help from people on other teams, even if from the same school.
2. Participants must be undergraduate students and currently enrolled at the institution they represent. This means that the student has not yet earned a bachelor's degree--exceptions for students who are returning back to school to pursue a second bachelor's degree when the first degree was not in a mathematical area may be considered. A student from abroad who has completed training equivalent to an American bachelor's degree and who is taking solely graduate-level courses in a graduate program will be ineligible.
3. Each team must have a faculty sponsor.
4. Calculators comparable to the TI-84 without a symbolic manipulator will be allowed. Calculators with a symbolic manipulation capability, such as the TI-92 or TI-89+, are not allowed.
5. The contest will last 2 hours.
6. The Competition Committee is solely responsible for interpreting the rules and for ruling on any unforeseen situation.

Contest Problems

The contest will consist of 2 groups of problems. Each team may choose any 5 problems from Group II. Each problem will be worth 10 points. The problems are from the following areas: The contest will consist of 2 groups of problems. Each team may choose any 5 problems from Group II. Each problem will be worth 10 points.

Group I

    Ten mandatory problems.
  • Calculus (5 problems)
  • Abstract Algebra (1 problem)
  • Differential Equations (1 problem)
  • Discrete Mathematics (1 problem)
  • Linear Algebra (1 problem)
  • Multivariable Calculus (1 problem)

Group II

    Choose any 5 problems
  • Abstract Algebra (1 problem)
  • Advanced Calculus (1 problem)
  • Complex Analysis (1 problem)
  • Differential Equations (1 problem)
  • Geometry (1 problem)
  • Linear Algebra (1 problem)
  • Number Theory (1 problem)
  • Point-Set Topology (1 problem)
  • Probability/Statistics (1 problem)
  • Set Theory/Logic (1 problem)

Student Paper Competition Winners

2024

First Place:David Torrent "Using the Hungarian Method for Endowment Distribution"
Faculty Sponsor: Daniel Watson, Mississippi College

Second Place: Shelby Dean"Branching Out: A Further Look at Christmas Trees"
Faculty Sponsor: Daniel Watson, Mississippi College

Third Place: Abel Gurung and Qingguang Guan "Modeling the Open Probability of Ion Channels on Cell/ Organelle Membranes using Deep Neural Networks"
Faculty Sponsor: University of Southern Mississippi

2023

First Place: Andrew Lott "Computations and Observations on Congruence Covering Systems"
Faculty Sponsor: Alex Rice, Millsaps
Email: riceaj@millsaps.edu

Second Place: Emerson Statom "Three Colorful Methods for Finding the Chromatic Polynomial"
Faculty Sponsor: Galen Turner, LA Tech
Email: gturner@latech.edu

Third Place: Kelsten Antoine "Candy Crush Combinatorics"
Faculty Sponsor: Nicholas Richardson, Northwestern State
Email: richardsonn@nsula.edu

INTEGRATION BEE

Each institution may register up to 6 undergraduate students, and registration will be limited to 50. There is a deadline for registering. More information and the rules are available on the section website.

Integration Bee Winners:

  • 2024

    First Place: Jonathan Kiesel, Mississipi State University, Advisor: Jaclyn Smith

    Second Place: Pragyesh Poudel, Mississippi State University, Advisor: Jaclyn Smith

    Third Place: Dinesh Chhantyal, University of Louisiana Monroe, Advisor: Blake Farman

  • 2023

    First Place:  Bobby Jarrell, Mississippi State University

    Second Place:  Ngoc Bui, McNeese State University

    Third Place:  Andrew Lott, Millsaps College

  • 2022

    First Place: Ian Golsby, Louisiana Tech (Advisor: David Meng)

    Second Place: Jacob Matulevich, University of Louisiana - Lafayette (Advisor: James Kimball)

    Third Place: Scott Whitman, University of Louisiana-Lafayette (Advisor: James Kimball)

 STUDENT TEAM COMPETITION WINNERS