SUnMaRC 2012

Southwest Undergraduate Mathematics Research Conference

The 9th Southwest Undergraduate Mathematics Research Conference, SUnMaRC 12, was held on March 30-April 1, 2012, in Tucson, AZ, hosted by the University of Arizona. This conference series provides students an opportunity to see what math research can be about, to meet other students throughout the Southwest with similar interests, to explore possibilities for graduate studies, and, for those that have already been working on a research project, to present their work.

UNM Sunmarc 2012 Attendees

The UNM contingent (from right to left, back to front) Back row: Trace Norris, Michael Brown, Joseph DeAguero (hidden), Tim Spross, Stephen Pietromonaco, Andrew Herring. Middle Row: Sam Bonin, Anastassiya Semenova, Ayme Thompson, Katherine Belvin. Front Row: Andrew Baxter, Gabe Arrillaga, Alex Benedict, Royce Taylor-Tyman, Jeff Gordon, Monika Nitsche. Emely Gordon also participated.

This year again, UNM had a large contingent of undergraduate students attending the conference. 16 of our students and 1 faculty member (see picture), packed in 2 vans and 1 car, drove to Tucson friday-sunday, to join 100+ students from Arizona (ASU, MCC, NAU, UA), New Mexico (NMSU, UNM), and Texas (UTEP). Six of our students gave wonderful talks on their research program (see pics below). We saw many other interesting talks both by students and invited speakers, talked to a panel of former graduate students about their experiences using the mathematics they learnt in industry, played games, practiced origami, and met many students and faculty from throughout the Southwest. In particular, our students appreciated meeting fellow UNM students with common interests, and enjoyed spending time together. Yes, the drive was long, but it was worth it!

A nice talk of interest to all Math Majors! Panel Discussion: finding a job in industry, by Carolyn Lanser (includes How to prepare, and Notes on math-related professions)

Andrew Herring from UNM, presenting his talk on "Analytic continuation of the Riemann-zeta function" Andrew Baxter from UNM, presenting his talk on "Statistics and Chem-Cam" Stephen Pietromonaco from UNM, presenting his talk on "L^p norms on eigenfunctions of the spherical Laplace operator" Jeff Gordon from UNM, presenting his talk on "Visualization of chaos and Legendre polynomials" Sam Bonin from UNM, presenting his talk on "Wavelet analysis of geological data" Alex Benedict from UNM, presenting his talk on "Fast waveform extraction on short computational domain" Here are some of our students comments: " I liked seeing students and the research they are studying. I was able to get an idea on what I can study in the future. Also I enjoyed talking to other math students from UNM and the classes they have taken. I was able to see what future math classes I should take based on their answers." "SUnMaRC was a great opportunity to meet other Math majors at UNM. I feel a greater sense of connection with the Math Department having gone to SUnMaRC. I look forward to UNM hosting next years SUnMaRC; it will be another chance to strengthen camaraderie among UNM Math students." "Thank you for giving me the opportunity to go to the conference with you guys! Before the conference, I never realized how much math research is being done and how many different fields are involved in this research. It was interesting to see the breadth of math research and its applications. It was also interesting to see the faculty, alumni and students at other schools math programs. (On a personal note, Im still a little worried if ill be able to handle the coursework for a math degree, since I dont know what the upper level math courses are like. But after the conference, Im much more determined and optimistic about pursuing a math degree.) Thanks again, it was fun! "

"Being a freshman in the lower math levels at this moment, it gave me so much motivation to want to continue the mathematics program and hopefully be able to do undergraduate research. Seeing all the projects that were put together and how much went into each project, it makes me want to try to get into the undergraduate research at UNM. Another really great part was all the people. Since I am only in math 123, or trigonometry, I did not know how I would fit in since everyone else is in much higher math classes. Everyone was really nice and told me how they were there at one point and to keep taking it a step at at time. That, in itself, was gave me a lot of confidence. The entire trip was fun and it was awesome to be able to hang out with all the upper level kids of mathematics or math associated degrees and learn from what they have to say and what to do and what to avoid. It makes me that much more excited for calculus over the summer! Even from the presentations I did not quite understand, it made me want to learn more. I never heard of a matrix before this event and now I cannot wait to learn them, it looks so cool! I cannot stress just how much motivation and appreciation towards mathematics this has given me and I am so glad I was able to go. Thank you for this opportunity. It was a really good learning experience and I now sorta know what I am getting into by being a mathematics or physics major. It was a great experience! Again, thanks. " "I had a great experience at sunmarc this year! It was my first time attending the conference and didnt really know what to expect. I was impressed by all the hard work students had done on their research projects. I learned a lot from these talks, and some even inspired me to seek more knowledge on the topic. I do wish that the talks had been organized by room though. For example, Room A would only have talks on Math Education, and Room B only have talks on Applied Math...etc. I think that would make for less shuffling around inbetween the talks." "I liked being a member of the sunmarc conference very much. I met a lot of undergraduate students that share the same interest in mathematics as I. I got the opportunity not only to speak with these students but also to attend their talks. It was very valuable experience because I learned not only the material that was presented but also I noticed some organization mistakes that presenters did. So I hope to avoid some of these mistakes in my own future talks. In addition, it was very fun to spend time with UNM students and to socialize with other people at the conference. I am very thankful for the ability to attend this conference." "I very much enjoyed this years SUNMARC.  It is always a delightful experience to learn about what other undergraduates from different parts of the Southwest are doing, and interact with them in an environment centered around math.  Presenting was a very new experience for me, and I felt a great deal of pride to be talking with peers at some length about the things I have learned through my own project.  It is not often that I get to socialize with a large number of other young people interested in Math and Science, so this is always a great treat.   I wanted to thank you, Professor Nitsche for organizing this year after year; it is always intellectually stimulating, and always fun." "SunMARC has always been a great experience for me. It has not only allowed me to explore the possibilities of undergraduate mathematics, it allows me to experience the friendships that can form by a common interest in math. For any student interested in a related I would highly recommend attending a SunMARC event during their undergraduate career." "Last year seeing UNM math majors and math majors from around the region present their research inspired me to pursue undergraduate research of my own. This year giving a talk infront of a room full of undergrads, grad students and professors built my confidence in my research and inspired me to work harder than ever. Sunmarc has given me a vivid understanding of what life as a mathematician will be like, something that keeps me excited about the future. On an non-academic note the long drive and shared experience builds friendships everytime like clock work." "I left Sunmarc with a renewed interest in pursuing an independent study in mathematics. Seeing the range of projects and some of the topics covered helped me put in to perspective what could constitute an undergraduate research project. Seeing what other people are working on and gaining a feel of the wider community of people working on math at the undergraduate level was at once both exciting and re-invigorating for me. I would say that the feeling of excitement for what lies down the road in studying mathematics is what I most took from the Sunmarc conference." Many thanks to Pofessor Bill Velez from UA for organizing this wonderful event! Thanks to all who participated, you make all the difference! Thanks also to our drivers (Ayme, Trace, Jeff, Andrew B) for getting us there, and for Kate for the nice pictures! And many thanks to the National Science Foundation for supporting this endeavour through an MCTP (Mentoring through Critical Transition Points) grant. Get ready : Sunmarc 2013 at UNM !