Six math majors present at UNCG conference

Elon University was well-represented at the conference, which garnered a total of 169 participants from 35 universities across the nation. Elon’s students represented 20% of all undergraduate attendees.

The conference was organized by a small committee of UNCG faculty along with two non-UNCG faculty, one of whom was A.L. Hook Assistant Professor Chad Awtrey.  It featured two plenary talks; one dealing with applications of 3-D printing in mathematics, and the other discussing statistical modeling in the field of biology.  

Additionally, 49 presentations were given by undergraduate and graduate students. Elon students accounted for 22 percent of all undergraduate talks, more than any other institution.

The six students who presented are listed below in alphabetical order, along with the titles of their presentations and their respective mentors.

• Taylor Cesarski ’17: “Symmetries of Degree 7 Polynomials” (mentored by Awtrey).
• Peter Jakes ’17: “Degree Six Polynomials and Their Solvability by Radicals” (mentored by Awtrey and Associate Professor Alan Russell).
• Michael Keenan ’16: “Galois Groups of Quartic Polynomials: Computational Efficiency” (mentored by Awtrey).
• Kelly Reagan ’17: “A Mathematical Model of the Spread of Dengue Fever Incorporating Mobility” (mentored by Professor Crista Arangala and Associate Professor Karen Yokley).
• Sara Rodgers ’16: “Modelling the Optimal Cost of Prevention Methods of Dengue Fever” (mentored by Arangala).
• Jesi Weed ’16: “Galois Groups of Degree 15 p-adic Polynomials” (mentored by Awtrey and Assistant Professor Kristen Mazur).

Weed has published her work (co-authored with Rodgers and Nicole Soltz ’17) in an international research journal. Jakes’ work (co-authored with Robin French ’15) has been accepted for publication.  

The other four students are preparing their work to be submitted for publication.