Math Symposium

4:00-4:50 Session

Report on the Albertson Conjecture  

Speaker: Maggie Willette

Synopsis:  The Albertson Conjecture is a mathematical hypothesis that attempts to find a lower bound for the crossing number of a graph. These have been historically difficult to calculate, so Albertson, along with many other mathematicians, attempt to find a relationship between the crossing number and another area of graph theory, which in this particular case, is the chromatic number of that graph. 

4:00-4:50 p.m. | Dec. 10, 2024 | Alumni Bldg 302

Speaker bio: Maggie Willette, born in Metro Detroit, began studying mathematics at Bob Jones in 2021. She is currently pursuing a bachelor's degree in mathematics, planning to graduate in December. Her two favorite aspects of math are graph theory and statistical analysis. Aside from her studies, she enjoys playing soccer with friends and her sisters and practicing her violin and euphonium.

5:30-6:20 Session

Branching from Decision Trees to Random Forests 

Speaker: David Stodola

Synopsis:  Random Forest is an ensemble machine learning algorithm that builds multiple decision trees and combines their predictions to improve accuracy and prevent overfitting. It operates by constructing many trees using random subsets of the data and random subsets of features at each split. For classification tasks, it uses majority voting to make predictions, while for regression, it takes the average of individual tree predictions.

5:30-6:20 p.m. | Dec. 10, 2024 | Alumni Bldg 302

Speaker Bio:  David Stodola, a native of the New England woods, graduated from Trinity Christian High School in 2020 with a strong passion for applied mathematics and modern physics. He is currently a senior pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics at BJU. David's aspirations include becoming a data analyst. Beyond his academic pursuits, David enjoys a range of hobbies including dirt biking, powerlifting, and playing pickleball. 

6:30-7:20 Session

Predicting with Confidence: Non-parametric Bootstrapping  

Speaker: Aria Milam

Synopsis:  Sometimes in statistical analysis we run into the problem of not having a large enough sample size. This can make inference difficult. Bootstrapping provides a solution to this problem and allows us to create confidence intervals that would otherwise be impossible. This method utilizes a technique of creating a sampling distribution parameter estimates by resampling the known sample hundreds or thousands of times. Although counterintuitive, bootstrapping is a robust method with many applications.

6:30-7:20 p.m. | Dec. 10, 2024 | Alumni Bldg 302

Speaker Bio:  Aria Milam is from Houghton Lake, Michigan. She is a senior mathematics major at BJU and is graduating in December. She enjoys data analysis and is passionate about using it to develop solutions to real-world problems. She is looking forward to pursuing a career as a data analyst.  

Spring 2025 Symposia

• Expert Panel: Success in a Challenging Field
  Thursday, Feb. 6
  6:00-7:30 pm | AL 210
  
  
• Speed Quizzing (Math Edition)
  Thursday, Mar. 6
  6:00-7:30 pm | AL 210

• Colloquium: speaker TBA
  Thursday, April 3
  6:00-7:30 pm | AL 210
  
  
• Undergraduate Research in Mathematical Sciences Mini-Conference
  various talks by BJU math majors
  3:30-7:30 pm | AL 302

November 7, 2024  --

Tripp Lawrence

Title:  Quantifying Rubisco Polymerization within Carboxysomes

Synopsis:  Rubisco has been found to spontaneously polymerize into higher-ordered structures such as chains and lattices within alpha-carboxysomes. This research explores the interactions and polymerization of proteins through liquid-liquid phase separation. This type of biological and biophysical process is a quickly growing field of study which has deep implications in how biological structures can spontaneously form. Whereas previously, best analytical methods involved visually qualifying which rubiscos participate in these polymers, the purpose of this study was to consistently quantify any participating rubisco molecule.  This talk will address the use of mathematical techniques from probability/statistics, three-dimensional lattice theory, graph theory, graphical analysis, and computer techniques from data structures and program optimization to quantify the biophysical phenomena of protein interaction and polymerization.

6:00-7:30 p.m. | Nov. 7, 2024 | Alumni Bldg 210

Invited Speaker

Speaker Bio:  Tripp Lawrence is a BJU student double-majoring in biochemistry/molecular biology and mathematics. He has a deep love for both pure and applied mathematics as well as the many fields of STEM, which is a large reason he has pursued such a wide range of STEM disciplines in both his degrees. He plans to go to graduate school and pursue a degree in pharmaceutical data science, with a focus in medical bioengineering. He believes that the various fields of STEM can be used to make life better for everyone, and wants to further our understanding of biology, biochemistry, and medicine through mathematics. He pursued an internship at Purdue University this past summer in Structural Biology and Biophysics, and his findings using mathematics, computer science, and biophysics will be the subject of his talk.

September 5, 2024 -- 

Not-Knots Puzzling Challenge  

The first symposium of the 2024-2025 academic year (held September 5) was a math logic challenge.  Nine teams of students attempted to solve six problems in a dynamic setting in order to earn pieces of a tile-puzzle. The goal was to solve the tile-puzzle before time ran out.   The problems included coded messages, logical teasers, a board game (maybe?), and a clues-hunt through the building.   Several teams successfully completed the challenge with the first and second place teams finishing at nearly the same time.    

Special thanks to faculty member Donna Lawrence for preparing this event.    

2024-25 MSS Kickoff

Title:  Apollonian Gaskets

Abstract: Apollonius of Perga (circa 240 BC – 190 BC) For any three circles in a plane that are pairwise tangent to each other, two new circles can be constructed that are each tangent to all three original circles.  These configurations were introduced by Apollonius of Perga (circa 240 BC – 190 BC) and are known as Apollonian Gaskets.  Using an iterative process to construct new generations of circles tangent to the existing circles generates interesting fractals; this process is known as an Apollonian Circle Packing.  Ideas used to study Apollonian gaskets and circle packings touch on both geometry and number theory and are very attractive topics in modern mathematics.  This talk will survey some interesting ideas and discuss some historic as well as recent developments on the topic.

3:30pm, Dec. 5, 2023 | AL 302

Speaker Bio:   Dabin Song is from South Korea and is a senior majoring in mathematics at Bob Jones University. 

Title: Who are You Most Like? Data Analysis by Machine Learning

Abstract:  In data analysis, it is often desirable to find subgroups of individuals who share similar characteristics and to gain insight by observing the different behaviors of those subgroups. Machine learning algorithms provide a controlled and efficient way to classify individuals into subgroups by similar characteristics. Two of these techniques, k-clustering and regression trees will be discussed.  Detection of atypical subpopulations and visualization of clusters/groupings will be demonstrated.  

4:15pm, Dec. 5, 2023 | AL 302

Speaker Bio:  David Stodola, a native of the New England woods, graduated from Trinity Christian High School in 2020 with a strong passion for applied mathematics and modern physics. He is currently a senior pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics at BJU. David's aspirations extend to graduate school, where he plans to specialize in data analysis—a field he believes holds the key to unlocking valuable insights in various industries. Beyond his academic pursuits, David enjoys a range of hobbies including dirt biking, fishing, and playing pickleball. 

Title:  A Computational Approach to the Reconstruction of Bidegreed Graphs on Twelve Vertices

Abstract:  One of the largest open problems in graph theory, the Reconstruction Conjecture, asks whether a graph is uniquely identifiable by the collection of subgraphs derived from a that graph through the deletion of elements in a specified way. Due to the complexity of the conjecture, portions of the problem have been proven using exhaustive search algorithms. This talk showcases one such algorithm tests the conjecture for a specific class of bidegreed graphs. Both benefits and shortcomings of the approach will be discussed.

5:30pm, Dec. 5, 2023 | AL 302  

Speaker Bio:  Ethan House is currently finishing a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics at Bob Jones University and is looking forward to beginning graduate work next fall.

Title:  How to Build a Computer That Generates No Heat: A Visual Survey of Reversible Computing

Abstract:  Reversible computing is a paradigm of computing wherein every output of a computational process can be used to deterministically obtain the process’s inputs. Although the idea is simple, reversible computing has the fascinating consequence that a reversible computation loses no information, and therefore generates no physical heat. This is known as Landauer’s principle, and its initial discovery in 1960 led to an abundance of research in the field of reversible processes since it implied that a completely reversible computer could revolutionize energy efficiency in computing. Over the past few decades, computer scientists have made significant progress developing a cohesive theory of axiomatic reversible logic, reversible circuitry, reversible computation, and reversible programming. This talk presents a survey of the motivation, processes, and logic of reversible computing using visual examples.

 6:30pm, Dec. 5, 2023 | Alumni Bldg 302

Speaker Bio: Peyton McGinnis was born in Charleston, SC and began attending BJU in 2020. He is working towards completing a B.S. in computer science with a focus in mathematics. Throughout his time at BJU, he has been involved in many on-campus organizations and completed a semester internship at SermonAudio. He is passionate about research, user interface design, and abstract mathematics.

November 2, 2023  --

Owen Coss, Ph.D.

Title:  Synchronization of Coupled Oscillators

Abstract:  Systems of coupled oscillators are prevalent throughout nature and engineering, and understanding their equilibria is important for understanding the synchronization behavior these systems exhibit. One of the most popular models of such systems is the Kuramoto model. This talk will focus on the Kuramoto model with "rank one" coupling between the oscillators. Exploiting the structure of the equations for this case yields a new formulation of the model that is easier to solve. Furthermore, the properties of this new formulation allow for an efficient algorithm to find all of the equilibria in much less time than general solving methods.

6:00-7:30 p.m. | Nov. 2, 2023 | Alumni Bldg 210

Invited Speaker

Speaker Bio:  Owen Coss was born in Greenville and attended Bob Jones since elementary school. He earned his B.S. in Mathematics with a minor in Computer Science in 2015. Afterwards, he attended North Carolina State University where he earned a Ph.D. in Algebraic Geometry in 2020. Even though his primary study was math, he had several programming related summer internships along the way.  Owen works as a member of the Continuous Product Engineering team at NetApp, Inc.   

October 5, 2023    -- 

Auria Morrow

Title:  What Can Tech Software Do for You?

Description:   In this interactive session, we will examine the variety of mathematical and data management software available for commercial use today. These are the programs used by technical roles in every industry, and understanding their use will give you a leg up on the competition in the job market. 

6:00-7:30 p.m. | Oct. 5, 2023 | Alumni Bldg 210

Invited Speaker

Speaker Bio:  Auria Garland Morrow graduated with a Mathematics degree from BJU in 2016. She subsequently earned her Master’s Degree in Applied Statistics from USC while working as an analyst at Truist Bank. She is currently a Business Information Engineer at Truist and lives in Greenville with her husband Corey. She is passionate about distilling math and big data into insights for a non-technical audience.