The Eighth Annual Michigan Undergraduate Mathematics Conference was held Saturday, October 22 at the University of Michigan-Flint. More than 110 faculty and students attended the day-long conference.
Twenty-one students from colleges across Michigan, and one from Furman University in South Carolina presented talks across a wide spectrum of topics. From applied topics like "A Computational Study of Sharkskin Instability" to theoretical topics like "Negative Bases", students enjoyed sharing their research experiences.
In addition to the student talks, there were presentations by mathematics faculty regarding graduate program and REU opportunities. Mathematics graduates working now in industry presented their perspective on how industry and actuarial sciences use their employees' skills and open job opportunities for math majors.
Ed Burger, mathematics department chair at Williams College, gave the keynote address, entitled "Conjugate Coupling: The Romantic Adventures of the Quintessential Quadratic." The students laughed a lot and learned a lot during the presentation, which characterized when two conjugate quadratics have the same "irrational" characteristic. After lunch, seven brave teams of students competed for software and book prizes at the game of "hackenbush".
A National Science Foundation Regional Undergraduate Mathematics Conference grant from the MAA was awarded to UM-Flint to support the conference this year, making it possible to have the conference "registration free". A complete list of talks and sponsors is available at www.umflint.edu/departments/math/mumc2005.
Do not hesitate to contact the Math Department at UM-Flint if you need any help planning to host this conference in the coming years.
Ricardo Alfaro, UM-Flint
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