Twenty times in the past, undergraduate students have gathered in Huntsville, Tyler, San Antonio, Beaumont, Austin, Nacogdoches and "the cloud" to talk about math, play games, and network with students and faculty from around the state of Texas. This year, we will return to Nacogdoches for the 21st anniversary of the TUMC!
The next TUMC will be November 6th and 7th hosted at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX.
On Friday evening, the events include a social event with food and math games from 6:30 PM until 8:30 PM. On Saturday, we will have two plenary talks, contributed students talks, the grad school fair, and panel discussions on topics relevant to undergraduate research in mathematics.
Traveling undergraduate students who register before October 12th are eligible for the conference supported hotel rooms for the night of November 6th.
Travel support funds from the conference will be available. More information will be included in the registration form.
Registration costs:
Registration costs can be paid by mailing a check, paying online at this link, or paying with either cash or check at check-in for the conference.
The abstract submission deadline is October 26, 2026.
We will be using three hotels on the south side of Nacogdoches.
Our invited speakers are Dr. Cornelia Van Cott from University of San Francisco and Dr. Victor Moll from Tulane University
Cornelia Van Cott is a professor of mathematics at the University of San Francisco. A native of Indiana, Cornelia earned her bachelor's degree in mathematics from Wheaton College and her PhD in mathematics from Indiana University. Most of Cornelia's research focuses on topology, specifically knots and surfaces in 3 and 4 dimensions. She also likes the challenge of working with undergraduate students on research projects unrelated to topology. Cornelia enjoys teaching courses throughout the math curriculum during the school year. In the summertime, she enjoys teaching courses on fun, non-standard math topics at MathPath, a national residential summer camp for middle schoolers who love mathematics.
Title: The Change-Making Problem
Abstract: when cashiers give us change, we prefer to receive it in as few bills and coins as possible. In the United States, cashiers get this done using the so-called greedy algorithm. But will the greedy algorithm work with a different coin system? This leads to a question in discrete mathematics called the change-making problem. Over the last 50 years, mathematicians have laid the groundwork for understanding this problem, but lots of opportunities for new investigation remain.