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College of Arts & Sciences
Texas A&M University Mathematics

Directed Reading Program (prior semesters)

DRP Activities - Spring 2023

  • Kick-off event (January 19 at 5:15 [undergrads] and 5:30 [grad students] in Blocker 306)
  • Welcome Event (Wednesday, February 15 at 5:00 pm in Blocker 302)
  • A presentation on "How (not) to give a talk", plus a tutorial on Overleaf and Beamer (Tuesday, March 28 at 5:30pm in Blocker 302)
  • Final presentations by undergraduate participants, DAY ONE (Tuesday, April 25 at 5:10 pm in Blocker 302)
  • Final presentations by undergraduate participants, DAY TWO (Thursday, April 27 at 5:30 pm in Blocker 628)
The Spring 2023 participants and their mentors:
  • - Andrew Hoyt (mentor: Derek Wu )
  • - Oli Oney (mentor: Erik Davis )
  • - Sydney Mason (mentor: Jose Lopez )
  • - Samantha Brink (mentor: Tim Bates )
  • - Christian Flewelling (mentor: Bennett Clayton )
  • - Celeste Mills (mentor: Xin Su )
  • - Adam Garsha (mentor: Kanan Gupta )

DRP Activities - Fall 2022

  • Kick-off event (August 30 at 5:30 pm)
  • A presentation on "How (not) to give a talk", plus a tutorial on Overleaf and Beamer (Wednesday, October 19 at 5:30 pm in Blocker 150)
  • Final presentations by undergraduate participants (November 29 and 30)
The Fall 2022 participants and their mentors:

DRP Activities - Spring 2022

  • Kick-off event (Jan. 25 at 5:15 pm [mentors] and 5:30 pm [mentees] - at the benches outside of Blocker, second floor)
  • A presentation on "How (not) to give a talk", plus a tutorial on Overleaf and Beamer (Thurs. Feb. 17 [5:00 pm] - Blocker 117)
  • Final presentations by undergraduate participants (Tues. Apr. 26 [around 5:00 pm] and Wed. Apr. 27 [around 5:00 pm] - Blocker 117 [and a nearby classroom])
The Spring 2022 participants, topics, and mentors were:
  • Timothy Bates - Computational Topology (mentor: Tushar Pandey )
  • Oliver Carver - Derivative Pricing in Discrete Time: American and European Options (mentor: Yongming Li )
  • Luke Duane-Tessier - Eigenvalue Interlacing on Quantum Graphs (mentor: Marshall King )
  • Lindsey Goodwin - An Introduction to p-adic Numbers (mentor: Erik Davis )
  • Wesley Halstead - Dots and Lines (mentor: Kanan Gupta )
  • Daehee Han - Turing Machine and Halting Problem (mentor: Joshua Goldstein )
  • Logan Knudsen - Group Actions and Minimal Homeomorphisms (mentor: Alex Weygandt )
  • Sarah Malinowski - An Introduction to Knot Theory (mentor: Andrea Barton )
  • Devon Maywald - An introduction to Potential Flow And Analytic Functions (mentor: Mansi Bezbaruah )
  • Jack Molenhouse - Introduction to Complex Dynamics (mentor: - Tanuj Gupta )
  • Savannah Pinner - Generating FUNctions (mentor: Agniva Dasgupta )
  • Lauren Porter - The Deutsch-Jozsa Algorithm (mentor: Valentia Fragkiadaki )
  • Johnathan Purser - Axiomatic Music Theory (mentor: Tushar Pandey )
  • Inaara Tejani - Category Theory and the Yoneda Lemma (mentor: Aatmun Baxi )
  • Dilan Trivedi - The Fourier Series with Applications (mentor: Derek Wu )
  • Samuel Valle - Philosophy of Mathematics (mentor: Matthew Faust )
  • Iker Vita - Selected Topics From Differential Topology (mentor: Jose Lopez )
  • Aldus Verastegui - Time Complexity of Algorithms (mentor: Jordan Hoffart )
  • Yahan Xu - Introduction to Machine Learning (mentor: Arpan Pal )

DRP - Fall 2021

The Fall 2021 participants, topics, and mentors were:
  • Steven Danen - Decomposition of Minkowski Sums (mentor: Elise Walker )
  • Spencer Ellis - Anti-de Sitter Space (mentor: Priyanga Ganesan )
  • Vishwam Khapre - Introduction to Knot Theory (mentor: Tanuj Gupta )
  • Megan Novak - Introduction to the Analysis of Algorithms (mentor: Benjamin Warren )
  • Massaro Ochoa (mentor: Tushar Pandey)
  • Jesse Peterson - Using Algebraic Curves to Solve Problems in Number Theory (mentor: Erik Davis )
  • Austin Pritchett (mentor: Josiah Owens )
  • Jonah Robinson - Topological Crystals (mentor: Matthew Faust )
  • Mitchell Sisk (mentor: Siddharth Sabharwal )
  • Collin Stafford - Introduction to Graph Theory and its Applications Through Search Algorithms (mentor: Zhaobidan Feng )

Organizers (2021-2022)

The 2021-2022 DRP was organized by Jordy Lopez and Angelique Morvant, with faculty mentor Anne Shiu.

DRP Activities - Spring 2021

  • Kick-off event (Jan. 21 at 5:00 pm [mentors] and 5:15 pm [mentees] - * online via Zoom *)
  • A presentation on "How (not) to give a talk", plus a tutorial on Overleaf and Beamer (Thurs. Mar. 25 [5:00 pm] - * online via Zoom *)
  • Final presentations by undergraduate participants (Tues. Apr. 20 [5:00 pm] and Thurs. Apr. 22 [5:00 pm] - * online via Zoom *)
The Spring 2021 participants and their mentors were:
  • Tessora Stefan (mentor: Jordy Cheyem Lopez Garcia ) - Topological Proof of the Infinitude of Primes
  • Christian De Los Santos (mentor: Alexander Ruys de Perez ) - Neural Codes and Max Intersection-Completeness
  • Austin Pritchett (mentor: James O’Quinn ) - Becoming the King of Games with Mathematics
  • Fang Shu (mentor: Tushar Pandey ) - Linear Algebra in Finance and Risk Management
  • David Cruz (mentor: Erik Davis ) - Casinos and Games of Chance: Applications of Probability and Expected Value
  • Wells Hero (mentor: Tanuj Gupta ) - Whitney Embedding Theorem
  • Jackson West (mentor: Zhaobidan Feng ) - An Introduction to Combinatorial Reasoning

DRP Activities - Fall 2020

  • Kick-off event (Aug. 25 at 4:45pm [mentors] and 5:00 [mentees] - * online via Zoom *)
  • A presentation on "How (not) to give a talk" (Mon. Oct. 26 [5:00] - * online via Zoom *)
  • Final presentations by undergraduate participants (Mon. Nov. 16 [5:00pm], Tues. Nov. 17 [5:45 pm], and Mon. Nov. 23 [6:15 pm] - * online via Zoom *)
The Fall 2020 participants and their projects were:
  • Alex Behne (mentor: Tolulope Oke)
  • Alexis Foster (mentor: Jennifer Zhu) - Applications of Linear Algebra in Biomathematics
  • Michael Grantham (mentor: James O’Quinn) - Chaotic Dynamical Systems
  • Callie Lansing (mentor: Alexander Ruys de Perez) - Local Obstructions and Nonconvexity in Neural Codes
  • Yeojoon Moon (mentor: Priyanga Ganesan) - Stability Analysis of Linear Systems
  • Mark Olvera (mentor: John Weeks) - A brief overview of how graphs and groups can interact
  • Nicole Peltier (mentor: Zhengye Zhou) - Fourier Analysis on Finite Groups
  • Robert Todora (mentor: Mansi Bezbaruah) - Cryptography with Elliptic Curves
  • Tanvi Vishwanath (mentor: Lauren Snider) - An Epidemiological Application of Percolation Theory
  • Jackson West (mentor: Konrad Wrobel) - ZFC and the Continuum Hypothesis

Organizers (2020-2021)

The 2020-2021 DRP was organized by Kari Eifler, Angelique Morvant, and Pablo Sanchez Ocal, with faculty mentor Anne Shiu.

DRP Activities - Spring 2020

  • Kick-off event (Jan. 21 at 5pm [mentors] and 5:30 [mentees] - Blocker 220)
  • A presentation on "How (not) to give a talk" (Thursday, April 2 at 5pm - * online via Zoom *)
  • Final presentations by undergraduate participants (April 20 and 23 and 27 at 5pm - * online via Zoom *)
The Spring 2020 participants and their topics:
  • Soohee Bae (mentor: Mahmood Ettehad) - Data driven framework for dynamical system identification. This project resulted in the following manuscript submitted for publication: On Vertex Conditions In Elastic Beam Frames: Analysis on Compact Graphs
  • Dillon Berry (mentor: Joshua Goldstein) - The Foundations of Probability
  • Alexander Crabtree (mentor: Erik Davis) - An Introduction to Simple Continued Fractions
  • Riley Decker (mentor: Zheng Kuang) - Groups Isomorphic to a Proper Subgroup
  • Thomas Dexter (mentor: Petr Naryshkin) - Isometries of the Hyperbolic Plane
  • Alicia Duran (mentor: Kelly Maluccio) - TBA
  • Thomas Flowers (mentor: Matthew Faust) - Quantum Graphs
  • William Frendreiss (mentor: Agniva Dasgupta) - A new ordering of the rational numbers
  • Jaqueline Gonzalez (mentor: Priyanga Ganesan) - One- and two-dimensional flows
  • Daniel Kimble (mentor: John Weeks) - Quantum Error Correcting Codes
  • Logan Perry (mentor: Amudhan Krishnaswamy-Usha) - Markov Chains and Their Applications
  • Sofia Pineda (mentor: Mansi Bezbaruah) - Solvability and Algorithms
  • Neel Reddy Pochareddy (mentor: Tushar Pandey) - Convex Optimization: From theory to the Endless Applications
  • Fengqiao Wang (mentor: Haoshen Li) - Compute Geodesic Using Heat Method
  • Jackson West (mentor: Changningphaabi Namoijam) - Basics of P-adic Analysis
  • [Anonymous student] (mentor: Byeongsu Yu) - Random Walks and Catalan Numbers

DRP Activities - Fall 2019

  • Kick-off event (Sept. 3 at 5pm)
  • A presentation on "How (not) to give a talk" (Wednesday, November 6 at 5 pm in Blocker 624)
  • Final presentations by undergraduate participants (Monday, November 25 and Monday, December 2 at 5pm in Blocker 220)
The Fall 2019 participants and their topics were:
  • William Frendreiss (mentor: Aleksandra Sobieska) - Triangulations and Properties
  • Yun Lun (mentors: Priyanga Ganesan and Quyuan Lin) - Unsupervised Learning: K-Mean Clustering and Principle Component Analysis
  • Patrick Maedgen (mentor: Changningphaabi Namoijam) - Elliptic Curve Cryptography
  • Cristian Meraz (mentor: Konrad Wrobel) - Amenability and the Growth of Groups
  • Olumayowa Olowomeye (mentor: Byeongsu Yu) - An introduction and application of Topological Data Analysis
  • Isaac Ray (mentor: Pablo Sanchez Ocal) - Introduction to Group Theory
  • Claudio Romero (mentor: Alex Weygandt) - Quasi-Isometries Through Milnor-Schwarz Lemma
  • Braden Yosko (mentor: Weston Baines) - Introduction to the Theory of Computation

Organizers (2019-2020)

The 2019-2020 DRP was organized by Kari Eifler and Taylor Brysiewicz, with faculty mentor Anne Shiu.

DRP Activities - Spring 2019

  • Kick-off event (Jan. 16 at 5pm)
  • A presentation on "How (not) to give a talk" (Wed. Apr. 3 at 5pm in Blocker 605 AX)
  • Final presentations by undergraduate participants (Wed. and Thurs. April 24 and 25 at 5pm in Blocker 220 [Wed.] and 628 [Thurs.])
The Spring 2019 participants and their topics were:
  • Maryam Almaskin (mentor: Ayo Adeniran) - Introduction to Graph Theory
  • Melissa Cruz (mentor: Weston King) - Non-Crossing Partitions
  • Jackson Haynes (mentor: Oguz Gezmis) - The Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture
  • Trevor Hollister (mentor: Wei-Lun, Tsai) - The Zeroes of the Riemann Zeta Function
  • Bailey Johnson (mentor: John Griffin) - Set theory Applications
  • Brent Loving (mentor: Weston Baines) - Introduction to deep learning and neural networks
  • Yifei Liang (mentor: Jianyan Ye) - An Introduction To Markov Chains
  • Kate McCollough (mentor: Nida Obatake) - Topology and the Neural Code
  • Nathan Medrano (mentor: Eric Tovar) - Hyperbolic Partial Differential Equations and Methods
  • Jonathan Reed (mentor: Sheagan John) - Transcending Rationality: A Discussion of Transcendental Numbers in Mathematics
  • Guadalupe Vallers (mentor: Pablo Sanchez) - Classical Theorems in Affine Space
  • James Woodcock (mentor: Priyanga Ganesan) - Convergence of Series in Banach Spaces

DRP Activities - Fall 2018

  • Kick-off event (Wed. Sept. 5 at 5pm in Blocker 605AX)
  • A presentation on "How (not) to give a talk" (Wed. Nov. 7 at 5pm in Blocker 605 AX)
  • Final presentations by undergraduate participants (Wed. Nov. 28 at 5pm in Blocker 220)
The Fall 2018 participants and their topics were:
  • William Brett Boyer (mentor: Quyuan Lin) - "Some mathematical theories to fluid dynamics"
  • Chase Colbert (mentor: Wei-Lun Tsai) - "The distribution of prime numbers"
  • Tyson Mailloux (mentor: Weston Baines) - "Survey of machine learning With applications"
  • Kristopher Rakestraw (mentor: Konrad Wrobel) - "Percolation theory"

Organizers (2018-2019)

The 2018-2019 DRP was organized by Kari Eifler and Eric Tovar, with faculty mentor Anne Shiu.