Mathematical Sciences

Clemson hosted several significant lectures in Mathematical Sciences last year, including the following.

As part of Clemson’s NSF NRT Distinguished Speaker Series, Professor David Higdon of the Social Decision Analytics Laboratory at the Biocomplexity Institute of Virginia Tech spoke in November on “A Small, Biased Sample of Experiences Involving Statistical Inference, Computational Modeling, and Big Data.” Prior to joining Va Tech, he was the group leader of the Statistical Sciences Group at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He also is currently a Co-Editor-In-Chief of the SIAM/ASA Journal on Uncertainty Quantification.

More information about Prof. Higdon can be found here: https://www.bi.vt.edu/faculty/Dave-Higdon.

The second annual Discover Science Lecture (presented in collaboration with the TIGERS ADVANCE Distinguished Speaker Series) featured Professor Rebecca Doerge, Dean Mellon College of Science, Carnegie Mellon Univerity. Dr. Doerge spoke on “The Future of Statistical Bioinformatics and Genomics in the Automated World of Agriculture.” Read more about Dr. Doerge’s lecture here: http://newsstand.clemson.edu/prominent-plant-sciences-researcher-to-visit-clemson-for-distinguished-speaker-series/

It has been a productive year for Clemson’s NSF-funded Research Training Group (RTG) in Coding Theory, Cryptography and Number Theory.

In March, the RTG hosted Gauri Joshi of Carnegie Mellon University for a seminar series on Distributed Storage, Coded Computing, and Rateless Codes. Dr. Joshi is an assistant professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. Prior to that, she was a research staff member at IBM T. J. Watson Research Center and held internships at Google, Bell Labs, and Qualcomm. Her research involves queueing, coding theory, and statistical learning for modeling and performance optimization of computing systems and networks.

Other recent RTG activities are described here.

 

Clemson’s chapter of the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) recently organized several events related to diversity in the Mathematical Sciences.

November 30: A celebration of the life and work of the first female Fields Medalist Maryam Mirzakhani, featuring a lecture by Martin Schmoll

http://newsstand.clemson.edu/student-groups-to-honor-legacy-of-renowned-mathematician-at-nov-30-event/

March 1: Group travel to UNC Asheville to hear “Hidden Figures” mathematical scientist Dr. Christine Darden.

http://newsstand.clemson.edu/clemson-student-group-visits-unc-asheville-to-hear-hidden-figures-inspirational-speaker/

March 8: Presentation “I DO (NOT) Belong: Experiences of Black Women and Girls in Mathematics Education” by Dr. Nicole Joseph of Vanderbilt University. Dr. Joseph spoke about “the experiences of Black women and girls in mathematics.” Dr. Nicole M. Joseph is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Science Education in Vanderbilt’s Department of Teaching and Learning.

Spring 2017 Semester

Luke Giberson (PhD)

Advisor: Kevin James

Dissertation: “A Tour Through Frobenius Distributions of Elliptic Curves”

Currently at the National Security Agency

Brandon Goodell (PhD)

Advisor: Jim Coykendall

Dissertation: “Assessing Non-Atomicity in Group of Divisibility”

Currently at Monero Research Lab/Postdoc. Researcher

 

Sherli Koshy Chenthittayil (PhD)

Advisor: Elena Dimitrova

Dissertation: “Chaos to Permanence: Through Control Theory”

Currently at Postdoc. Fellow/Univ. of Connecticut

Sanjog Kulkarni (MS)

Advisor: William Bridges

Project Defense: “Worker’s Compensation Claims-Data Analysis”

Currently a High School Math Teacher/Aldine ISD/Houston, TX

Drew Lipman (PhD)

Advisor: Michael Burr

Dissertation: “Normal Domains Arising from Graph Theory”

Currently at Hyper Giant (R&D Company)/Austin, TX

Jared Miller (MS)

Advisor: Hyesuk Lee

Project Defense: “Physical Simulation of Fluid Poroelastic Structure Interactions”

 

 

Stephen Peele (MS)

Advisor: Wayne Goddard

Project Defense: “Signal Decompositions via Kernel Computations: Computational Aspects and Connections to Homology”

Currently at Lecturer in Math. Sciences/Clemson University

Md. Sakhawat Hossain (MS)

Advisor: William Bridges

Project Defense: “Methods of Variables Selection for Binary Logistic Regression of Pima Indian Diabetes Data”

Currently at PhD Math Student/Texas Tech. University

Summer 2017

Ryan Grove (PhD)

Advisor: Timo Heister

Dissertation: “Discretetizations and Efficiently Linear Solvers for Problems Related to Fluid Flow”

Fiona Knoll (PhD)

Advisor: Shuhong Gao

Dissertation: “Johnson-Lindenstrauss Transformations”

Currently a Visiting Assistant Prof./Univ. of Cincinnati, OH

 

Lauren Lembcke (MS)

Advisor: Eleanor Jenkins

Project Defense: “Investigation of Decision-Making Methodologies in Water Resource Planning”

Currently a Data Analyst at Regenstrief Institute/Indianapolis, IN

Jing Li (MS)

Advisor: William Bridges

Project Defense: “Data Analysis of Diverse Learning Environment Survey Data”

Currently at Afiniti

Yan Liu (PhD)
Advisor: Chris McMahan

Dissertation: “A Bayesian Generalized Additive Model for Group Testing Data”

Currently an Assistant Prof. of Biostatistics in the School of Community Health Sciences/Univ. of Nevada, Reno

Muhammad Mohebujjam (PhD)

Advisor: Leo Rebholz

Dissertation: “Efficient Numerical Methods for Magnetohydrodynamics Flow”

Currently at Postdoc./Virginia Tech.

Emily Nystrom (PhD)
Advisor: Julia Sharp

Dissertation: “Predictor Omission for Linear and Logistic Regression Models”

Currently at Researcher at SPAWAR/Charleston, SC

Mengcong Ren (MS)

Advisor: William Bridges

Project Defense: “Choosing a Set of Gynecology and Obstetrics Courses for Medical Study in the Greenville Health System”

Currently a Consultant for ERP System

Javier Ruiz Ramirez (PhD)
Advisor: Vince Ervin

Dissertation: “Time-Dependent Stokes-Darcy Flow with Deposition”

Currently at Houston Medical Center/Houston, TX

Yanbo Xia (PhD)

Advisor: Robert Lund

Dissertation: “Parsimonious Space-Time Temperature Series Modeling”

Currently at State Street Bank & Trust/Boston, MA

Tao Yang (PhD)
Advisor: Colin Gallagher

Dissertation: “Adaptive Robost Methodology for Parameter Estimation and Variable Selection”

Currently a Postdoc. & Research Fellow In Bio-statistics at Fred Hutchinson Research Center/Seattle, WA

Fall 2017 Semester

Lauren McIntyre (MS)

Advisor: Chris Cox

Thesis Defense: “Finite Element Methods and a Web Based Calculator for Cross-flow Filtration at Clemson University”

Currently at Data Scientist at NASA Glenn/Cleveland, OH

Aaron Ramirez Flores (PhD)
Advisor: Mishko Mitkovski

Dissertation: “Localization of Generalized Frames in Hilbert Spaces: Symptotic Behavior of Compact and Toeplitz Operators, Sampling and Interpolation, Density Results”

Currently a Full-time Prof. of Undergraduate Math Program at University of El Salvador

Todd Fenstermacher (MS)

Advisor: Jim Coykendall

Project Defense: “Partitioning Parallel Adaptive Geometric Multigrid”

Currently continuing with PhD at Clemson University

Rui Gong (MS)
Advisor: Xiaoqian Sun

Thesis Defense: “Progressive Estimation for Exponential Distributions under Progressive Type-II Right Censored Samples”

Currently continuing with PhD at Clemson University

Kayla Javier (MS)

Advisor: Brian Fralix

Project Defense: “Hysteretic M/M/1 Queue with Random Phase Transitions”

Currently continuing with PhD at Clemson University

Spring 2018 Semester

Kara Stasikelis (PHD)

Advisor: Svetlana Poznanovikj

Dissertation: “Properties of Certain Markov Chains on Linear Extensions of Posets”

Currently Lead Data Scientist/Fifth Third Bank/Cincinnati, OH

April Thomas (PHD)

Advisor:Patrick Gerard

Dissertation: “Estimating Animal Abundance by Employing on External Experiment to Account For Detection and Count Bias with an application to Wintering Ducks in the Mississippi Allovial Valley”

Currently Statistics Coordinator/Clemson University/Clemson, SC

Garrett Dranichak (PHD)

Advisor: Margaret Wiecek

Dissertation: “Robust Solutions to Uncertain Multiobjective Programs”

Currently Senior Systems Research & Analysis Engineerat Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM

Yibo Xu (PHD)

Advisor: Warren Adams

Dissertation: “Convex Hulls, Relaxations, and Approximations of General Monomials and Multilmear Functions”

 

Nicholas Ahlstrom (MS)

Advisor: Brian Fralix

Thesis Defense: “Staffing Strategies of Queueing Systems”

Currently in Dunkirk, NY

John Grant (MS)

Advisor: Robert Lund

Thesis Defense: “Some Simple limit Theorems for the Lindley Process”

Currently continuing with PhD at Clemson University

Summer 2018 Semester

Prabhashi Wickramasingha Jayasekara Mererenchige (PhD)

Advisor: Chris McMahan

Dissertation: “Flexible Models for Analyzing Special-Structured Survival Data Using EM Algorithm”

Amy Grady (PhD)

Advisor: Svetlana Poznanovikj

Dissertation: “Generalizations of Permutation Statistics to Words and Labeled Forests”

Lecturer at the University of Florida/Gainesville, FL

 

Tianhui Wei (PhD)

Advisor: William Bridges

Dissertation: “Variable Selection for Big Data with Sparsity: An Application to GWAS”

Data Scientiest for Lowe’s/Mooresville, NC

Huixi Li (PhD)

Advisor: Jim Brown

Dissertation: “On Some Conjectures in Analytic Number Theory”

Postdoc at University of Nevada/Reno, Nevada

 

Yisu Jia (PhD)

Advisor: Robert Lund

Dissertation: “Models for Count Time Series”

Assistant Professor at University of North Florida/Jacksonville, FL

Mengying Xiao (PhD)

Advisor: Leo Rebholz

Dissertation: “Efficient and Accurate Splitting Methods for Flow Problems”

Visiting Assistant Professor at math Department of College of William and Mary/VA

 

Yinggu Bao (PhD)

Advisor: William Bridges

Dissertation: “Analysis of Time Series Data Embedded in an Experiment Design”

Biostatistician in Austin, TX

Xin Gu (MS)

Advisor: Patrick Gerard

Thesis Defense: “Model-Tree Reinforcement Learning with Neural Networks”

Louisa Granzow (MS)

Advisor: Yuyuan Ouyang

Thesis Defense: “Model-Tree Reinforcement Learning with Neural Networks”

Completing Master’s degree in Bremen, Germany

Lu Sun (MS)

Advisor: William Bridges

Thesis Defense: “Maximizing Airbnb Hosts’ Revenue in New York City”

Currently interviewing for jobs in San Francisco, CA

 

Boyoung Hur (MS)

Advisor: Robert Lund

Thesis Defense: “On Quast – Stationary Distribution of Stochastic SIS Epidemic Model”

Currently continuing with PhD at Clemson University

Jiajing Niu (MS)

Advisor: Andrew Brown

Thesis Defense: “Identification of Differences in Cortical Thickness in Multiple Sclerosis Patients Based on Race”

Currently continuing with PhD at Clemson University

Graduate students Anna Bachstein, Travis Baumbaugh, Todd Fenstermacher, Soumendra Ganguly, and Professor Emerita Renu Laskar had the opportunity to attend the 49th Southeastern International Conference on Combinatorics, Graph Theory, and Computing during March 5-9. Dr. Laskar presented a survey on matchings in graphs, Anna and Todd presented work on perfect domination of chess boards, and Travis presented work associated the Clemson REU during last summer. A great time was had by all, and we look forward to attending the 50th meeting of the conference next year.

Undergraduate Mathematical Sciences students Luna Bozeman, Sloan Nietert, Polly Payne, and Andrew Shore (double-major with Physics) were awarded Savannah River National Laboratory University Scholarships. Only 18 of these scholarships were awarded for the entire university. The awards are for $4,000 and can be used for tuition, fees, books, room and board expenses.

See the articles here and here for more information.

[Photo credit: Clemson University Corporate and Foundation Relations]

Associate Professor Chris McMahan and his coauthors were awarded “Best Paper in Biometrics by an IBS Member” for 2017 by the International Biometric Society and the “ASA 2018 Outstanding Statistical Application Award” by the American Statistical Association for their paper “Hierarchical group testing for multiple infections.” The paper is co-authored with Peijie Hou, Joshua Tebbs, and Christopher Bilder. From the paper abstract: “Tebbs, McMahan, and Bilder (2013, Biometrics) recently evaluated the performance of a two-stage hierarchical algorithm used to screen for chlamydia and gonorrhea as part of the Infertility Prevention Project in the United States. In this article, we generalize this work to accommodate a larger number of stages.”

Congratulations to Chris and his co-authors!

The AWM (Association for Women in Mathematics) Student Chapter is pleased to announce that Dr. Nicole Joseph of Vanderbilt University will be coming to give a talk on inclusivity. Information on this talk can be found below.

Title – I DO (NOT) Belong: Experiences of Black Women and Girls in Mathematics Education

Speaker – Nicole Joseph, Vanderbilt

Abstract – The experiences of Black women and girls in mathematics is an
understudied line of inquiry. We know very little about how they experience mathematics teaching and learning. The aim of this interactive talk is to problematize and interrogate the current circumstances surrounding Black women and girls in mathematics that deny them access, power, participation, and opportunity to develop their mathematics identity.

Date/Time – Thursday March 8th at 5 pm

Location – Kinard 101

Bio – Dr. Nicole M. Joseph is an assistant professor of mathematics and science education in the department of Teaching and Learning. Dr. Joseph was a 2014 National Academy of Education/Spencer Post-Doctoral Fellow and her research interests include mathematics education and equity from an intersectional perspective. She primarily studies Black women and girls, their identity development and their experiences in mathematics and mathematics education. She also studies the role of race, class, gender and
other socially constructed identities in mathematics identity development as well as the history of mathematics education of African Americans (1837-1957).

For more about Dr. Joseph, please see https://peabody.vanderbilt.edu/bio/nicole-joseph

AWM will also be hosting a “Tea Time” with Nicole Joseph at 4pm in O-112. Everyone is welcome.

If you have any questions about this event feel free to email Kayla Javier at kjavier@clemson.edu

One of the most fun presentations I made this term involved speaking about careers in math sciences to a group of high school students from Charleston, whose visit was arranged by Robert Lund. My slides included pictures of flames, a duck, a mouse, and a frozen airplane fuselage. No, I didn’t talk about a bizarre movie plot. I used excerpts from presentations given to MATH 2500, Introduction to Mathematical Sciences, that I’ve taught in the past two fall semesters. Many of the speakers for this class are our alumni who are out making us look good.   Flames are from Dr. Glenn Forney’s talk about his work on fire and smoke modeling at NIST. The mouse, as in Mickey Mouse, is from Dr. Michael Finney’s talk about his work at Disney Analytics where several of our graduates, including Michael, are working. The duck is the Aflac mascot in the presentation by Caroline Cross and Elizabeth Bruner Turner, and the fuselage is from the presentation by Lauren McIntyre, working in a modeling group at NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland where they are testing equipment failure under extreme conditions.   I am fortunate to have taught that class. The speakers share not only their work and their fondness for Clemson, they often impart important lessons to the students (and to me also). For every 5 times that a professor tells a student that communication skills are important, hearing it once from an alum out in the real world has the same effect. I just couldn’t help but say See, I told you so.

Never a Dull Moment comes to mind as I think back over events of recent months. In August, we welcomed our new Dean for the College of Science whom we’re also fortunate to have as a faculty member in our department. Speaking of administrative changes, Dr. Kevin James handed the reins of Coordinator of Graduate Studies over to Dr. Taufiquar Khan in August, and our Coordinator of Instruction, Dr. Judith McKnew, is now doing the same with Dr. Gretchen Matthews, who will be our department COI as of January 1. Dr.’s James and McKnew both served the department well in those roles. It’s great to have such able, dedicated people serving our students. It’s also beneficial to have periodic rotations through administrative positions.   Speaking of which, we’re in the midst of a department chair search. I commend the search committee for putting together a very strong slate of candidates and I’ve enjoyed talking with each one of them and, through these conversations, seeing how much our department is respected by others. One more administrative note:   At our department Holiday luncheon last week, we presented our office manager April Haynes with a certificate and pin commemorating 30 years of service to our department. April does a remarkable job in helping to keep a program with so many moving parts functioning so well.

Here’s a riddle for you:   What do you get when you put faculty from Mathematical Sciences, Engineering and Science Education, General Engineering, Education and Human Development, and the Academic Success Center together in a room? Answer: A well-rounded team that is committed to making our strong set of introductory-level courses for STEM students even better. With moral and (initial) financial support from the office of our Dean and the Provost, we’re developing a proposal for funding a study comparing teaching styles (Traditional, SCALE-UP, Emporium, Hybrid/Flipped).

And now, the obligatory request to remember the department’s need for donations to our Foundation Funds.   If you click on the Giving link on our department website you’ll see several opportunities by which you can help to enhance the ways we accomplish our mission.   I never thought I would be in sales, of any type. But I have no problem promoting our programs. For example, speaking to prospective students is fun because of the great product we have to offer, evidenced by the alumni that come back and visit us, as they do at Homecoming.   This year for Homecoming we tried something new, which I hope becomes a tradition. Dr. Pete Kiessler was gracious enough to let us host our welcome back brunch on his prime tailgate spot. Here’s a picture of some of students, staff, and faculty members who helped out.

I wish you a Very Happy Holiday Season, and I look forward to an exciting and productive New Year for our department.

-Chris­

Cynthia Y. Young* joined the Clemson family this fall as the dean for the new College of Science**. As an interdisciplinary scholar, Young developed mathematical models governing atmospheric effects in laser communication channels. In 2001, she was selected by the Office of Naval Research for the Young Investigator Award and, in 2007, was selected as a fellow of the International Society of Optics and Photonics (SPIE).

During her 20-year career at the University of Central Florida, Young served as the vice provost for Faculty Excellence and UCF Global. She led university-wide initiatives to strengthen, recruit and retain exceptional and diverse faculty and internationalize the university. In 2007, Young co-founded UCF’s EXCEL program, which, in 10 years, has increased STEM majors’ graduation rates by 40 percent. Young served in several other leadership roles at UCF, including the NCAA faculty athletics representative, and associate dean for research in the College of Sciences.

 

Since arriving in August, Young has recruited key faculty and staff members that will not only reinforce and strengthen Clemson as an R1 research university, but will also advance ScienceForward***.

 

Casting her vision towards the future, Young has assembled a diverse team of university scholars, community partners, and alumni to craft ScienceForward. Aligned with ClemsonForward****, ScienceForward will act as a roadmap to guide our strategic priorities and hold us accountable to our aspirations. It will focus on academic, faculty and inclusive excellence, seeking high impact and transformational experiences.

“We have a unique opportunity as a new college to define our collective values, pillars of excellence, and areas of distinctive impact,” said Young. “This opportunity to build a world-class College of Science with our exceptional students, faculty and staff energizes and inspires us all. Together, our collective footprint – life, physical, and mathematical sciences – has the power to be both locally relevant and globally impactful when we harness our talents to improve lives.”

 

Young earned a Bachelor of Arts in education (secondary mathematics) from the University of North Carolina (1990), a Master of Science in mathematical science from the University of Central Florida (1993), a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington (1997) and a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from the University of Washington (1996).

— * weblink: https://www.clemson.edu/science/contact/index.html

 

** weblink: https://www.clemson.edu/science/index.html

 

*** weblink: https://www.clemson.edu/science/about/scienceforward.html

 

**** weblink: https://www.clemson.edu/forward/