High School Students Conduct Math Research At Texas State

Aug. 18, 2010 - PRLog -- Twenty four high school students chose to dedicate their summer to original mathematics research at Texas State University – San Marcos.  These students were all participants of the 21st annual Honors Summer Math Camp (HSMC), conducted by the Mathworks program at Texas State University.  Advanced participants have the opportunity to work with math faculty on research at the level of undergraduate or graduate projects.  Texas State faculty who were research mentors included professors Eugene Curtin, Nathaniel Dean, Weizhen Gu, Xingde Jia, Qiang Zhao, Alex White, and Jian Shen – all of the Department of Mathematics.  Professor Gary Beall from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry also mentored a project.  In addition, Professor Edward Early from St. Edward’s University mentored a group of students.

During six weeks in the summer, graphs were drawn, numbers were crunched, and new theories were created, all by young students.  Alexandra Ilic and Kevin Tian, both second time participants of the HSMC, were guided by Professor Dean on their project, “Power Dominating Sets of Specific Classes of Graphs.”  The two investigated mathematics in the field of graph theory.  Their work has real-world applications for networks, such as electrical grids and internet traffic monitoring.  Finding the minimal number of measurement devices required to monitor an entire power grid falls into the realm of graph theory mathematics.  Other projects looked into Game Theory, Number Theory, and Image Smoothing Algorithms.

Many of these research projects will be submitted to the Siemens Competition in Math, Science, and Technology, with results to be announced on October 22.  Top prizes in the Competition include a $100,000 college scholarship.  In 2009, a team of three students from the HSMC won first place overall in the Competition.  However, these students all realize that the real reward is the joy of discovery and creating new frontiers in mathematics.  Kevin Tian notes of his experience, “After six weeks of work on this project, we not only gained a lot of insight into the project, and the theory it described, but also made our own extensions in the field.  Students with solutions would present their differing approaches to solving the problem, and everyone would work together to gain a better understanding of the subject.  The Honors Summer Math Camp isn't about competition; it's about learning together.”

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About Mathworks
Mathworks is a math education center at Texas State University – San Marcos with core programs of Summer Math Camps, Teacher Training and Curriculum Development. The Mathworks Junior Summer Math Camp and Honors Summer Math Camp are nationally recognized as one of the premier programs in the country. For more information about the camps, and other Mathworks programs, see http://www.txstate.edu/mathworks.