Information about abstracts and conference schedule will be posted here when available.
| Description |
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In addition to student presentations, the conference features two invited faculty
plenary talks, a panel on career opportunities in government, industry, and academia, networking opportunities at lunch (provided to all participants) and a drawing for door prizes at the end.
| Information |
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Location: 7800 York Road, on the campus of Towson University in Towson Maryland.
Time: 10:00 AM - 5:30 PM
Registration starts at 9:30am, along with coffee and pastry refreshments.
Free lunch provided for all registered participants. Stay until after the final plenary talk for a chance to win one of 5 door prizes (including board games and, like every year, a flying drone!)
Please fill out the online registration form if you are planning to attend.
Organizers: Sergiy Borodachov (sborodachov@towson.edu), Alexei Kolesnikov (akolesnikov@towson.edu), Nathan McNew (nmcnew@towson.edu), Hervé Nganguia (hnganguia@towson.edu)
| Plenary Speakers |
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Bio: Dr. Glenn Hurlbert is Professor and Chair at the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics of Virginia Commonwealth University. Before joining VCU in 2014, Dr. Hurlbert held the President's Professor position at the School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences of Arizona State University. He has published over 80 articles, chapters, and books, and received the Editor's Choice Best Research Paper Award from the Journal of Discrete Mathematics. Dr. Hurlbert's research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Security Agency, the J. William Fulbright Program, the Simons Foundation, the Mathematical Association of America, the Eisenhower Foundation, the Banff International Research Station, and Motorola.
Professor Hurlbert is a Fulbright Scholar and Arizona State University (ASU) Emeritus President's Professor who has won the Distinguished Teaching Award from the Southwest Section of the Mathematical Association of America, the Charles Wexler Teaching Award from the ASU School of Mathematics & Statistical Sciences, the ASU Faculty Achievement Award for Student Mentoring, the Professor of the Year Runner-Up from the ASU Parents Association, the Texty Award from the Text and Academic Authors Association.
Title: Pebbling Problems and Paradigms
Abstract: There are many areas in graph theory and optimization that could all go under the umbrella of Moving Stuff Around in Graphs — graph pebbling is one of them; domination, network optimization, cops and robbers, max flow, zero-forcing, and graph burning are among other examples. In graph pebbling we encounter a configuration of pebbles on the vertices of a graph and are allowed to make moves by removing two pebbles from some vertex and placing one pebble on one of its neighbors. For a specific target vertex we ask if it is possible to place a pebble on it after a sequence of pebbling moves. From here, a range of invariants (pebbling numbers of various types) can be explored, each measuring what size of initial configuration is required to reach a target. We will introduce the audience to this intriguing topic, share a few nice techniques and results, and leave you with a few problems to ponder.
Plenary Speaker 2: Dr. Manil Suri, UMBC
Bio: Manil Suri is a distinguished university professor of mathematics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. His field of research is finite element methods, in which context he has served as an associate editor for the SIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis. He has also served as a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, for which he has written several op-eds on mathematics, India and LGBTQ rights. His book, The Big Bang of Numbers: How to Build the Universe Using Only Math, which explains mathematics to both mathematicians and non-mathematicians, was a finalist for the 2023 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award.
Title: The Finite Element Method: Engineering Advances Through Mathematical Research
Abstract: The Finite Element Method (FEM) is one of the most powerful and commonly used tools for mathematical modeling, with applications in such diverse fields as mechanical engineering, medicine, film animation and even shoe manufacturing. Although invented by engineers, the FEM has benefited immensely from the efforts of mathematicians who have cast the method in a theoretically sound framework, thereby providing improvements and many new insights. In this talk, we will highlight such FEM symbiosis between engineering and mathematics to show how mathematical research works in real life, and the successes (and failures!) a research mathematician might expect in terms of commercial applications of their results. We will also describe some of the new advances and challenges that AI is bringing. REFERENCE: This talk is partially based on an article for general readership the author has published in Scientific American magazine.
| Contributed Talks |
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| Career Panel |
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- Kristin Lloyd (MS student in Data Science & Analytics at Georgetown University)
- Mariam Adegbuyi (Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins)
- Steven White (Operations Research Analyst, US Navy, Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul of naval aircraft)
- Dr. Glenn Hurlbert (Professor and Chair, Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, Virginia Commonwealth University)
- Natalie Browlowe (Graduate Student, University of Massachusetts Amherst)
| Logistics |
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Parts of the conference may also be available on Zoom. Links to participate will be emailed to registered participants.
Last modified 30 October 2025.