Conference Summary
Conference Program and Campus Map
Registration and Abstract Submission
Registration Link - Fees are as indicated below.
University Faculty: $50 (non-MAA Member), $40 (MAA Member)
University Student: $20
Non-University Guest: $20
High School Teacher: $20
Ask about student scholarship opportunities to help offset travel and lodging!
Lodging Recommendations
The hotels listed below are within walking distance of the conference:
There are many other accommodations in St. George which are not too far by vehicle.
Student Activity Descriptions
Calculus Bee
The Calculus Bee is a FUN Mathematical event to see who can compute calculus problems the fastest. All the problems are at the level of an undergraduate calculus courses. It is open to all undergraduate students who are currently enrolled in or have completed a calculus course.
Who: Undergraduate students who have completed Calculus 1
What: Two students will be called out and one problem will be given to the students. The students have to complete the given problem within the time limits. The student who completed the problem by providing all the steps in the first place will be qualified for the next round. Problems will start easier and progress to harder problems for each round.
When: Saturday March 25, 2023 (Time: TBA)
Where: Students will be asked to show their work on whiteboard.
Why: To show off your calculus skills and have fun with students from other colleges.
For more info, please contact Dr. Md Sazib Hasan (mdsazib.hasan@utahtech.edu) or Dr. Buna Sambandham (buna.sambandham@utahtech.edu)
Register for the Calculus Bee (Link)
Keynote Abstracts
Leonard Carapezza (Southern Utah University)
Title: Rational Approximations, Continued Fractions and the Fibonacci Sequence
Abstract: Suppose you're a plant that wants to grow leaves to absorb sunlight and you have to worry about the leaves overlapping and blocking the light to other leaves. Being a plant, the instructions to grow leaves has to be simple: every leaf grows a fixed angle from the previous around a central stalk. Rational angles always result in perfect overlap of leaves. Irrational angles will never result in perfect overlap, but if the angle is close to rational then this results in close to perfect overlap. What you want is an angle that is in some sense the "most irrational" of all angles. Thinking about this problem naively naturally leads to the consideration of continued fractions which allow us to make meaningful the notion of when one irrational number is "more irrational" than another. Taking this to its limit produces the golden ratio and its attendant Fibonacci sequence, which perhaps explains why these numbers appear in the growths of pine cones and sunflowers etc.
Talea Mayo (Emory University, Georgia)
Title: Data meets model: how observations are used to improve prediction and simulation of hurricane storm surge
Abstract: Coastal ocean models are used for a variety of applications, including simulation of tides and hurricane storm surges. These models numerically solve the shallow water equations, which assume large horizontal length scales relative to the vertical length scales, and allow depth integration of the Navier-Stokes equations. The inherent uncertainties in coastal ocean models are a result of many factors, including this modeling assumption, numerical discretization of the resulting equations, and uncertain model inputs and parameters. In this talk, I will discuss how we have used statistical data assimilation methods for state and parameter estimation to quantify and reduce model uncertainties.
Adriana Salerno (Bates College, Maine)
Title: The stories we tell
Abstract: Stories are how we make sense of our world and ourselves. In a mathematics classroom, whether we notice it or not, we tell stories -- about what mathematics is and who it’s for. Additionally, each person in that classroom (teachers and students) brings in their own stories and experiences with mathematics. In this talk, I will share how acknowledging and making room for different stories has shaped my classroom and my own growth as an educator. And of course, there will be stories.