It has been a while: from Yoda to trigs

Our SIAM student chapter recently hosted an insightful talk by a mathematician from Brigham Young University. They delved into the mathematical principles behind animating Yoda from Star Wars, which piqued the interest of our students. Additionally, they discussed the mathematical techniques used to create more realistic snow in Frozen, which fascinated the audience. The speaker also distributed math-themed T-shirts, adding a nice touch to the event. And of course, we enjoyed some pizza together afterward. These experiences are helping to build a sense of community among our students. The recent exam on exponential and trigonometric equations highlighted the importance of practice for success. During our discussions on Yoda's animations and the creation of realistic snow in Frozen, students were engaged in understanding the technical aspects behind these iconic cinematic elements. With spring break now here, I look forward to grading and pursuing research opportunities before returning to class.

Students lost track of time on Tuesday! Ants are not controversial...

This last class, we focused on solving exponential and logarithmic equations and discussing the properties of log functions to facilitate solving such equations. We concluded by delving into exponential growth models and illustrating population growth/decay through examples. During a group conversation, one student mentioned reading about the maximum population Earth can sustain. Another student countered, stating there wasn't enough supply. This sparked a thought in me; I vocalized that numerous areas worldwide remain unpopulated while cities suffer from overpopulation, leading me to question the prevailing alarm regarding population growth. Further discussion ensued when another student argued that there isn't enough food to support the population, prompting another to interject that there's actually a considerable amount of food wastage and potential to produce more with current technology. This led to a discussion on GMOs. What began as a precalculus class morphed into a thought-provoking conversation, which I found quite amusing. I then prompted them to consider an ant population problem to steer clear of controversy. This elicited laughter from the students. Working in groups, they successfully formulated equations to determine the time required for the initial ant population to triple. I typically assign students numbers and reorganize the class accordingly into groups. Observing their engrossment in discussing ideas was remarkable, especially considering that students often anticipate leaving promptly. They even stayed an extra 11 minutes! Their enthusiasm truly made my day!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/09/19/ants-population-20-quadrillion/

BYU- City tech undergraduate data science collaboration workshop, the visit, the reflections

Last week, on Thursday, March 14th, and Friday, March 15th, we had the pleasure of receiving Professor Mark Hughes from Brigham Young University (BYU) and the six students who are participating in the undergraduate data science seminar that we are running together. This was the first time that the students from BYU and our three City Tech students would meet up in person. On Thursday, Professor Hughes gave an excellent talk on how AI has been used to aid in proving mathematical propositions. We had more than 40 people attending his talk, sponsored by the Math Club on Pi Day! Most of the audience were students, and they asked very intriguing questions about neural networks and other machine learning topics. Following that, we continued with our workshop where students engaged in a neural net tutorial conducted by Professor Hughes. Students were very engaged in trying different things on the Python notebook and interacting with their peers. The next day, I gave an intro to autoencoders and showed them the general parts of a notebook I acquired for LiDAR data exploration and how to apply PCA and autoencoders to LiDAR. My student, Charlotte, presented a great summary of her NLP team project from last year, which opened very exciting discussions on Topic analysis and depression in college students. We had lunch and then brainstormed about data and topics in order to define three different teams and the passions and interests of each. I was in charge of the NLP group where many possible topics were discussed, from US elections to depression in university professors, and lastly took the direction of working on social media comments to analyze how social media affects young women's self-esteem. I was excited to see the passion of the team members since they seemed to be really concerned about the mental health issues online interactions are producing in women. The overall experience was very satisfying. I had the opportunity to hear how one of the students expressed great concern about how online communication is affecting relationships and the emotional distress of these interactions. I had an insightful conversation with one of the students while walking back from our outing in DUMBO. He mentioned that he would like to have more in-person experiences like this, where he can learn very concrete things while discussing ideas with his peers and having breaks to enjoy the social interactions. He says most of his week is about going to college and from college to work back and forth. I was happy to see that we were able to create such a positive learning experience. On my side, coming from another generation, I personally observe a dehumanization in online interactions, including emails, text messages, and apps of all kinds. This is a personal opinion, but I wonder if many people are substituting building relationships based on personal interactions with online interactions. It seems that the pandemic played an important role in this, but I wonder if the foundations of meaningful relationships can be built on these very shaky grounds. The final part of the workshop will take place in May when City Tech students and I will be visiting BYU. I am so looking forward to seeing their final presentations and enjoying Utah!

Starting Spring 2024 semester. The little man is back!

I just noticed this draft has been siting here for days: It's been a few weeks since we returned to campus, and I'm still in the process of learning my students' names. However, the joy of being back, interacting with both students and colleagues, has brought a sense of home that energizes me, making me temporarily forget life's challenges. As an introvert-extrovert, diving into teaching allows me to explore my more outgoing side. This semester, I find myself solely focused on teaching precalculus, thanks to a teaching release that provides me with additional time. With this newfound time, I'm aiming to finalize some pending manuscripts. In these initial weeks, I've managed to learn several students' names and have already encouraged them to break the ice with each other. We've formed little teams to discuss precalculus problems collaboratively. Our topics have ranged from real numbers, understanding functions, and exploring graphs, to delving into domains, ranges, and transformations of basic functions. Our most recent discussion involved the composition of functions. During our exploration of functions, I revisited the analogy of the little man walking on the x and y-axes. The students chuckled, and I acknowledged that many find this visualization helpful when grasping domain and range from a graph. So, the little man has made a comeback to aid in understanding the intricacies of functions. I introduced the online graphing calculator, Desmos, and we dived into various graphs, exploring the tool's capabilities. Students were able to locate coordinates for x and y-intercepts, extract tables with values, and identify local extrema. As we progressed, we began experimenting with applying horizontal and vertical transformations to graphs from what I playfully referred to as the "alphabet of graphs." In contemplating future lessons, I'm considering the creation of a fun animation featuring the little man to visually explain the determination of the domain and range of graphs. Should I?

Overdue reflection on Fall Semester 2023. Never give up!

This post is long overdue, and today I want to share a different side of myself with my students. More than just the mathematician who delves into axioms, proofs, calculus, and other intriguing mathematical concepts, I recently visited Brigham Young University to give a talk. This presentation, unlike my usual technical talks, was part of Math Circles within Dr. Michael Dorff's course. In the academic world, mathematicians are often perceived as intellectual beings effortlessly navigating life's challenges. However, mathematics is a human endeavor, and I decided to reveal a vulnerable side of myself, discussing the personal struggles in life, family dynamics, and the hurdles of job hunting, particularly after completing PhD and postdocs. This career, like many STEM paths, goes beyond mere intelligence; it requires patience, persistence, hard work, grit, and an unwavering commitment. I shared a poignant moment from my time as a visiting postdoc at ICERM (Brown), when I was still searching for a job to support my family. Many students approached me afterwards, expressing gratitude for sharing this personal story. The journey includes facing rejection, especially during on-campus interviews, and I emphasized the importance of growing from rejection, using it as fuel for personal growth. Dealing with rejection is a crucial aspect of this journey. I encouraged my students and colleagues to remember their worth, to never give up, and to understand that all professors and colleagues have encountered challenging times. This resonated with my students, fostering a disciplined approach throughout the semester. I aimed to influence them positively, emphasizing the importance of directing their efforts towards things they can control, rather than succumbing to distractions like excessive social media or constant cellphone use, which I referred to as mere noise. I urged them to cultivate independent thinking and form their own opinions, even if they differ from the majority. In essence, my message is clear: never give up and practice compassion. While possessing strong skills is advantageous, being a compassionate and supportive team player sets one apart. In the face of challenges, remember – you are amazing, and you will emerge stronger. Never forget that both success and resilience are part of every academic journey.

DataCamp classroom for my classroom :)

I want to give a shoutout to the DataCamp classroom team for their fantastic support in making my classes more engaging, all the way back to when I was teaching a Programming Languages course at Yeshiva University in 2020. I also suggested the use o DataCamp classroom for the ANMIGAs workshop this last summer at IPAM-UCLA. The participants worked on their programming background before the workshop started and it helped them jumpstart with the tutorials. I've shared this cool idea with my colleagues at City Tech, and it's working wonders. I suggested making a simple 4-hour certificate course a mandatory homework for our students to help them kickstart their Python programming skills. It's awesome to see that many of them are now using DataCamp in their classes. Students really enjoy it, and it's a great confidence booster. I often advise my students to share their DataCamp "Intro to Python" certificates on LinkedIn if they have an account. It's a fantastic way to get them ready for the job market! I also encourage them to complete the free 6-month DataCamp Data Science track certification. It's available for my classes for six months, which is a big help. I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to the DataCamp team for their assistance in resolving any issues we faced when setting up our online classroom. I'm planning to explore even more of their resources in my classroom regularly. Just to be clear, this isn't a sponsored post. I'm genuinely appreciative of how DataCamp has made teaching and learning more interactive and beneficial for my students.

Building little communities in the classroom

It's been a while since my last post, and we're well into the middle of the semester with more exciting math to explore in our classes. I wanted to kick things off by sharing a wonderful classroom moment from this week's group activity. It's fascinating how we can pick up valuable teaching tips from professional development workshops and see them make a big difference in our students' behavior and confidence. Let's dive into a typical Monday at 10 am in my precalculus class. We were diving into the world of polynomials, learning how to find their zeros, discover linear factors, and tackle polynomial factoring one step at a time. But here's where things got interesting: I decided to ask the students to count out loud and remember their numbers. Starting with "1," one student, the next one with "2," and so on until "7." We'd then restart the counting. The students with the same number became a group. This simple activity worked wonders in breaking the ice between students who hadn't interacted much throughout the semester. Let me take you to Group #7, which had three members: David, Angel, and Michelle. Right from the start, they were in deep discussion, checking calculations, and taking notes. When I approached them to ask about their progress, David gave a general answer but pointed out that Michelle had all the detailed calculations in her notebook. As time was running out, I asked if one of them wanted to tackle questions 1 and 2 on the whiteboard. With enthusiasm, they chose Michelle to take the stage. She confidently explained the procedure, I offered a few corrections, and the whole group was fully engaged. Members from other groups took turns at the whiteboard. I revisited Group #7 and asked if one of them wanted to tackle the final question on the board. Angel stepped up, and his teammates eagerly checked everything he wrote. Suddenly, Michelle rushed to the board to lend a hand and quietly corrected a mistake with her marker. At that moment, I exclaimed, "This is what teamwork is all about!" I expressed my desire to see more of this collaborative spirit in our class—students having each other's backs, helping one another learn and succeed. I encouraged the rest of the class to observe and learn from this heartwarming anecdote. This experience demonstrated how we can uplift each other as individuals. I shared this story with one of my mathematician friends, who felt that the term "empowering" is often overused and misused. However, she believed this anecdote was a perfect example of true empowerment. It was, without a doubt, the highlight of the week!