HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Nineteen students spent six weeks of their summer break participating in programs related to applied mathematics, or math used to solve real-world problems.
The students included 11 from the University of Guam, six from Guam high schools, and two from universities in the mainland United States, who all participated in the National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates and the Young Scholars Research Experience in Math, hosted by the UOG Division of Mathematics and Computer Science and Virginia Commonwealth University.
Game theory, graph theory and code theory were the concurrent undergraduate and high-school-level programs in focus.
Research topics included analyses of the Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome outbreak on Guam and developing an error-correcting magic trick modeling a game-theoretic approach to disease transmission, while building essential skills in problem solving, communication and computer programming, according to a release from UOG.
Kelvin Lee, an incoming senior at St. John’s School, said he had a positive experience participating in the programs.
“I met so many wonderful people and learned so many interesting new things from it,” he said. “I learned coding theory. … With this, we were able to create a magic trick, where even if an audience member lied twice about a number they were thinking of, we could catch the error and guess the correct number.”
The programs, which normally run for eight weeks, were reduced to six weeks due to Typhoon Mawar, which meant students had to familiarize themselves with several math concepts and programming tools in a shorter period.
‘Interaction and sharing’
Incoming Academy of Our Lady of Guam senior Amber Pineda said she appreciated the group setting and the active communication and interaction throughout the program.
“It took a while for me to really soak in what I learned from the lecture, (but) the group setting aspect helped me solidify my knowledge on a bunch of different topics,” she said.
This summer was also the first time the funding National Security Agency Mathematical Sciences Program accepted recruitment of students from off-island colleges and universities, including the University of Connecticut and Arizona State University.
Yuan-Jen Kuo, a student researcher at UConn, touted her newfound knowledge gained through the programs.
“I learned a lot more about the research process,” said Kuo. “We constantly critiqued our work, asked if what we found made sense in the real world, and used those findings to go back and adjust our model.”
The experience also gave the students the chance to network and connect with mentors from seven different mathematics professors.
Leslie Aquino, chair of UOG’s Division of Mathematics and Computer Science, said the program “provided another level of interaction and sharing of college and cultural experiences among our students.”
Nineteen students participated in summer research experience programs at the University of Guam.
