Keith Mellinger, associate professor and chair of the Department of Mathematics, had his article “Spreads, arcs, and multiple wavelength codes” published in the journal Discrete Mathematics. In addition, he presented the talk “Blocking Semiovals and Cryptology” as an invited speaker at the Combinatorics, Algebra and Geometry Seminar at George Mason University in November.
Three UMW students presented results of their research projects at the fall regional meeting of the Mathematical Association of America held at Christopher Newport University in November. Catherine O’Doherty presented “Explanation of the Matrix Exponential,” a work based on her project under the direction of Dr. Julius Esunge. Ryan Vaughn’s presentation, titled “On the Contractibility of Finite coH-Spaces” extends his work with Dr. Randall Helmstutler which began during the Summer Science Institute of 2011. Finally, Kelly Scott presented “Anti-Blocking Sets” based on her honors project currently in progress under the direction of Dr. Keith Mellinger.
Julius Esunge, assistant professor of mathematics, had his article “Density Dependent Utilities with Transaction Costs” published in the December issue of the journal Communications on Stochastic Analysis.
Leo Lee, assistant professor of mathematics, published two articles this fall. His article “Error Estimates of Stochastic Optimal Neumann Boundary Control Problems” appeared in the SIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis (http://epubs.siam.org/sinum/resource/1/sjnaam/v49/i4/p1532_s1?isAuthorized=no).
Dr. Lee’s second article, “Finite Element Approximations of Stochastic Optimal Control Problems Constrained by Stochastic Elliptic PDEs,” appeared in the Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022247X10006062).
UMW mathematics major Kathryn Dillinger won second place for her poster presentation at the Shenandoah Undergraduate Mathematics and Statistics (SUMS) conference held at James Madison University on Saturday, October 29. Her poster, titled Profiting with Options Using the Black-Scholes Equation, details her work completed during the Summer Science Institute of 2011 under the guidance of Dr. Leo Lee.