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Departmental Highlights

A look at faculty highlights from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics

2024


August
Professor Anna Spagnuolo will direct the OU Math Jumpstart Program, consisting of two fun week-long summer camps established to help ensure incoming students who are enrolled in ‘elementary algebra’ in the upcoming fall gain math skills and learn effective study habits necessary to pass the course and have a positive and successful OU experience.

July- August
Professor Anna Spagnuolo will direct the OU Math Corps Summer 2024 Program from July 8 to August 2. The OU Math Corps is a free and fun outreach program for middle and high school students from Pontiac and surrounding areas, and it is expected to serve 90 kids this summer to teach them mathematics and serve as a second loving family.

Professor Eddie Cheng will run the Oakland University Summer Mathematics Institute in the Summer of 2024, tentatively scheduled from July 1 to August 9. The Summer Mathematics Institute is a free opportunity for bright and gifted pre-college students to interact with university faculty and each other, take some challenging math classes that earn college credit, and have fun in an academic atmosphere. If you are interested in applying, please contact Professor Cheng at [email protected].

2023

January
Distinguished Professor Meir Shillor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, has been awarded the prestigious (competitive) title of Specialist in the Fulbright-Nehru Program. He will visit the Assam Don Bosco University in Assam, India during the month of August, 2024. His main research will be on a mathematical epidemiological model for the optimization of cancer treatments.

In addition he will provide instruction on epidemiological models and will mentor graduate students.

February
Professor Ravi Khattree is elevated to the rank of "Distinguished Professor".

April
Professor Anna Spagnuolo has been recognized as one of the state's three recipients of the 2023 Michigan Distinguished Professor of the Year award, which recognizes the outstanding contributions and dedication exhibited by the faculty from Michigan’s 15 public universities to the education of undergraduate students.

July
Professor Ravi Khattree, Randy Westerick, Vijayan Sugumaran, and Fabia Battistuzzi were awarded an NSF-NRT grant ($2M) for the next 5 years. They will be working with biology, math, and business faculty and students to promote data science training and research at OU. Oakland University News article.

July-August
Oakland University Math Corps was held.

August
The DMS ran the first "Math Jump Start Program" in Summer 2023 for two one-week sessions offered to interested students enrolled in MTH 0661 in Fall 2023. The Math Jumpstart program ran for two sessions, with 14 and 18 students completing the first and second weeks, respectively. When comparing the pre- and post-exams, students improved by over 32% growth in the first camp and over 51% in the second camp. All students showed dramatic overall improvement and reported that they would recommend the Math Jumpstart program to their peers.

September
Professors Jones and Toeniskoetter were awarded the URC Faculty Research Fellowship award for 2023.

November
Our graduate student, Huong Tran, received an award in Interdisciplinary Research in Tools for Science, Education, and Personalized Learning from Sigma Xi.

2021

December

Professors So and Horvath were awarded the URC Faculty Research Fellowship award for 2022

October

Professor Horvath is the winner of the 2021 MFEM Workshop Visualization Contest. His fluid-rigid body simulation depicting a rotating turbine was judged on the novelty of the approach, notability of the application, and aesthetic quality.

Special Lecturers Jane Mullally and Thomas Vanhouten have been nominated for a 2021-2022 Teaching Excellence Award.

September

Professor Cesmelioglu was awarded an NSF award for 2021-2024. (For more details, visit our Research page.)

April

Professor Horvath hosted the Virtual 2021 SIAM Great Lakes Section Meeting on April 24th. For more information, visit the meeting's website.

January

Fox 2 News segment featuring Professor Eddie Cheng

2020

October

Special Lecturers Kari Wasen and Nicole Dambrun, Professor Ogunyemi and Associated Faculty Paul Weinberg  have been nominated for a  2020-2021 Teaching Excellence Award.

April

Chris Melekian received the 2019 Most Outstanding Dissertation Award in the STEM category.

March

Special Lecturers  Nicole Dambrun and  Herb Vasquez have been nominated for a 2019-2020 Teaching Excellence Award.

Professor Horvath and Special Lecturer Pawel Marcinek were nominated for a 2020 Inspiration Award.

January

Special Lecturer Sherri Zimmerman was recognized by Oakland University student-athletes and athletic department staff as a 2020 Impact Player.

2019

September

Professor Shillor will give a plenary talk at the PCM-CMM Conference in Kraków, Poland.

Department of Mathematics and Statistics

Mathematics and Science Center, Room 368
146 Library Drive
Rochester , MI 48309-4479
(location map)
phone: (248) 370-3430
fax: (248) 370-4184


Hours:
Monday–Friday: 8:00–11:59 a.m. and 1:00–5:00 p.m.