Student Places at Math, Statistics Conference

By STEPHANIE LIPSCOMB

On Saturday, Oct 22., University of Mary Washington math major Kathryn Dillinger won second place in the Shenandoah Undergraduate Mathematics and Statistics conference (SUMS) at James Madison University.

Dillinger presented a poster titled “Profiting with Options Using the Black-Scholes Equation.”

The event “is an annual one day conference promoting undergraduate research in mathematics, statistics, and their applications. The conference will feature contributed undergraduate research talks, invited talks aimed at a general undergraduate math audience, a poster session, a graduate school and math careers panel, and a math competition workshop for high school students,” according to the SUMS website.

Dillinger made the poster under the instruction of Assistant Professor of math Leo Lee during the Summer Science Institute this past summer.

According to Dillinger, there were eleven posters judged.

“Mine was awarded the second/third place,” Dillinger said. “They did not specify a specific poster as second and the other as third. Just the 1st place winner was specified.”

“I felt that the SUMS conference was a great experience for me and will help prepare me for future conferences,” Dillinger added. “I plan to go to Boston in January to the Joint Mathematics Meeting, which is a major math conference, and present a joint poster with Rebecca Presor, who worked with me this summer under the direction of Dr. Lee.”

According to Dillinger, her award was the book, A History of Pi.

Photo by Marie Sicola.