Every Alleghenian completes a Senior Project in his or her major field—a significant piece of original work, designed by the student and a faculty advisor, that demonstrates to employers and graduate schools the ability to complete a major assignment, to work independently, to analyze and synthesize information, and to write and speak persuasively.
Some noteworthy Senior Projects in mathematics:
- “Application and Analysis of Burnside’s Theorem”
- “A Simple Solution to Euler’s Genoan Lottery Problem”
- “Computing Jones Polynomials for Knots and Links Using Braid Words”
- “The Sylow Theorems”
- “Three Theorems of Kakutani and von Neumann and Their Application to Economics”
- “The Probability and Moment-Generating Functions for Elementary Patterns of Coin Tossing”
- “Dirichlet Norms of Composition Operators Generated by Univalent Full-Mappings”
Other Research
- “A Value for Zero-monotonic Partially Defined Games,” student-faculty summer research project funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
- Students often are involved in one-semester independent projects at research centers such as Oakridge, Brookhaven, Woods Hole, and Argonne.
Student Achievements
- Approximately four students annually attend at least one meeting of a professional mathematical association.
- Two students were recently accepted into Undergraduate Summer Research Programs—one at the University of Tennessee and the other at Northern Arizona University. One presented a paper on his research results at the Joint American Mathematics Society–Mathematics Association of America meeting in San Francisco.
- Senior mathematics majors often present their Senior Projects at professional mathematics conferences.
- As a result of a summer NSF Student Research Grant, an Allegheny student had two papers on finite group theory published in a refereed journal that accepts only papers containing original results.
- Several students have attended the George Washington University Summer Program for Women in Mathematics, for talented undergraduate women contemplating graduate school in the mathematical sciences.