Darin Stephenson | Hope College | Department of Mathematics

Hope College mathematicians have been doing research with undergraduate students since the early 1990s. Therefore, undergraduate research is a longstanding part of the culture in our mathematics department. This page details the projects students have undertaken under my direction, and the resulting publications and presentations.

Summer 1998: Geoffrey Dietz and Ryan Higginbottom
Summer 1999: Andrea Douglass, Scott Mihalik and Courtney Fitzgerald
Spring 2001: Lee Kiessel and Brian Yurk
Summer 2001: Abigail Reck, Stephanie Wankier and Lee Kiessel
Summer 2003: Andrew Wells, Erika Frugoni and Nina Miller
Summer 2005: Shova KC and Anna Madras

Details about the students involved, the project, and related papers and talks are given below.

Summer 1998: Geoffrey Dietz and Ryan Higginbottom
- Paper: Quantum 3-spaces which embed weighted quantum planes, Rocky Mountain Journal of Mathematics 35 (2005), 415-444.
- Presentation: 1999 Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Antonio, TX.
- Support: NSF-REU grant
- Geoffrey Dietz graduated from the University of Dayton, and completed his PhD in commutative algebra at the University of Michigan. He is now a member of the mathematics faculty at Gannon University.
- Ryan Higginbottom graduated from Bucknell University, and completed his PhD in algebraic topology at the University of Virginia. He is now a member of the mathematics faculty at Washington and Jefferson College.
Summer 1999: Andrea Douglass, Scott Mihalik and Courtney Fitzgerald
- Paper: Expected areas of randomly generated triangles of fixed perimeter, Pi Mu Epsilon Journal, 11, No. 7, 2002, pp. 365-371.
- Presentation: 1999 Hope College Mathematics Colloquium.
- Presentation: 1999 PEW Undergraduate Research Conference, Chicago, IL.
- Presentation: 2000 Joint Mathematics Meetings in Washington, DC.
- Support: NSF-REU grant
- Andrea Douglass graduated from Hope College and is working in insurance in Columbus, OH.
- Courtney Fitzgerald graduated from Niagara University. She also attended the MASS program at Penn State University, and currently teaches middle school mathematics in Massachusetts.
- Scott Mihalik graduated from the University of Michigan and works in nursing at the University of Michigan Medical Center.
Spring 2001: Lee Kiessel and Brian Yurk
- Research in growth of algebras as an independent study course.
- Presentation: 2001 MAA Annual Meeting, Michigan Section.
- Lee Kiessel is attending graduate school at the University of Wisconsin in physics, and Brian Yurk is attending graduate school at Utah State University in mathematical biology.
Summer 2001: Abigail Reck, Stephanie Wankier and Lee Kiessel
- Paper: Noncommutative quadratic algebras with 2 generators (jointly with Darin Stephenson and Bryan Yurk).
- Presentation: 2001 Hope College Mathematics Colloquium.
- Presentation: 2002 Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Diego, CA.
- Support: NSF-REU grant
- Lee Kiessel graduated from Hope College, is attending graduate school at the University of Wisconsin in physics.
- Abigail (Reck) Brandsen graduated from Grand Valley State University.
- Stephanie Wankier graduated from Utah State University, and is now teaching junior high school mathematics in Utah.
Summer 2003: Andrew Wells, Erika Frugoni and Nina Miller
- Paper: Counting quadratic forms of rank 1 and 2, Pi Mu Epsilon Journal, to appear.
- Presentation: 2003 Undergraduate Research Mini-conference at Central Michigan University.
- Presentation: 2003 Michigan Undergraduate Mathematics Conference at Grand Valley State University.
- Support: NSF-REU grant
- Erika Frugoni graduated from Loyola-Marymount University in 2004, and is pursuing graduate study in mathematics at the University of Colorado.
- Nina Miller graduated from Valparaiso University in 2004, and is working for an educational publishing firm in South Carolina.
- Andrew Wells graduated from Hope College in 2005, and will pursue graduate study in mathematics at Iowa State University.
Summer 2005: Shova KC and Anna Madras
- Paper: Randomly generated triangles whose vertices are vertices of a regular polygon, Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal 7, No. 1, 2006.
- Presentation: 2005 Michigan Undergraduate Mathematics Conference at University of Michigan-Flint.
- Presentation: 2005 Undergraduate Research Mini-conference at Grand Valley State University.
- Support: NSF-REU grant
- Shova KC graduated from Hope College in 2007 and works as a research assistant at the National Opinion Research Center in Chicago.
- Anna Madras graduated from Drury University and is teaching high school mathematics in Missouri.



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Darin Stephenson's Undergraduate Research