Graduate student receives CETL Outstanding Teaching Award

April 5, 2018

student receiving award

Phanuel Mariano, a graduate student in mathematics, received the 2018 Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award from the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL). This is a university-wide award, including the regional campuses, that honors Teaching Assistants who have gone well beyond the call of duty to affect the student learning and experience for undergraduate students at UConn.

The Outstanding Graduate Teaching Awards were established in 1999 to recognize teaching assistants who demonstrate excellence in the classroom or laboratory. Nominees for this award must demonstrate effective instructional skills, possess excellent interpersonal skills, provide practical feedback, and contribute to the development of the instructional program.

Above, Phanuel Mariano, center, is pictured at the CETL awards reception, with math department head Ambar Sengupta, left, and Phanuel’s advisor and math department associate head, Maria Gordina, right.

Congratulations, Phanuel!

Lan-Hsuan Huang Huang and Damin Wu receive appointments at IAS; Prof. Huang awarded Simons and von Neumann Fellowships

March 25, 2018

Professors Lan-Hsuan Huang and Damin Wu have been appointed as members of the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton during the academic year 2018-2019. The membership will provide support for Professors Huang and Wu to spend a sabbatical year participating in the IAS special year program on Variational Methods in Geometry.

Professor Huang’s tenure at IAS will be supported by a von Neumann Fellowship. The highly selective von Neumann fellowship program supports early-career mathematicians as members at IAS for a year.

In addition, Professor Huang is one of the 2018 Simons Fellows in Mathematics. The Simons fellowship will provide additional sabbatical funding to support Professor Huang’s research proposal “Geometry of General Relativity,” allowing her to extend her sabbatical leave to the full academic year 2018-2019.

Major Exploration Week

February 10, 2018

For most days of the week February 12-16, the math department will have events that are open to students deciding on a major, in order to help them determine if math would be a good fit. These include courses that are open to visitors and panel discussions or presentations by faculty.

February 13th

12:30-1:45: Two courses open to visitors are Math 2110 – Multivariable Calculus in Arjona 105 and Math 2710 – Transition to Advanced Mathematics in Monteith 321.

3:00-4:00: A faculty panel discussion What is math research? in Monteith 313.

February 14th

11:15-12:05: A course open to visitors is Math 3265 – Applied Mathematical Logic in Monteith 225.

February 15th

12:30-1:45: A course open to visitors is Math 3094 – Mathematics of Encryption in Monteith 314.

4:00-5:00: A faculty panel discussion Exploring UConn math degrees in Monteith 313.

February 16th

2:00-3:00 PM: A faculty presentation Math: What is it good for? in Monteith 226.

Graduate student designs tool to raise colorblindness awareness

January 29, 2018

David Nichols, a graduate student in mathematics studying mathematical logic, has published a web application that shows users whether a given color palette is accessible to viewers who are colorblind. It uses simulations of colorblindness to allow instructors with normal color vision to see in low-dimensional color spaces and choose the colors they use to communicate to their students accordingly.

You can try out the tool yourself.