Undergraduate
Two Saint Michael's students participate in competitive math research summer program in Texas
The program, pre-Research Experience for Undergraduates, accepted 19 college students from all over the country
Contact Information:
Buff Lindau, Public Relations
802.654.2536
blindau@smcvt.edu
Erika Kirslis of Rockland, Mass., and Emily Pratt of Essex Junction, Vt., rising sophomore mathematics majors at Saint Michael's College, were selected to participate in the highly competitive pre-REU summer research program at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. The program, pre-Research Experience for Undergraduates, running from June 29 to July 31, accepted 19 college students from all over the country to pursue a program titled "Signal and Image Analysis." Participants attend lecture-demonstrations in the morning and pursue research experiments
in the afternoon, working full days, and some nights.
"This program is really a valuable opportunity for undergraduate students," said Dr. George Ashline, Saint Michael's professor of mathematics, and adviser to both students. "They will get a sense of what doing mathematics research is all about, and will definitely get a flavor for the application of mathematics in the real world."
The program is described on their website: "As technology becomes more sophisticated, the need for efficiently handling vast amounts of data has grown tremendously. This pre-REU program will introduce the basic ideas behind Fourier analysis and wavelets, the two main tools used to analyze signals and images. As time goes on, the students will break up into groups and work on projects involving real-world examples."
Emily Pratt figured out how to illustrate Pascal's Triangle by doing a coin flipping experiment in one of her initial projects. She flipped four coins 100 times, and three coins 200 times to see the probability of getting all the different combinations of heads and tales. Predicting that outcome, she explained, is one of the applications of Pascal's Triangle. She said most participants had taken more math than she had, but she's "quickly catching on."
Ms. Pratt said, "We also worked on figuring out how automated answering systems work. For example, machines ask you to say what department you want to be put through to and then they put you through to that department. We are looking at how it is possible for a machine to recognize more than one person saying the same word - mainly looking at word recognition."
Erika Kirslis is also participating in the intensive math research program.
Among the real world applications of the math they are studying is the use of Fourier analysis to filter out the crowd noise in a recording of a concert. Wavelets, also used to analyze signals and images, could be used to isolate and eliminate all the "pop" in an audio file. The program focused on ideas behind Fourier analysis, and wavelets, in signal and image analysis.
"It may be rare that two students from one college are selected for such a program," Professor Ashline said. "We had an excellent student, Brittany Baker, in the pre-REU program last year," he said. "That may have helped with our good luck this year."
Saint Michael's College, founded in 1904 by the Society of St. Edmund and headed by President John J. Neuhauser, is identified by the Princeton Review as one of the nation's Best 368 Colleges. A liberal arts, residential, Catholic college, Saint Michael's is located just outside of Burlington, Vermont, one of America's top college towns and less than two hours from Montreal. As one of only 270 institutions nationwide with a prestigious Phi Beta Kappa chapter on campus, Saint Michael's has 2,000 full-time undergraduate students, some 500 graduate students and 200 international students. In recent years Saint Michael's students and professors have received Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Guggenheim, Fulbright, National Science Foundation and other grants, and Saint Michael's professors have been named Vermont Professor of the Year in four of the last eight years. The college is currently listed as one of the nation's Best Liberal Arts Colleges in the 2009 U.S. News & World Report rankings.
Photo caption: Emily Pratt, front, and Erika Kirslis, behind, working in Texas-based summer math program.
Buff Lindau, Public Relations
802.654.2536
blindau@smcvt.edu
Erika Kirslis of Rockland, Mass., and Emily Pratt of Essex Junction, Vt., rising sophomore mathematics majors at Saint Michael's College, were selected to participate in the highly competitive pre-REU summer research program at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. The program, pre-Research Experience for Undergraduates, running from June 29 to July 31, accepted 19 college students from all over the country to pursue a program titled "Signal and Image Analysis." Participants attend lecture-demonstrations in the morning and pursue research experiments in the afternoon, working full days, and some nights.
"This program is really a valuable opportunity for undergraduate students," said Dr. George Ashline, Saint Michael's professor of mathematics, and adviser to both students. "They will get a sense of what doing mathematics research is all about, and will definitely get a flavor for the application of mathematics in the real world."
The program is described on their website: "As technology becomes more sophisticated, the need for efficiently handling vast amounts of data has grown tremendously. This pre-REU program will introduce the basic ideas behind Fourier analysis and wavelets, the two main tools used to analyze signals and images. As time goes on, the students will break up into groups and work on projects involving real-world examples."
Emily Pratt figured out how to illustrate Pascal's Triangle by doing a coin flipping experiment in one of her initial projects. She flipped four coins 100 times, and three coins 200 times to see the probability of getting all the different combinations of heads and tales. Predicting that outcome, she explained, is one of the applications of Pascal's Triangle. She said most participants had taken more math than she had, but she's "quickly catching on."
Ms. Pratt said, "We also worked on figuring out how automated answering systems work. For example, machines ask you to say what department you want to be put through to and then they put you through to that department. We are looking at how it is possible for a machine to recognize more than one person saying the same word - mainly looking at word recognition."
Erika Kirslis is also participating in the intensive math research program.
Among the real world applications of the math they are studying is the use of Fourier analysis to filter out the crowd noise in a recording of a concert. Wavelets, also used to analyze signals and images, could be used to isolate and eliminate all the "pop" in an audio file. The program focused on ideas behind Fourier analysis, and wavelets, in signal and image analysis.
"It may be rare that two students from one college are selected for such a program," Professor Ashline said. "We had an excellent student, Brittany Baker, in the pre-REU program last year," he said. "That may have helped with our good luck this year."
Saint Michael's College, founded in 1904 by the Society of St. Edmund and headed by President John J. Neuhauser, is identified by the Princeton Review as one of the nation's Best 368 Colleges. A liberal arts, residential, Catholic college, Saint Michael's is located just outside of Burlington, Vermont, one of America's top college towns and less than two hours from Montreal. As one of only 270 institutions nationwide with a prestigious Phi Beta Kappa chapter on campus, Saint Michael's has 2,000 full-time undergraduate students, some 500 graduate students and 200 international students. In recent years Saint Michael's students and professors have received Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Guggenheim, Fulbright, National Science Foundation and other grants, and Saint Michael's professors have been named Vermont Professor of the Year in four of the last eight years. The college is currently listed as one of the nation's Best Liberal Arts Colleges in the 2009 U.S. News & World Report rankings.
Photo caption: Emily Pratt, front, and Erika Kirslis, behind, working in Texas-based summer math program.
