Math & Stats colloquium shows wide range of applications for St. Mike’s education

From interning at a tech company in South Korea to helping design land development plans in Texas, students connected with the Mathematics and Statistics department at Saint Michael’s worked all over the world this summer and showed the wide variety of industries in which their education could be applied.  

Six of those students gave presentations about their summer experiences during the annual Mathematics and Statistics Colloquium on Friday, Sept. 6. The annual event typically features presentations by students who did research, had an internship, or gained professional or applied experience in some other way during the summer. Students who excelled in Calculus during the previous year are also given awards during the colloquium. 

Below are descriptions of the work each student did this summer.  

Kaylan Conliffe ’25 gives a presentation on her summer internship in Korea during the annual Math and Stats Colloquium on Sept. 6, 2024. (Photo by Sophie Burt ’26)

Exploring Tech with Minglecon in Korea Through a Freeman Internship 

Kaylan Conliffe ’25 of Windsor, Connecticut, was one of more than a dozen Saint Michael’s College students awarded a scholarship through a Freeman Foundation grant to do an international internship. Conliffe, a Data Science major with an Art & Design minor, described her internship with Minglecon in Seoul, South Korea – a company focused on creating learning apps, books, and other resources for children’s education.  

Because of this internship, Conliffe said she figured out that she would like to pursue a career in web design post-graduation. She said this incorporates elements from both her major and minor: data and design. The Freeman internship gave Conliffe room to explore many different skills and potential career paths, she said, and she would highly recommend the experience to other Saint Michael’s students.  

Patrick Gahan ’25 gives a presentation on his summer internship during the annual Mathematics and Statistics Colloquium on Sept. 6, 2024. (Photo by Sophie Burt ’26)

NIH Virtual Internship and Project on Examining Quality of Life from Rare Diseases 

Patrick Gahan ’25 of Northridge, Massachusetts, completed a virtual internship with the National Institutes of Health this summer. Gahan, a Statistics major and Math and Public Health double minor, said a major component of the internship involved running scientific papers through Chat GPT and Meta AI to help dissect rare disease patients’ thoughts about quality of life. This would then be compared with the takeaways of a human reader. He said this was done, in part, to test how reliable the emerging technology would be at pulling data from the reports since the technology could do the task more quickly than humans.  

Gahan said the internship helped him discover that he likely will not pursue bioinformatics as a career. He said he hopes to apply for a Biostatistics Ph.D. program, with a long-term goal of working for a pharmaceutical company.  

Elsa Gordon ’27 gives a presentation on her summer research during the annual Math and Stats Colloquium on Sept. 6, 2024. (Photo by Sophie Burt ’26)

The Influence of Social Capital on Vermont’s COVID-19 Pandemic Response 

Elsa Gordon ’27 of Portland, Maine, stayed on campus this summer and conducted research with Sociology Professor Candas Pinar, which was funded through the SOCKS (Science of Online Corpora, Knowledge, and Stories) Research Program at the University of Vermont. Gordon, a Data Science and Environmental Science double major, said her research centered around Vermont’s government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Gordon said she obtained YouTube video transcripts of Vermont Gov. Phil Scott’s press conferences to build a keyword-driven data set using various online data analysis and storage tools. The goal of the project is to use the state’s response during the COVID-19 pandemic to show how Vermont’s social capital manifests itself through media. Gordon said she plans to continue working with Pinar on the project throughout the upcoming school year.  

Thomas Kane ’25 speaks about his summer internship during the annual Math and Stats Colloquium on Sept. 6, 2024. (Photo by Sophie Burt ’26)

Fundraising for Veterans with the Hero Program 

Thomas Kane ’25 of Sparta, New Jersey, spent his summer helping raise money for veterans and first responders in need. Kane, a Business Administration major with minors in Math and Music, spent his time visiting golf courses throughout his home state to educate people on the issues surrounding veterans and to encourage people to donate to the cause.  

As part of this experience, Kane started his own LLC and used statistical analysis to vary his pitch for different locations and demographics. Kane said that after his internship, he continues to be interested in sales and marketing as a future career.  

Jackson Moser ’25 speaks about his summer internship during the annual Math and Stats Colloquium on Sept. 6, 2024. (Photo by Sophie Burt ’26)

Land Development Internship in Texas 

Jackson Moser ’25 of Missouri City, Texas, interned at an engineering firm called Quiddity in the land development department throughout the summer. Moser, a Civil Engineering major and Math minor, said he spent his time drafting plans and profiles around water lines, storm lines and sanitary lines. He was part of a larger effort to design a master plan community on plots of land that had been recently sold. 

According to Moser, much of his training happened on the job, including becoming OSHA 10 certified and learning basic Civil 3D skills through AutoCAD. Moser said he was pleased to get a return offer from the company for after graduation.   

Ty Wick ’26 explains the research he conducted over the summer during the annual Math and Stats Colloquium on Sept. 6, 2024. (Photo by Sophie Burt ’26)

Artificial Intelligence for Particle Physics at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC)  

Ty Wick ’26 of Ashland, Ohio, spent his summer in Upton, New York, doing physics research funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. Wick, a Math and Physics double major, focused on creating a machine-learning model that could improve the speed and accuracy of particles colliding in the innermost chamber of the particle collider. 

Wick said he will continue receiving funding through the fall on the project. 

Calculus Achievement Awards 

Students who received Calculus Achievement Awards during the colloquium included:  

• Matthew Corrigan ’27 of Goshen, New York 

• Evelyn Hudrlik ’27 of Forest Lake, Minnesota 

• Eva Joly ’27 of Essex Junction, Vermont 

• Kaci Mollison ’28 of Gorham, Maine 

• Elliot Murray ’27 of Keene, New Hampshire 

• Lexi Roux ’26 of Manchester, New Hampshire 

• Gina Vogt ’27 of Ludwigsburg, Germany