Undergraduate
Paul Gartside
By Jonathan Rubin
This academic year brings to a close Paul Gartside’s 5-year tenure as Undergraduate Director (UD) within the Department of Mathematics. Ostensibly, the UD serves as the faculty coordinator, supervisor, and troubleshooter for all of our undergraduate teaching activities and for the many tasks associated with this domain, such as arranging teaching schedules, shepherding curricular updates, certifying our graduates, and communicating with the administration on teaching matters. Certainly, Paul has handled this sea of responsibilities adeptly, in times of stormy waters and smooth sailing alike. But much of what has made Paul such a tremendous resource for the department and for our students is that his activities as UD have gone well beyond this standard checklist of duties.
Paul’s approach as UD has always been goal driven. Upon taking up the position, he assessed what aspects of our undergraduate training operations were most in need of improvement, and he focused his energies on developing and implementing specific plans to address these needs. In this vein, he introduced significant innovations to build community among our mathematics majors and to enhance undergraduate research within the department. For example, Paul established an annual welcome breakfast for majors, he developed new support materials for faculty advising of undergraduates, and he revamped the Math Club in a way that promotes student agency and leadership. He also maintained clear lines of communication with our majors, culminating during this strange semester of social distancing with the sharing of “Mathematical Diversions” to help keep students connected with something positive and intellectually engaging on a daily basis. Finally, Paul developed and taught the initial iterations of a new Professional Development course for math majors, to help orient them to the major, to the profession, and to software and other resources that are central to both. On the research front, Paul encouraged student and faculty involvement and set up a system to match interested undergrads with faculty research mentors. The crowning innovation of Paul’s time as UD is MathFest, a week-long celebration of mathematics that features guest speakers, activities, demonstrations, and visualizations and especially focuses on the wonderful undergraduate research done in mathematics at Pitt; through the work of Paul and the many undergraduate assistants who he recruits, this event has quickly become an annual departmental highlight.
With gratitude for all of his creativity, hard work, and dedication to our students, we thank Paul for his years of service as UD. Even as he steps down from the UD position and looks forward to a long, well-earned sabbatical, his impact on the undergraduate activities and sense of community within the department will continue, to the great benefit of our faculty and students. Paul has shone a spotlight on the amazing things that our undergraduate students can accomplish, and we certainly plan to keep that light shining as our students continue to impress us in the years to come.
Undergraduate Problem of the Month
This academic year we started a monthly contest for undergraduate students. At the beginning of each month, one problem is circulated with our majors and posted on the departmental website. Submissions of solutions are accepted until the end of the month, and a winner is selected in a random drawing from all eligible entries that contain a full and correct solution. This semester the winners are Jacob Mckkibin (January) and Ian MacIntyre (April).
The MAC Online
By Daniel Hockensmith
In the course of transitioning online, I was asked to create an online version of the MAC. It would be easily accessible and mimic the functionality of the MAC located at the O’Hara Student Center, a location that already feels distant in memory. The mathematician in me insisted, “a solution exists!” and so, I was led to readily agree to the idea. But this left the practicalities a mystery: should one use Skype, Zoom, Discord, Hangouts, or perhaps some other mode of tutoring? How does one mimic walk-in tutoring in an online setting?
We found our solution in Microsoft Teams, which initially did not look like a platform ideal for tutoring but offers many collaborative features that are perfect for online learning. These include a shared whiteboard on which both student and tutor may write, video calling, text messaging, private channels in which tutors may help students in a one-on-one fashion, and several features that make locating tutors easy. For example, one can group tutors by the topics in which they are proficient and students visiting the MAC may then mention the group to grab the attention of all tutors who can help them.
With a platform in place, we needed tutors and with this need came many excellent, enthusiastic volunteers. To streamline operations, I decided to ask only undergraduates to participate. I was pleasantly surprised by how many students volunteered their time to help set up the MAC Online and participate in its function. We even had some students return from hiatus to pitch in and help. We should all be proud to have such responsible and capable individuals as part of our student body and, while I congratulate them, I will certainly lament losing the graduating seniors as tutors.
In my opinion, an organization’s success is largely determined by the efficacy and determination of its workers; management exists simply to point in the right direction and facilitate healthy work environments. The MAC is one more example I can add to my collection in support of this opinion. Our tutors signed on daily to help students with assignments, spoke with them at length about their assignments, reassured them with advice, and overall made every effort to be useful to students who ventured into the MAC online. Some tutors even stayed after hours to help. I would like to thank everyone who participated and made the MAC online a resounding success! Specifically:
| Naina Balepur | Jacob McAfoos | Kayla Siedlecki |
| Claire Hickey | Nick Ferchak | Lanyi Wang |
| Ryan Carpenter | Marissa Bitonti | Luke Profy |
| Nick Gismondi | Pranitha Pothuri | Maya Heuman |
| Daniel Crawford | Santhosh Donepudi | Rachel Schucker |
| Emily Zukowski | Joe Mockler | Sophie Shapiro |
| Yuanpu Ma | Brandon Love | Stephen Wargo |
| Kaixu Shi | Connor Schwartz | Teoh Zhixiang |
| Emily Duque | Fei Wang | Drea Buczeskie |
| Joe Landsittel | Julianna Ohnjec | Behnam Esmayli* |
*Special thanks to Behnam Esmayli for his help in managing the MAC
Undergraduate Award Winners
Montgomery M. Culver Prize for outstanding academic performance in Mathematics
- Isabel Crain
- Ryan Carpenter
- Yangxin Fan
- Jacob Gilbert
- Cassandra Maz
- Mirabel Reid
- Mariya Savinov
- Michael Zajac
Beverly K. Michael Math Education Award for an outstanding student pursuing math education
- Jacob Lord
Blumberg Memorial Award for an outstanding rising senior
- Haoyue Cui