Fall 2023 MATH 435: Math in the City Course Mini-Conference
One of the highlights of the department’s end-of-semester activities is the mini-conference organized around the MATH 435: Math in the City presentations! The MATH 435: Math in the City course is somewhat unique when compared to other 400-level Advanced Math courses, by offering students a learning experience connected with the real-world. The students work in groups using data provided by an external collaborator, to construct and analyze mathematical models. At the end of the semester, they showcase their work in oral presentations to which the entire department is invited.
This semester, the MATH 435 course used data from the Lancaster County Assessor’s Office, and they completed projects related to home prices within Lincoln and Lancaster County. Please congratulate the following students on their presentations (the order below is based on the picture to the right of the text):
Top Left Picture
Presentation Title: Factor Analysis of Home Prices in Lancaster County
Presenters: Jessica Campagnuolo, Samantha Schur, Courtney Higginbotham, and Hugo Hausman (as pictured from left to right)
Top Right Picture
Presentation Title: Modeling and Validating Price Prediction
Presenters: Joel Eckloff, Nathan Hanzy, Tyson Shields, and Nataliya Brana (as pictured from left to right)
Bottom Right Picture
Presentation Title: Analysis of the Lancaster County Housing Market: Role of Geographical Location
Presenters: Kuan Chiang, Mark Pham, Elizabeth Weber, and Angeline Luther (as pictured from left to right)
Bottom Left Picture
Presentation Title: Price Appreciation in Resold Homes
Presenters: Juan Silva, Harrison Kerns, and Joshua Irby (as pictured from left to right)
In past semesters, the MATH 435 students have completed projects regarding sustainable design, optimizing routes for recycling companies, infectious disease models, gerrymandering, fish population data, financial operations for the city of Lincoln, and more. The Math in the City course provides an opportunity to work on an open-ended problem, so it feels similar to a research experience. The course also feels like an internship since the groups are using real data and generating real answers to useful questions.
If you are interested in taking the MATH 435: Math in the City course in the future, you will be happy to know that it is offered every fall AND spring semester. The majority of the course grade is related to the group project work, a project write-up, and a project presentation. For Data Science majors, the MATH 435 course is the required Professional Experience for your major, and you will be able to take the MATH 435 course simply by completing the core Math courses of the major: MATH 104 or 106, MATH 107 or 203, and MATH 314 or 315. Math majors need to complete two courses from MATH 221/221H: Differential Equations, MATH 314/314H: Linear Algebra, and STAT 380/RAIK 270H: Statistics and Applications. The MATH 435 course will fulfill the ACE 10 requirement of your degree regardless of which major you are.
Questions? Please contact Dr. Tefjol Pllaha if you have questions about the course experience from the Fall 2023 semester and Dr. Chayu Yang regarding the Spring 2024 offering which he will teach. Please contact Doug Pellatz if you have questions about enrolling in MATH 435 or about how the MATH 435 course will fit within your major.