News

Summer Rich Internship and RAMMP at CCNY(06/05/2019)

We are happy to start off the summer with our 2019 Rich Summer Internships and RAMMP! The Rich Summer Internships program pairs students at CCNY with faculty mentors to work closely for 10 weeks studying various advanced topics in mathematics. The Recruitment and Mentoring in Mathematics Program (RAMMP) brings scholars in summer research activities in mathematics with the goal of culminating in publishable research. Students in RAMMP will work in groups on research programs guided by faculty members and attend weekly colloquium and learning seminars.

CCNY Great Grad - Pavel Javornik (05/22/2019)

CCNY Mathematics Undergraduate, Pavel Javornik, has been selected as one of the CCNY Great Grads! To hear more from Pavel Javornik and hear other graduating CCNY student's stories, please click here.

Vincent Filardi & Marino Echavarria Accepted to Summer Programs (05/15/2019)

Hear about it from Vincent Filardi

This summer I have the opportunity to participate in an 8-week immersion in Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates program with the machine learning team. My intention for attending this REU is to develop methods in Machine Learning based off techniques in Partial Differential Equations. The program is designed to provide a glimpse of the ways that advanced mathematics is used in the real world to solve complex problems. I will be working closely with a company representative to define the problem and develop solutions of immediate value to the company. The thought of our work to be used in decision making on an industrial scale excites me. I predict that these characteristics will prove themselves invaluable to my applications for Ph.D. programs.

Thank you to Professor Santoro and Professor Hanson for their kind endorsements. Special shout out to Professor Santoro, Professor Etemadpour and Professor Ramamurthy for their continual support in our research projects. I extend my gratitude to the NSF, CCNY Mathematics Department and City College Fellowships Program in their gracious financial support this summer.

To all my friends over the years at City College and Norwalk Community College: I am serious when I say I cherish the moments we have shared, without you this is all hard to imagine. The program starts on May 19th, and I will be returning on July 20th.

 

Hear about it from Marino Echavarria

This summer I will be going to Johns Hopkins University to do research in theoretical computer science as a part of their Leadership Alliance cohort. I chose to study mathematics because of my friend Vincent Filardi. I was a computer science major when I met Vincent in my discrete mathematics course. He asked me what my interest in computer science was and when I told him that I wanted to reason through and solve difficult problems and about how much I was enjoying the course he suggested that I should study mathematics. I was skeptical at first but soon realized that what I would find in theoretical computer science was very mathematical. I was just about done with the math courses my CS degree required and decided I would miss mathematics too much if I’d stopped, so I declared a double major by the end of the semester. I would like to pursue graduate study in either theoretical computer science or mathematics to the end of becoming an academic. I’ve loved the experiences I’ve had teaching and tutoring in the past. I’d also like to take up the torch from Professor Stanley Ocken’s efforts to improve mathematics education especially in communities like mine where most see mathematics with either disdain or apathy. The thought of doing that while doing research sounds very rewarding. I’d like to thank my family for nurturing my interests with as many books as I wanted, Vincent for brainwashing me, my friends for their support through much self-doubt, and all of my eccentric and enthusiastic math instructors over the years whose excitement about math kept me curious and whose support allowed me to persevere.

Merna Youssef accepted to a REU at the University of Chicago (05/08/2019)

This summer, I am attending The Leadership Alliance Program at the University of Chicago. I will spend the summer studying and working on a current research topic in Astrophysics and/or cosmology. Currently, I am studying Physics and Pure Mathematics at the City College of New York.

I am planning to apply for graduate programs in theoretical physics. My research experience at the City College is drawing my attention towards Cosmology. At the present time, I am conducting research in the physics department with Professor Alexios Polychronakos on gravity. The main focus in my research is to investigate some modifications to general relativity theory to resolve some theoretical issues resulting from adding a cosmological constant. I am certain that this summer program will add much to my understanding and will expand my knowledge in the field. In addition, I will learn some computational tools that I will need in my graduate studies.

I am grateful to my professors in the Mathematics and the Physics department. I was lucky to attend classes with Prof. Wolf, Prof. Kucherenko from the Math department and Prof. Polychronakos, Prof. Nair, Prof. Boyer and Prof. Hedberg from the Physics department. I ‘d like to thank each of these professors for helping and encouraging me in my undergraduate studies. In particular, I would like to thank Prof. Polychronakos for his guidance, his support in the application process and his great advice. 

 

Karoline Dubin accepted to the Houston Summer School in Dynamical Systems (04/17/2019)

This summer, I am attending the Houston Summer School in Dynamical Systems in early June. I came to the City College Math Masters program because I wanted to gain a strong theoretical foundation in math in order to contribute in research in climate modeling.

I am excited to attend the Houston Summer school! Dynamical systems have a lot of applications in science, and the intensive program will be a nice complement to the research I will do this summer with Prof Booth in the Atmospheric Science Department working on a stochastic model of cyclones. I plan to apply to PhD programs in math and in statistics, so this experience at Houston may have an impact in what I choose to study!

I am grateful to my professors and peers at City College - it is a pleasure to be among extremely bright people. I have had the luck to be in class with Prof. Hanson, Prof. Hooper, Prof. Kucherenko, and Prof. Wolf - their dedication is inspiring, and each has broadened my mathematical interests. In particular, I would like to thank Prof. Wolf who has been a great source of support and encouragement, and always has very good advice.

Abdoulaye Maiga accepted to the Houston Summer School in Dynamical Systems (04/10/2019)

My name is Abdoulaye Maiga, and I am very grateful to have the immense opportunity to be part of 3 projects for this coming summer. First of all, I will be attending the summer school in dynamical systems in Houston in company of students and friends of mine in Karoline Dubin and Ana Tao. Then I will start the research experience for undergraduate organized by the Math alliance here at CCNY. I will close my summer with a programming-like research in dynamical systems that might extend to a independent study with Professor Wolf who I am very grateful to for accepting to be my mentor for the research, and also for having informed me about the summer school.

I am also very grateful to Professor Shub as always since he was the one that actually pushed me to apply for the REU here at CCNY saying that It will be a great opportunity and experience for me to work with others students with the goal of helping our mentor in his/her research.

Why did I choose to study mathematics and what are my future goals? I will answer both questions by saying that I have at some point dreamed of being a police officer as any other kid since they looked cool in their uniforms when I was younger and in kindergarten, but my thoughts about pursuing a degree in mathematics were pretty linear since I have always thought that if I was to go to college I will only get a degree in mathematics. The reason for that is because studying more mathematics was the only thing that made me really happy when I was waking up super early to go to school. I also liked chemistry and physics a little bit but nothing compared to the love I have for mathematics.

When I arrived at CCNY during fall 2016, it was clear for me that I was going to go for a B.S in applied math, but things did not really go that way. During my first semester I had the chance to be in Professor Blair Davey’s calculus 1 class. Thanks to her for being such an amazing professor. One of the things I remember from her class is her showing us how to derive pi from a full circle by drawing multiple triangles. I found it fascinating, then I started to take more classes and I finally realized that I wanted to give pure mathematics a try. Now I am finishing my last undergraduate courses in pure mathematics this semester, and with one more year left before I graduate. I am still strongly thinking of pursuing a career in industry, but also now that I had a taste of what it is like to study theoretical mathematics I am not ruling out the possibility of pursuing a phd in a field such as number theory, dynamical systems or else.

The good thing is that I am still going to be around for one more year, and I hope to continue enjoying my time here at CCNY. It has been a formidable time so far. I met so many incredible people here. I will have to thank the whole department starting with Professor Shub who clearly has been the angel that has been guiding me since sophomore year. If there was an expression stronger that “thank you so much for everything” I will immediately use it for you. I also want to thank Jason Redman for everything he has done for me so far. You are just amazing Jason. You are like the guy in the math department that knows everything connected to administration and more. I will joke that if you have a problem, don’t call the 911, go to talk to Jason, and you will get your problem fixed. Thank you so much for informing me about talks, programs, scholarships, job opportunities etc. I am very happy that you were also able to be blessed this year, and I wish you many more blessings because you deserve it for everything you do for students like me,adjuncts, and professors. I also want to thanks George Braithwaite with who I immediately had a connection. I am not a basketball fan like you but stay as you are. I would like to thanks Professor Khalid Bou-rabee with who I had my first ever taste of research as an undergraduate. Clearly I was not great but I appreciate your patience and comprehension with me. Thank you for that. I also need to thank Gennady Yassiyevich a.k.a WOLFGANG. You are absolutely exceptional. If it was not clear that you were my favorite adjunct after I took classes with you for a year straight, I hope this makes it clear. I absolutely love the way you teach you classes. You influenced the way I write proofs to 99.99% to the point that even in exams, It happens that I just happily shout “THUS” when I am happy with my proof. Thank you so much for being such an inspiration. If I decide to go to academia, I would want to mimic your teaching style. I enjoyed talking world cup with you during last summer before class since I am myself a soccer addict. I want to thank every single professor or adjunct that I had class with, all of you have been amazing. I honestly don’t have any bad experience with any professor in mathematics after 3 years at CCNY. Thanks to Prof. Hooper with who I had fun at the city museum in Missouri and at the annual field of dreams conference, and thank you for being so understanding and helpful. Finally thanks to my friend Anna Tao, who I now call the LEGEND, for all the work she put in to run the AWM while doing insanely well in her classes. Thanks to Pavel Javornik who I met three semesters ago but who has been a very pleasant person to know. I wish both of you good luck for graduate school since you guys are graduating this term, but I know you guys don’t need luck and let’s hopefully keep contact. I have to save some thanks for next year so let’s stop here for now.

Anna Tao accepted for her Ph.D. at Brown University(04/09/2019)

My name is Anna Tao, and this summer, I’ll be attending the seventh annual Summer School on Dynamical Systems at the University of Houston, from May 27 to June 6, before moving on to the PhD program at Brown University. My intention for going into the summer school is to learn a bit more on dynamical systems and ergodic theory, to expand my breadth before specializing to a field for academia.

I chose to study math because it was the one subject I found out that I consistently enjoyed throughout high school and college. In particular, I like figuring out puzzles, finding logical explanations to concepts, and learning about weird applications of these concepts; math hits all three of these points.

One aspect I’ve noticed in doing math is that it’s an activity best done with peers, and I am very fortunate to find so many people, particularly my peers and the faculty at CCNY’s mathematics department, who are just as enthusiastic about subject as I am. Without their support, I don’t think I would have made it this far.

Thank you, Jason Redman, George Braithwaite, and Prof. Bak, for being so exceptionally considerate and accommodating, and for making feel right at home with the department. Thank you, Prof. Davey and Prof. Daugherty, for your wonderful and inspiring lectures, recommendation, and for your encouraging pep talks that were much needed to set myself straight right before I graduate. Thank you, Prof. Hooper and Prof. Chinta, for your extraordinary patience and guidance, especially with our projects, as well as for the recommendations for internships and programs! Thank you, Pavel Javornik—I value our friendship so much, I’ll never forget the times we’ve talked to each other about math casually, working through homework problems and studying for exams together, running Math Club / AWM events, and having each other’s backs whenever life gets tough. I KNOW you’ll do well in the future. And thank you, Wolfgang Yassiyevich—for your amazing crystal-clear lectures, for the graduate school advice, for introducing me to the World Cup, for your enthusiasm and generosity and…there’s so much I could say, the list goes on and on. All in all, you’ve been such a significant role model for me, when it comes to cultivating my mathematical maturity, and teaching mathematics to others. I hope that one day, I can emulate your style in professorship.

In general, THANK YOU to the CCNY mathematics community—I promise I’ll bring your ideals and values along with me, and pass them forward to the future.