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Lewis University Department of Computer & Mathematical Sciences DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER AND MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES HOME NEWS ACTIVITIES CURRICULUM RESOURCES CONTACTS APPLY NEWSLETTER -- UPCOMING EVENTS -- -- Advice on Choosing Courses -- Tweets by TheHackersNews Tweets by MathFeed Tweets by NCTM Tweets by DataScienceCtrl Tweets by LearnDataSci Tweets by arstechnica Tweets by codeprojectnews Tweets by WIRED -- LATEST NEWS Read more... -- Student Accepted to Singapore Summer Research Experience Iewis University Junior Mathematics Major Lauren Gernes was accepted into the Research in Industrial Projects for Students (RIPS) in Singapore. This Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates is part of a collaboration with the Institute for Mathematical Sciences (IMS) at the National University of Singapore (NUS). U.S. students will work on cross-cultural teams with NUS students on three projects, each sponsored by a company based in the region. The student team, with support from their academic mentor and industry mentor, will research the problem and present their results, both orally and in writing, at the end of the program. Congratulations to Lauren for being accepted into this prestigious REU! Students and Faculty Present at Joint Mathematics Meeting In January, five Lewis students and three faculty presented at the 2020 Joint Mathematics Meeting in Denver, Colorado. All five students presented at the Undergraduate Poster Session. Freshman mathematics major, Miles Mena, presented, “Graph Theoretical Design Strategies for Modeling Self Assembling DNA Complexes.” Paul Buldak, a junior double major in Mathematics and Computer Science, and senior Data Science Major, James Sparks, co-presented, “Graph Theoretical Modeling of Fan Graphs in Self-Assembling DNA.” Their research was supported by the Dr. James Girard Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) Program and Lewis’ Doherty Grant. Junior mathematics major, Lauren Gernes, presented, “The Probability of Easily Approximating the Positive Real Roots of Trinomials.” This presentation outlined the results of her research done this summer at a Research Experience for Undergraduates at Texas A&M. Senior mathematics and computer science major, Eric Redmon, presented “Optimal Tilings of Self-Assembling Bipartite Graphs,” research supported by Lewis’ Doherty Grant. Miles, Paul, James, and Eric also joined Dr. Amanda Harsy and Dr. Cory Johnson of California State University San Bernardino in presenting, “Using Graph Theoretical Designs of Self Assembling DNA to Motivate Undergraduate Research” as part of the invited paper session at the AMS Session on Research in Graph Theory and combinatorics by REUF Alumni and Their Students. Check Out Our Newsletter Senior Computer Science major Nadia Beidas writes weekly about the goings-on in the Department of Computer and Mathematical Sciences. Her in-depth articles vividly describe the great things our students and faculty are doing. Please check out her great work and learn about what makes Math, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Cybersecurity, Data Science, Electrical Engineering, and Information Technology special at Lewis University. Spring Tutoring Hours Announced The CaMS Study Tables provide tutoring services in Mathematics, Computer Science, and Computer Engineering throughout the week. The CaMS Study Tables operate from Room AS107S. For Spring 2020, the hours are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday 12pm - 5pm, and Friday 12pm - 3pm. Please visit the CaMS Study Tables when you need help with a course. Jan O'Hara Recognized for Justice Advocacy Spring 2020 graduating Computer Science Major Jan O'Hara has been awarded Lewis University's De La Salle Medallion for Excellence in Justice Advocacy. Jan, who also works as a computer science intern at Christian Brothers Services and received the Br. William Walz Scholarship for his outstanding mix of scholarship and Lasallian volunteerism, had this to say about his award: "It means a lot to me that the effort and work I've been doing over the past couple years has been recognized. I've learned so much about the various social justice issues that are present not only in this country, but throughout the world. I really do believe that I've spent a good amount of my time at Lewis advocating for change and awareness, so receiving the De La Salle Medallion for Excellence in Justice Advocacy is a really humbling affirmation of that belief. However, I would not be in this position to receive this honor without the help of the various staff, faculty, peers, and strangers that have opened my eyes to these issues. I've encountered so many great and hardworking people as I've learned more and more about social justice, and honestly this award is for them as much as it is for me." Congratulations to Jan for this wonderful accomplishment! 2020 Datathon Competition Challenges Data Scientists Several students participated virtually in the 2020 Lewis University Datathon on Saturday, April 25, 2020. The event, which was sponsored by Lewis University's Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (DataSAIL) with a generous financial contribution from the Lewis University Innovation Hub , was organized by Dr. Piotr Szcurek, Associate Professor of Computer Science and Director of Lewis's graduate and undergraduate programs in Data Science. This year's problem challenged students to develop models that could accurately predict the spread of Covid-19 through a population. The winning models fit the data and were able to predict the spread with between 92% and 94% accuracy. First place went to Christina Morgenstern, Piotr Warchol, and Sheila Lesiak, second place went to Jason Huggy, and third place went to Seth Gory. The 24-hour event was highly competitive, and the accuracy rates of the models the teams produced were extremely impressive. Much thanks to Dr. Szczurek for all the effort he put into organizing the competition, to the Lewis University Innovation Hub for its generous sponsorship, and to all the students who participated. The DataSAIL group will have a wrap-up meeting this coming Friday, May 1, at 3pm, at which time the winners will discuss the approaches they took to build such accurate models. Students Participate in ACCA Programming Competition Several CaMS students represented Lewis at the annual ACCA Programming Competition on February 22, 2020. The students included Sebastian Bigos, Ryan Corrigan, Hector Dondiego, Lauren Gernes, Mackenzie Maierhofer, Frank Martinez, William Pulkownik, and Rackesh Ragoo. The team was coached by Dr. Piotr Szczurek, who has been moderating this student team for several years now. The students worked for nearly six hours to solve a variety of programming problems. The eight programming problems were more like Mathematical puzzles than lengthy software projects, which meant that they challenged the students to use logic and mathematical intuition, not just programming prowess, to solve them. This year, our Novice Team took home the fifth-place prize. Congratulations and thanks to the students and Dr. Szczurek for sharing their talents and time. Cyber Defense Club Participates in Illinois CCDC Students Bryan Gabe, Kritika Goyal, Arick Hauschild, Zachary Offerman, George Pappas, Neel Patel, Brennan Price, and William Pulkownik represented Lewis at the annual State of Illinois Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, which was held on Saturday, February 15 at Moraine Valley Community College. Most of the students had never participated in a cyber competition before, but they managed to get all their IT services up and running and did very well fending off red-team attacks during the day-long competition. "Lots of new faces on the team - very exciting," observed Dr. Jason Perry, Assistant Professor of Computer Science and faculty mentor to the club. Congratulations to all the students, and thank you for representing Lewis University. Cyber Defense Club...