Student Presentations

 

Call For Papers

The deadline for Undergraduate abstracts:
Abstracts may be submitted as space is available.

John Camardese, Richard Geyer, Stephanie Shevenock – Lawrence Tech-
“The Killer Catcher”

To approximate the location of a serial killer’s next attack, we created a probability map that highlighted the areas with the highest risks. The probability map that we developed is a multiple scheme model that can show probabilities based on demographics alone, distance and time alone, or demographics and distance and time overlaid on each other. The model can be extended to accommodate as much relevant demographic data as is needed to accurately track a killer’s patterns and tendencies. To test our model we chose two cases that occurred in California’s Los Angeles area.

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Paul Downen, Matt Lanting, Steven Sciacchitano– Lawrence Tech-
“Modeling the Vibrations o9f a Baseball Bat”

Baseball batters know from experience that there is a “sweet spot” on the fat part of the bat, not at the end, that delivers the most power to the ball on contact.  We modeled the bending vibration in a baseball bat after collision as a function dependent on the position at which the ball strikes the bat to determine the amount of energy dissipated due to vibration in the collision. The location of the impact at which the bending vibrations and the energy loss due to those vibrations are minimized explained why the end of the bat is not the ideal place to hit the ball. We also analyzed the material and shape of the bat in order to quantify their ability to "enhance" the effect of hitting at the sweet spot and quantify the so-called "trampoline effect" that results specifically when a hollow aluminum bat is used.

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 Andrew Fork – Siena Heights University
"How generic is 2^n?
 A computational approach"

Powers of two are often used to measure computer memory. 2n is the number of ways the bits in a binary integer of length n can be arranged. So is this by coincidence? I conjecture that no matter what number is specified as long as the number is a positive whole number, I can discover an exponent where 2 to that exponent will have a solution that begins with the same number specified. I will be using computer programming languages of “Visual Basic”, “C++” and the mathematical programming language of “Maple” to examine the conjecture.

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Kevin Meligan, Anna Vantsevich, Todd Wilmore  - Lawrence Tech
"The Sweetest One of All" 

MCM 2010 Problem A: To justify the location of the true “sweet spot” of a baseball bat, which is actually a zone, a mathematical model was created to describe the normal modes of vibration of a bat, which was approximated to a freely-supported homogenous, elastic beam. This model was further used to explain how the material of the bat and its composition alters the performance of the bat.

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Joel Parrish II – Siena Heights University
“Multi-touch Methods”

Multi-touch is a technology which allows for multiple user inputs, and more importantly multi-user interaction with a computer interface.  Begun in the early 1970's, Multi-touch is currently the subject of much research.  At Siena Heights University a small group of science, math, and computer students have undertaken some experiments in Multi-touch.  We will present the current status of our work; including hits, misses, future research, and a presentation of a multi-touch system we currently have working

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