Dr. Therese Shelton

Photo by Kim Shelton
shelton@southwestern.edu
FJS 307
(512) 863-1489
Assoc Professor
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science

Southwestern University
Georgetown, TX 78627
a Hispanic Serving Institution since 2023

More contact info and my professional interests


C U R M     A W A R D

Center for Undergraduate Research in Mathematics (CURM) Minigrant for 2022-23 academic year research with Dr. J. Iaia of the University of North Texas, Denton, TX and our students. Jillian Reese and Emma Lewis presented "An ODD Look at Theorems in Differential Equations" at the Spring 2023 Texas Section Meeting of the MAA. Dr. Iaia's team of students, Hunter Baird, Ali Diwan, Luis Vazquez, won an award for their presentation, "Infinitely Many Solutions of a Singular Semilinear Equation on Exterior Domains."

T E X A S       M A A       A W A R D S

2023 Recipient of the
Distinguished Service to the Section Award
2015 Recipient of the
Ron Barnes Distinguished Service to Students Award
MAA logo

M A A     O P E N     M a t h
Online Professional Enhancement and Capacity Building for Instructional Practices in undergraduate Mathematics

2024 workshop possible Summer 2023: Active Learning in Differential Equations Inspired by Modeling
Co-leader with Brian Winkel, Leigh Noble, Kurt Bryan, Patrice Tiffany, Rosemary Farley OPEN Math

Summer 2022: Modeling Inspiration for Differential Equations
Co-leader with Brian Winkel, Leigh Noble, Kurt Bryan, Corban Harwood, Patrice Tiffany, Rosemary Farley


P U B L I C A T I O N S
ORCID ID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4909-0767

▣ Shelton, T., B. Henderson, M. Gebhardt. "Acrobatics in a Parametric Arena." Mathematics Research for the Beginning Student, Volume 1: Accessible Projects for Students Before Calculus. 2022. Birkhauser. Pages 113-136.
Editors: Eli E. Goldwyn, Sandy Ganzell, Aaron Wootton. DOI 10.1007/978-3-031-08560-4. eBook ISBN 978-3-031-08560-4 Published: 25 November 2022. Print ISBN 978-3-031-08559-8. See volume info and our chapter info .
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Part of the Foundation for Undergraduate Research in Mathematics (FURM) book series, which is devoted to increasing access to undergraduate research opportunities.
B. Henderson graduated from Southwestern University in 2017, and M. Gebhardt in 2015.
Aided by SU Research Assistants Audrey Schumacher and Wilson Cook Sp21, plus Garey-funded Research Assistant Emily Thompson SUM 2021.

▣ Shelton, T., E. K. Groves and S. Adrian. "A Model of the Transmission of Cholera in a Population with Contaminated Water." CODEE Journal, CODEE Journal: (2019) Vol. 12, Article 5. DOI 10.5642/codee.201912.01.05
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special issue Linking Differential Equations to Social Justice and Environmental Concerns.
E. K. Groves graduated from Southwestern University in 2017.

▣ Shelton, T., T. Laurent and B. Agyemang-Barimah. "Pharmacokinetic Models for Active Learning of Differential Equations." PRIMUS, (2019), Vol 29: Num 7, Pg. 742-767 DOI 10.1080/10511970.2018.1484398.
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special issue Modeling Approach to Teaching Differential Equations - Part II.
T. Laurent, St. Louis College of Pharmacy.
B. Agyemang-Barimah graduated from Southwestern University in 2017.

▣ Ross, J. D. and Shelton, T. "Supermarkets, Highways, and Natural Gas Production: Statistics and Social Justice." PRIMUS, (2019), Vol. 29: Num 4, Pg. 328-344. DOI: 10.1080/10511970.2018.1456497 .
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special issue Mathematics for Social Justice - Part II.
Based on activities implemented in Introduction to Statistics. This began at the 2016 Associated Colleges of the South Workshop on Math for Social Justice.
See our preliminary modules.
J. R. Ross, Southwestern University.

▣ Shelton, T. "Mathematical Modeling Projects: Success For All Students." PRIMUS, (2018) Vol. 28, Num. 4, Pg. 318-334. DOI: 10.1080/10511970.2016.1249320 .
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special issue Mathematics and the Life Sciences: Initiatives, Programmes, Curricula
Based on many years of supervising capstones and other projects.
UPDATE: Jan 2023, a Greek translation to "Mathematical Modeling Projects: Success For All Students" by Athanasios Paraskevopoulos accepted by the scientific journal Mathematical Review published by the Hellenic Mathematical Society.

▣ Shelton, T. "Injecting Inquiry Oriented Modules into Calculus." PRIMUS, (2017) Vol. 27, Num. 7, Pg. 669-680. DOI: 10.1080/10511970.2016.1211205 .
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special issue Inquiry-Based Learning in 1st and 2nd Year Courses
Based on my JMM 2015 talk on POGIL Flu, made possible by the June 2013 and Jul 2015 POGIL Workshops; SU HHMI workshops; and the Jun 2015 RLM/IBL presentation.

▣ Kyle CH, Plantz AL, Shelton T, Burks RL Count Your Eggs Before They Invade: Identifying and Quantifying Egg Clutches of Two Invasive Apple Snail Species (Pomacea). PLoS ONE (2013) 8(10): e77736. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0077736.
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R. L. Burks, Department of Biology, Southwestern University.
C. H. Kyle, A. L. Plantz are alumni from Southwestern University. Kyle was at University of Chicago.


N S F     A W A R D!

I was a co-Principal Investigator on a grant from the National Science Foundation,
2018-2021 (extended due to pandemic) NSF Award 1940532 "Building Community Through Systemic Initiative for Modeling Investigations and Opportunities with Differential Equations (SIMIODE)"
with Brian Winkel, Patrice Tiffany, Audrey Malagon, and R. Corban Harwood. NSF 15-585 Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Education and Human Resources (IUSE: EHR). R. Farley is an active associate in our grant.
The grant was extended because of the pandemic disruptions. Before Manhattan College became grant administrator, the same grant had this number: 1724796
Winkel - Director of SIMIODE and Professor Emeritus, U.S. Military Academy. Tiffany and Farley- Manhattan College. Malgon - Virginia Wesleyan University. Harwood - George Fox University. SIMIODE logo

DEMARC Fellow - Differential Equations Model And Resource Creators. Developed new course module with Digoxin and wrote in SIMIODE style. Also rewrote two previous course modules. All published in SIMIODE. (See details below.)

MINDE Workshops -- Model INstructors in Differential Equations. Co-developed and co-led professional development workshops
* 2018 July 22-28 Manhattan College, Riverdale, NY. in-person
* 2019 July 21-27 George Fox University, Newberg, OR. in-person
* 2021 June 7-11 Virtual Workshop

Pandemic support with Remote Teaching Modules - Summer 2020 for the pandemic shutdown. Materials published in SIMIODE. (See details below.)
* Developed new classroom module on Car Suspensions co-authored with Brian Winkel.
* Developed additional materials for remote teaching, a collection of videos and materials for the classroom module and background material.

See "Differential Equations Come to Life", the MAA Blog Post: DUE Point from 7/29/2019 in which Audrey Malagon interviewed me and Brian Winkel about the opportunities afforded by the grant. MAA logo


P U B L I S H E D     C L A S S     MA T E R I A L S

Each peer reviewed classroom module is available in SIMIODE, QUBES Educational Resources as a free open educational resource (OER), with a Student Version, available to registered students, and Teacher Version, available to registered teachers. Two publication dates are given: initial date at previous site without DOI, and newer date at the current site https://qubeshub.org/community/groups/simiode/ with DOI.

I developed these remote teaching materials with Winkel, B. under our NSF Grant.
* 2020 & 2022 "3-034-CarSuspension-ModelingScenario." doi:10.25334/706H-1039
* 2020 & 2023 "2020-TeachingModule-CarSuspension." doi:10.25334/VGQN-PJ11. (Includes videos and slides to support remote teaching.)

I developed the Aspirin and Caffeine modules initially with funding from Southwestern University's grants from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and from the W. M. Keck Foundation. During my NSF grant, I improved those first two, developed a third for Digoxin, and prepared them for publication in SIMIODE and in an accompanying article in PRIMUS. Collaborators and co-authors B. Agyemang-Barimah and T. Laurent for all related publications.
* 2018 & 2023 "1-132-DigoxinElimination-ModelingScenario." doi:10.25334/EKFR-FH24
* 2018 & 2022 "1-130-AspirinAbsorption-ModelingScenario." doi:10.25334/WDEE-3172
* 2018 & 2022 "1-131-CaffeineElimination-ModelingScenario." doi:10.25334/72ZN-7C93


Intertwining T E A C H I N G and P E D A G O G Y and T E C H N O L O G Y

"Engaging Students in Life Design", 2021, from a grant from The Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE), a program within the Council for Independent Colleges (CIC)

We continue C A L C U L U S       R E V A M P S       We re-sequenced calculus as part of collaboration between Southwestern and Centre College. Multivariate concepts are covered throughout all three semesters of Modern Calculus. This effort included support for Dr. A. Marr, F. Futamura, and J. Ross under a Course Design Fellowship from Southwestern to create a set of new materials in Spring 2021. and the 2018 Supporting Diversity and Inclusion in Mathematics and STEM Disciplines grant from the Associated Colleges of the South under Marr at Southwestern and PI J. Kilty of Centre College. This included a workshop at Centre in June 2018 and my service as faculty mentor at Southwestern for a cohort program for Calculus I.
For a number of years, we used pre-calculus assessment exam with review materials that Drs. Buchele, Marr, and I devised in 2013-14 under an ACS Blended Learning Grant, Improved Calculus Preparation Through Assessment and Customized Blended Learning, which included materials developed by patrickjmt; see OER materials: Learnamic .

My courses incorporate some guided I N Q U I R Y       L E A R N I N G      
Inquiry-based learning (IBL) refers to any pedagogy that utilizes presentations or student-centered activities to develop in students the confidence and ability to do mathematics on their own. JIBLM

SIMIODE is steeped in an inquiry-oriented mentality!
My involvement began with a highly effective Summer 2015 MAA PREP Workshop: "Building Community in SIMIODE - Systemic Initiative for Modeling Investigations and Opportunities with Differential Equations" in Helena, MT. I have enthusiastically embraced SIMIODE, which led to the NSF grant that includes hosting faculty workshops; Board of Contributing Advisors; multiple conference presentations; multiple co-led MAA minicourses at national conferences; SIMIODE Challenge Using Differential Equations Modeling (SCUDEM); and more.

For 2012-2016, I had great support by SU's HHMI funded Natural Sciences Inquiry Initiative under Dr. Emily Niemeyer and others. I presented a workshop to share modules I created at our culminating conference June 1-3, 2016. "Transforming STEM Pedagogy Through Active Learning"

I participated in the mini-conference Constructing the Future of Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) Conference: The Past 20 Years and the Next 20 Years on July 27, 2017 in Chicago, IL.

Active Learning in Mathematics Instruction Symposium on Use and Assessment in Columbus, OH, Aug 1-2, 2016. Offered through and funded by NSF, EAF, and the Sloan Foundation.

Expanding IBL Throughout Higher Ed in Columbus, OH, Aug 4, 2016. An extension of the Legacy of R. L. Moore Conference on Inquiry-Based Learning offered by the Educational Advancement Foundation.

I was a TIMES Scholar for Fall 2015 in IODE or Inquiry Oriented Differential Equations, under Dr. Karen Keene from North Carolina State University, on the NSCU NSF grant she has with other collaborators. I participated in a summer 2015 IODE workshop, and I was a TIMES Scholar for Spring 2015: Teaching Inquiry-oriented Mathematics: Establishing Supports. IODE supported ♦ Julia Sykora as a teaching assistant for DE in Spring 2015. All of this began with a Minicourse at MathFest 2014.

I participated in a Summer 2015 MAA PREP Workshop: "Advanced Techniques in the Implementation and Creation of Process Oriented Guided Inquiry (POGIL) Activities" in Tampa, FL. This was a follow-up to a 2013 MAA PREP Workshop on POGIL.

I have designed multiple inquiry-oriented activities for my classes, most notably Introductory Statistics, the capstone in modeling, and Differential Equations. I designed some some POGIL activities for Calculus I, some funded by HHMI. I designed multiple modules to relate molecular biology to mathematics under SU's Keck Foundation grant under Dr. Maria Cuevas and others. My poster presentation, "Injections of IBL", at the 2015 RLM IBL conference, highlighted multiple activities.

T E C H N O L O G Y

I have lots of learning modules in Mathematica and some in Excel for multiple courses. During the pandemic, I relied heavily on Google Sheets, especially for Probability. I used Desmos for any sort of graphing.
I make use of the freely available StatKey and Pearson's StatCrunch.
I am learning the open source software R.

The minicourse on "Randomization Methods in Statistics" at JMM 2014 has allowed me to help students build intuition about fundamental concepts. Thanks to the 5-Lock team for their work and for the software StatKey.

Parametric Functions in Flash: Includes several examples and the ability to define your own functions: paramFull with component plots; optional comments and connectors to emphasize the relationship between the plots, paramSpeedArc with plots of arclength and speed and calculated comments , paramVec with position and velocity vectors.
These were inspired by Interactive Differential Equations at CODEE and at Pearson. Sadly, most current browsers or computer operating systems will not run the IDE simulations.


SOME P R O F E S S I O N A L

C O N F E R E N C E S and W O R K S H O P S
♦ JMM - Joint Mathematics Meetings, national meeting of AMS, AWM, and NAM. MAA through 2020. Sometimes SIAM. January.       ♦ TxMAA - Texas Section Meeting of the MAA. regional. April. ♦ TAAAMS for current and former Tx Math Dept Chairs       ♦ MAA PREP. summer professional development workshops       ♦ MathFest. national meeting of the MAA held in August.       ♦ ICTCM - International Conference on Technology in Collegiate Mathematics sometimes. Often March or April.

upcoming 2024 JMM, Boston Jan 4-7 ♦ to present "Safe Contact With Disease: Student Models Using Differential Equations" in the AMS Special Session on AMS Special Session on Modeling to Motivate the Teaching of the Mathematics of Differential Equations.

2023 MathFest Aug 2-6 in Tampa, FL. ♦ I presented "Resources for Faculty and Students in Differential Equations," co-authored with Rosemary Farley, and Patrice Tiffany.

2023 JMM, Boston Jan 4-7 ♦ presented "Cars, Competition, and Cholera" in the AMS Special Session on Stimulating Student Engagement in Differential Equations through Modeling Activities. Includes work with B. Winkel, E.K. Groves, S. Adrian, M. Gebhardt.

2022 virtual JMM Apr 6-9 ♦ co-presented "Using Visualizations and Applications to Understand Conceptual Ideas" from Calculus" with A. Marr, F. Futamra, J. Ross.

2022 TxMAA Mar 31 - Apr 2, in person at Univ of North Texas in Denton. ♦ presented "From Cars to Competition to Cholera: Math Models in Differential Equations". ♦ served as the Texas Section Representative to the MAA Congress.

2021 virtual MathFestco-organized the Themed Contributed Paper Session "Modeling in Your Differential Equations Course? Just Do It!" with Brian Winkel, Rosemary Farley, Janet Fierson, and Patrice Tiffany.

2021 virtual MAA Congress Annual Meeting Aug 2-3.
♦ service with the MAA Congress as the Recorder; also serving as the Texas Section Representative.

2021 virtual TxMAA Apr 9. ♦ presented as the Texas Section Representative to the MAA Congress.

2021 virtual JMM Jan 6-9
AMS Special Session, "Adopt, Adapt, Assign Modeling Activities in Differential Equations" co-organized with Janet Fierson, Jennifer Garbett, Brian Winkel.
presented "Student Engagement in Modeling Drugs, Disease, and More".

2020 virtual MAA Congress Annual Meeting Aug 4-5.
♦ first service with the MAA Congress as the Recorder; also serving as the Texas Section Representative.

2020 MathFest was cancelled due to COVID-19, but our Themed Contributed Paper Session "Modeling in Your Differential Equations Course? Just Do It!" was accepted to be co-organized with Brian Winkel, Rosemary Farley, Janet Fierson, and Patrice Tiffany.

2020 JMM in Denver, CO.
Co-organized the AMS special session "Wall-to-all Modeling Activities in Differential Equations Courses" with Janet Fierson, La Salle University, and Brian Winkel, SIMIODE.
♦ multiple interactions with SIMIODE, including Board of Contributing Advisors, NSF Poster Session, and NSF Grant coPI Meeting.
♦ participated in the meeting of the national MAA Committee on Sessions of Contributed Papers.

2019 MathFest in Cincinnatti, OH.
co-presented "DE & Social Justice: A Cholera Model with Bacterial Reservoir" on the paper published with E. K. Groves (SU Class of 2017); S. Adrian (SU Education Dept) is another co-author.
Co-organized the themed contributed paper session "Showcase of Modeling to Motivate DEs" with Patrice Tiffany and Rosemary Farley of Manhattan College, NY.
Co-organized the General Contributed Poster Sessions as service with the MAA-CPS Committee with Steven McKay.
♦ first service with the MAA Congress as the Texas Section Representative.
♦ multiple interactions with SIMIODE, including the SCUDEM Gathering, MINDE Mentoring, NSF Poster Session, and NSF Grant coPI Meeting.

2019 JMM in Baltimore, MD
co-presented "Building Community Through Systemic Initiative for Modeling Investigations and Opportunities with Differential Equations (SIMIODE)" at the MAA Poster Session: Projects Supported by the NSF Division of Undergraduate Education with Brian Winkel, R. Corban Harwood, Audrey Malagon, and Patrice Tiffany.
♦ participated in the meeting of the national MAA Committee on Sessions of Contributed Papers.

2018 MathFest in Denver, CO. E.K. Groves (SU Class of 2017) and I co-presented "Incorporating Biology Topics into Mathematics Undergraduate." Groves is a graduate student at North Carolina State University.
I participated in the Minicourse Data Science in the Mathematics Department.

2018 SIAM ED-18 in Portland, OR. I presented "An Undergraduate Mathematical Modeling Capstone."

2018 JMM in San Deigo, CA. co-presented the MAA Minicourse "Starter Kit for Teaching Modeling-First Differential Equations Course" with B. Winkel, SIMIODE & Emeritus U.S. Military Academy West Point; R. Farley & P. Tiffany, Manhattan College.

2017 MathFest in Chicago, IL B. Agyemang-Barimah, (SU Class of 2017) and I co-presented "Pharmacokinetic Models for Active Learning" with T. Laurent of St. Louis College of Pharmacy. My work was supported by the SU's Keck Foundation Grant.
Also, I co-presented the workshop     "Examples and Experiences in Teaching a Modeling-Based Differential Equations Course" with B. Winkel of SIMIODE, P. Tiffany of Manhattan College, and R. Farley of Manhattan College.

2017 Invited regional speaker Markovian Recycling and other Math Models Undergraduate and Graduate Student Seminar, University of North Texas, Denton, TX.

2017 JMM in Atlanta, GA. Dr. John Ross and I co-presented "Supermarkets, Highways, and Oil Production: Statistics and Social Justice".
I co-presented the Minicourse   "Teaching Modeling First Differential Equations and Complete End Game Efforts" with B. Winkel, P. Tiffany, R. Farley, and J. Paynter. Paynter is from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
I attended Invited and Contributed Paper Sessions on Mathematical Biology with some SU's Keck Foundation funding.

2016 MathFest in Columbus, OH, Aug 3-7. I co-presented the Minicourse   "Teaching Modeling First Differential Equations - Building Community in SIMIODE" with B. Winkel, P. Tiffany, and R. Farley.
I attended the Invited Paper Session on Mathematical Biology with some SU's Keck Foundation funding.

2016 TxMAA in Nacogdoches, Mar 31-Apr 2. ♦ presented "SIMIODE: A Modeling Approach to Differential Equations" with J. Sieben & R. Abbasian from Texas Lutheran University.

participated in the 2016 ICTCM in Atlanta, GA. with SU's Larkin Tom with funding from my Faculty Professional Development Support and the HHMI Faculty Travel fund.

2016 JMM in Seattle, WA Jan 6-9. participated in a Minicourse on R and R Studio. I presented "Active DE with Inquiry and More".
I attended the Invited Paper by L. Edelstein-Keshet on Mathematical Biology with funding from SU's Keck Foundation Grant.

Invited panelist Explorations into Preparing a Successful Tenure Portfolio for New Experiences in Teaching (NExT), a national program of the MAA, prior to MathFest 2015 in DC.

2015 MathFest in Washington, DC Aug 4, 5-8, 2015. participated in the Minicourse on the "Scholarship of Teaching and Learning".

2015 JMM in San Antonio Jan 10-13. presented "POGIL Flu for Calculus: Influenza Data to Help Students Investigate Antiderivatives, Accumulations, and FTC". Dr. Alison Marr and I presented "Working to Improve Student Success in Calculus I Through Pre-calculus Support." I participated in a Minicourse "Healthcare Applications and Projects for Introductory College Mathematics Courses" by T. Laurent.

            SOME P R O F E S S I O N A L       S E R V I C E
MAA Committee on Sessions of Contributed Papers 2018-2021, plus 2021-2024, and future service 2024-2027. Co-organizer of all contributed poster sessions at 2019 MathFest.
Representative of the MAA Texas Section to the national MAA Congress July 1, 2019 through June 30, 2022. Recorder for MAA Congress Feb 1, 2020 - Jan 31, 2022.
Visiting Committee of Abilene Christian University 2017-2021.
Executive Committee of the TX MAA, serving as ♦ representative to Congress for 2019-2022, ♦ Chair sequence for 2015-2018.
Editorial Board for CODEE 2020-2022.
Reviewer for PRIMUS, SCUDEM, and various journals
Session Leader for SCUDEM 2018 at ACC.
President sequence Texas Association of Academic Administrators of Mathematical Sciences 2005-07


SOME U N D E R G R A D U A T E       R E S E A R C H

I have been supervising the math capstone, the Senior Seminar in Mathematical Modeling for over 20 years, including some alternative capstones. By Spring 2023, I supervised 172 students in 150 separate capstone modeling projects.
I have also supervised undergraduate funded academic year research, funded summer research and Independent Studies.
Students have presented at Texas MAA, MathFest, JMM, and TUMC.
I have also aided students at these conferences whose research was with other faculty members.

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Texas Section Meeting, MAA at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, TX in March 2023.
♦ CURM Research students Jillian Reese and Emma Lewis: "An ODD Look at Theorems in Differential Equations."
I supervised them with Dr. Joe Iaia from the University of North Texas - Denton. Dr. Iaia's team of students, ♦ Hunter Baird, ♦ Ali Diwan, ♦ Luis Vazquez, won an award for their presentation, "Infinitely Many Solutions of a Singular Semilinear Equation on Exterior Domains."

Southwestern had seven other student presentations. Only the host institution had more student talks.
Anderson Johnson, Paige Thompson, Kyla Gorman: "Domino Antimagic Configurations" Supervised by Dr. A. Marr.
Alley Koenig, Casandra Nunez: "Subtractive Edge Magic Labelings" Supervised by A. Marr.
Kathryn Altman, Lauren Calzado: "An Exploration of Difference Distance Magic Graph Labelings" Supervised by Dr. A. Marr.
Aaron Garza, Kaiden Sala: "What is the smallest area? A parabolic parable." Supervised by Dr. A. Marr.
Zek McCormick: "Applying Linear Algebra to Penrose Tilings" won an award for Best Student Paper Within a Session! Supervised by Dr. F. Futamura
Oliver Johnson: "How accurately did Van Eyck paint the chandelier in the Arnolfini Portrait? A geometric analysis contributing to a decades-old debate" Supervised by Dr. F. Futamura
Isabella Robinson, Oliver Johnson: "Solving Sudoku Puzzles Through Linear Algebra." Supervised by Dr. F. Futamura

A team of four students competed in the Math Bowl: Altman, Calzado, Koenig.
Other student attendees: ♦ Jess Kazmir, ♦ Yasmine Soto, and ♦ Adrianna Flores-Vivas.
Dr. J. Ross attended, and President Emeritus of Southwestern University and Professor Emeritus of Mathematics Edward Burger presented an invited plenary talk. Four students participated in the Math Bowl.
Marr received the 2023 Ron Barnes Distinguished Service to Students Award, given in recognition of faculty who have distinguished themselves through service and support of undergraduate students within the Texas Section. Shelton received the 2023 Distinguished Service Award in recognition of faculty who have demonstrated exceptional service to the Texas Section.
Funding was provided by CURM and the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science.

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Texas Undergraduate Mathematics Conference (TUMC) at UT-Austin.
Two students presented preliminary results from their FA22 mathematics capstone project under my supervision.
Melanie Richey : "Rats on the Run: Modeling of Hippocampal Cell Activity Using Plasticity." This work is a continuation of a 2022 Research Experience for Undergraduates at Southern Methodist University under the supervision of Dr. Katie Hedrick, in collaboration with Dr. Brad E. Pfeiffer, Department of Neuroscience, UT Southwestern Medical Center. Richey is a Computational Math major.
Carson Vogel : "Modelling Heat Transfer." This is continuation of 2021 and 2022 SCOPE projects under the supervision of Steven Alexander, Professor of Physics, and Mark Bottorf, Associate Professor of Physics. This work is part of ongoing efforts for the eventual development of a solar energy storage cell brought to SU by Mr. Oscar Lee Fellows, Coordinator of Science Facilities and Equipment. Vogel is a Computational Math major and a Physics major.
Jillian Reese and Emma Lewis joined with their counterparts from the University of North Texas-Denton in research with Shelton and Dr. Joe Iaia, funded through the Council for Undergraduate Research in Mathematics.
Other students also attended: Oliver Johnson, Jess Kazmir Lauren Calzado, Rowan Via, Kathryn Altman, and Aidan Bujanda-Moore also attended. Majors and minors among our student attendees included Mathematics, Computational Mathematics, Physics, Economics, Education, Spanish, and Political Science.
TUMC Logo

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Texas Section Meeting of the Mathematical Association of America at University of North Texas, Denton Mar 31-Apr 2, 2002. ♦ Emily Thompson presented "Using Neural Ordinary Differential Equations (NODEs) to Create Models of Complex Curves," the results of her her FA21 mathematics capstone project with me.

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Texas Undergraduate Mathematics Conference (TUMC) ♦ Emily Thompson presented "Using Neural Ordinary Differential Equations (NODEs) to Create Models of Complex Curves" at the Sixteenth Texas Undergraduate Mathematics Conference, held virtually this year. Preliminary results from her FA21 mathematics capstone project with me. TUMC Logo

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Texas Section Meeting, MAA at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, TX in March 2019.
Katie Dyo : "Women's Golf: An NCAA Comparison using Mathematical Modeling," on her capstone work with me for Spring 2019.
♦ Physics majors Claire Harding and Madison Godleski presented "Rocket Projections," supervised by Associate Professor of Physics, Mark Bottorff. Harding is a Physics major, and Godleski is a Physics major with a Mathematics minor.
Daniela Beckelhymer, ♦ Charlie Ellison, ♦ Hannah Freeman, and ♦ Gerardo Gonzalez attended.
Funding was provided by the following at Southwestern: Fleming Student Travel Fund and the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science.

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Math capstone students presented at the Texas Undergraduate Mathematics Conference Nov 2-3, 2018 at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches.
Gillian Glover presented "Make money with Linear Algebra: A Model of Portfolio Analysis," Math and Business and Spanish triple-major. Glover's math capstone is an extension of work supervised by Dr. Futamura.
Stan Kannegieter presented "The Kissing Disease and Differential Equations." He is a Math and Economics double-major.
Will Price presented "Ms. Pac-Man Eats AI For Breakfast." He is a Math and Computer Science double-major. Price's math capstone is an extension of his SCOPE 2018 research under Assistant Professor of Computer Science Jacob Schrum.
Aiden Steinle presented "Staying in Shape with Real World Mappings," on work supervised by Dr. Futamura.
Mercedes Gonzalez presented "Restrictions on HOMFLYPT and Kauffman Polynomials Arising from Local Moves," Math and Biology double-major, class of 2021. Gonzalez presented work from a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates, supervised by Dr. Sandy Ganzell from St. Mary's College of Maryland.
Zariah White attended.
Funding was provided by the following at Southwestern: Fleming Student Travel Fund, the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, and the NSF S-STEM grant.
TUMC Logo
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Two of my capstone students presented at the Texas Section Meeting of the Mathematical Association of America at El Centro College in Dallas, TX in April 2018. Drs. Futamura and Ross took these and other students.
Sam Vardy : "Taking on Statistics with R(Our) Power"
Morgan Engle presented "Influence of ENSO on United States Gulf Coast Ozone Using a Surface Ozone Climatology." Work began in 2017 SCOPE supervised by Dr. R. Edwards in Physics, building on Oliver Sale's work. In Spring 2018, Engle continued the work in her mathematics capstone; Edwards continued to primarily oversee the project, and Shelton oversaw the math capstone and prepared Engle for the presentations.
Math capstone students presented at the TUMC October 2017 in San Antonio.
Victoria Gore "Modeling Trends in Austin Traffic"
Bonnie Henderson "The Mathemasticks of Flower Sticks"
Kristen McCrary "Math and Mancala"
Penny Phan "Singapore: Model of a Savings Fund"
Sam Vardy "The Price of Health".
Other students in attendance were ♦ Isaac Hopkins , ♦ Aiden Steinle , ♦ Hannah Friedman , and ♦ Mercedes Gonzales .
Funding was provided by the following at Southwestern: Fleming Student Travel Fund, the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science. The University of Incarnate Word subsidized the TUMC.
TUMC Logo
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I enjoyed being invited to speak at the Undergraduate Mathematics Colloquium at the University of North Texas in Denton, TX on March 29, 2017. I presented "Markovian Recycling and other Math Models," a continuation of work with Yvette Niyomugaba '13. We conducted research under a Summer Faculty Student Project and throughout Niyomugaba's senior year. I have expanded and updated the work as part of my S17 sabbatical.

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At the 2017 JMM in Atlanta, GA,
Funding was provided by the following: MAA Student Travel Grants, SU Fleming Student Travel Grants, Shelton's SCOPE Faculty-Student Project fund, the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, and SU's Keck grant.
Students presented at the AMS Contributed Paper Session on Undergraduate Research.
Penny Phan and Morgan Engle gave a joint presentation, "Green Math: Models of Greenhouse Gasses" from a Summer 2016 SCOPE research with me. ♦ Alumnus Julia Sykora ('16) presented "3D Math Models for the Blind," from the 2015-2016 King Creativity project, "Upper Level Mathematical Models for the Blind" with ♦ Allison Young ('16) for which I was supervisor. We were especially pleased to be invited to submit an abstract to the Themed Contributed Paper Session, "Methods of Engaging Math Learners with Physical Impairments." Oliver Sale presented "Investigation of Central Texas Surface Ozone Concentrations 1980-2015" on work that began in 2016 SCOPE supervised by Part-Time Assistant Professor of Physics Dr. Rebecca Edwards and Dr. Gary Morris of St. Edward's University. In Fall 2016, Sale continued the work with me in his mathematics capstone; Edwards continued to primarily oversee the project, and I oversaw the math capstone and prepared Sale for the presentation. He also presented a poster of his work at the American Meteorological Society Jan. 22-26, 2017 in Seattle, WA.
William Soller and Kristen McCrary presented "Existence, Uniqueness, and Cost-Optimizing Results of Mathematical Trusses" based on their 2016 SCOPE work supervised by Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics Dr. John Ross. Victoria Gore presented "Extreme Precipitation: Changes in Rain Frequency from 1895-2015 in Central Texas" from the 2016 SCOPE work supervised by Dr. Rebecca Edwards in Physics. She also presented this work at The Texas Academy of Science March 3-5, 2017 in Belton, TX and won first place in the environmental section! Beulah Agyemang-Barimah received funding from Southwestern's Keck Foundation grant to attend sessions on mathematical and computational biology.
Emma Kathryn Groves also attended the meetings.

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Five seniors presented at the TUMC on Oct. 8, 2016 in Beaumont, Texas -- over Fall Break! Southwestern had the largest number of students giving talks other than the host institution, Lamar University.
Benjamin Stiver presented "Methods to the Madness: Modeling College Basketball's Championship Tournament."
Beulah Agyemang-Barimah presented "Girls Rule: Social Status, Economics, and Math Literacy."
Emma Kathryn Groves presented "War: A Statistical Analysis of a Popular Card Game."
Katie Smithson presented "Wages Over the Ages."
Susan Moore presented "Old Math Faithful at Yellowstone National Park."
Each presentation was based on preliminary capstone work undertaken during Fall 2016, and supervised by Associate Professor of Mathematics Therese Shelton. Shelton also moderated two sessions at the conference.
Other students in attendance were ♦ Morgan Engle , ♦ Daniela Beckelhymer , ♦ Elyssa Sliheet , ♦ Bryce Sinclair , and ♦ D'Andre Adams .
Funding was provided by the following at Southwestern: Fleming Student Travel Fund, the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, and the NSF S-STEM grant. Lamar University subsidized the TUMC.
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I guided two SU students in Southwestern's 2016 SCOPE, or Summer Collaborative Opportunities, research program as part of the HHMI-Southwestern Inquiry Initiative. Morgan Engle and Penny Phan , both Class of 2018, spent eight weeks studying difference equations and their applications. Engle presented their work at the 2016 MathFest in Columbus, OH. Engle's attendance at MathFest was supported by an MAA Student Travel Grant, an SU Fleming Student Travel Grant, and Shelton's SCOPE Faculty-Student Project fund.
Victoria Gore also attended MathFest.
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Two students presented at the Tx MAA at Stephen F. Austin State University in April 2016. Eight other students attended. I supervised the following:
Charles Payne's : "Ay, Batter, Batter!" won a Best Student Presentation Award. This work was from his capstone in Mathematics, continued in an Independent Study. He is a mathematics major.
Christi Ho presented "Adventures in Art: A Mathematical Analysis of Generative Line Drawings" based on her math capstone. The talk was an extension of her presentation at the TUMC. She is computational math - Art double major.
Also in attendance were ♦ Robert Wagner-Krankel William Soller Yash Gandhi Penny Phan Morgan Engle Victoria Gore Beulah Agyemang-Barimah

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At the 2016 JMM in Seattle, WA,
Yinlin Dai and Emma Kathryn Groves gave a joint presentation, "Math Modeling in the Time of Cholera" from a Summer 2015 SCOPE research with me, which Dai continued in the Math Capstone. Dai is majoring in Math and in Economics. Groves is majoring in Math and Computer Science.
Eric Oden presented "A Physical Application of the Hypergeometric Function," primarily from an Independent Study with Dr. Kendall Richards and his capstone work with me. Oden majors in Math and Physics.

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Five SU students presented at the TUMC at The University on Texas at Tyler Oct 9-10, 2015 -- over Fall Break! The students shared preliminary results of the first seven weeks of work on their math capstone projects.
Jade Garza "Models of Marfan Syndrome". Math major, CS minor.
Michael Gebhardt "A Calling for Success". Math major, minors in Business and Exercise and Sports Studies.
Julia Sykora "Old Math Model Had a Farm: The Math Behind Chicken Farms". Math major, Theatre minor.
Christi Ho "Adventures in Art: A Mathematical Analysis of Generative Line Drawings". Majors in Computational Math and in Art.
Eric Oden "The Mathematics of Chaos: An Exploration of the Double Pendulum". Majors in Computational Math and in Physics.
Dr. John Ross, Visiting Assistant Professor, moderated a session.
There were 21 other student presentations scheduled from fifteen other institutions, and over 100 student attendees. Southwestern had the largest number of students who presented from a single institution. Funding for the SU group was provided by Southwestern's Fleming Student Travel Fund and SU's Department of Mathematics and Computer Science.
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I guided two SU students in Southwestern's 2015 SCOPE, or Summer Collaborative Opportunities, research program as part of the HHMI-Southwestern Inquiry Initiative. Yinlin Dai and Emma Groves spent eight weeks studying difference equations. Groves presented their work at the 2015 MathFest in Washington, DC, and it won an Outstanding Student Presentation award! There were 141 student presentations by more than 200 speakers representing over 100 institutions. Groves' attendance at MathFest was supported by an MAA Student Travel Grant, an SU Fleming Student Travel Grant, and Shelton's SCOPE Faculty-Student Project fund.

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Ten mathematics/computational mathematics majors attended the TxMAA in San Antonio in April 2015, with nine competing in the Calculus Bowl and giving presentations at the conference. I supervised the following:
Bonnie Daniel: "This is a Man's World: The Standing of Women ⇔ The Security of the State" won the Best Student Talk Award. This work was from her capstones in Mathematics and in Political Science.
Jade Garza, Julia Sykora, William Soller and Lorena Roque presented "Permutations as Music."
Danielle King and Charles Payne presented "Measles: from data to simulation" based on the 2014 SCOPE Research.

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At the 2015 JMM in San Antonio, ♦ Matthew Miller gave a poster presentation, "Scoring Cardiac Health: A Model of the Relationship between Diet and the Risk of Cardiovascular Disease" from a Summer 2014 Internship at the McDevitt Research Group at Rice University, continued in the Math Capstone under Dr. Shelton. Miller was a Computational Math Major, who graduated in December 2014. ♦ Senior math major Robert Lehr also attended the JMM.

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And there were more student presentations at conferences before this!


SOME U N I V E R S I T Y       S E R V I C E

♦ Faculty Secretary (F17-S24, F14-S16, S96-S98, F93-F94) ♦ Supervisor of Math & CS Tutors (F18-S24, F13-F16) ♦ Tutoring Working Group (F19-S23) ♦ Search Committees (F21 Math, F19-S20 Math, F19-S20 CS, and many more) ♦ Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship Advisory Committee (F18-S19) ♦ King Creativity Selection Committee (F19, F18, F16)

Formerly, ♦ Leader in Math & CS Tenure & Promotion Committee (F17) ♦ Awards & Honors Committee (F14-S16) ♦ Chair, Natural Sciences Division (F10-S13) ♦ Chair, Math/CS Department (F02-S07) ♦ Administrator of Pre-Calculus Assessment Exams

much, much more