Robin French '15 and Assistant Professor Chad Awtrey presented at the Joint Mathematics Meetings from Jan. 10-13, 2015, in San Antonio, Texas.
French, a Glen Ravens Scholar, spoke on her research “A new algorithm for Galois groups of quintic polynomials,” which was mentored by Awtrey. Her work describes a new method for determining the symmetry structure of the roots of an arbitrary degree 5 polynomial.
These results were obtained while she participated in SURE 2014. Since then, French has extended her work to include degree 6 polynomials, done in collaboration with Awtrey, math major Peter Jakes ’17, and Associate Professor Alan Russell. A corresponding paper has been submitted for publication.
Awtrey gave two presentations. In his talk “Introducing Galois theory in an introductory linear algebra course,” Awtrey described inquiry-based activities he has used to introduce linear algebra students to the symmetries of roots of polynomials with rational coefficients. He concluded by discussing ¾Ã¾ÃÈÈ research projects he has mentored related to the topic.
Awtrey’s second talk, “One approach to researching, presenting, and publishing with ¾Ã¾ÃÈÈ pure math majors,” gave an overview of his recent collaborations with ¾Ã¾ÃÈÈs on projects related to computational Galois theory.
In particular, Awtrey discussed the following: how he recruits students, sample funding sources, tips for beginning the writing process, appropriate dissemination outlets, and a summary of his students’ achievements and post-baccalaureate plans.