Dr. Barry Peratt selected as MAA Distinguished Teacher for North Central Section


The selection committee for the North Central Section of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) has selected Dr. Barry Peratt as their winner for the 2018 Distinguished Teaching of University Mathematics Award. Peratt was announced as the winner at their spring meeting, which was held at Minnesota State Mankato April 20-21, 2018.

Peratt has been a tenure track faculty member at Winona State University since 1996 and has been responsible for teaching a wide variety of undergraduate mathematics courses. He has been heavily involved in curriculum reform of Pre-Calculus, Calculus, Differential Equations, and various service courses.

Peratt’s teaching style can be described in terms of interaction and motivation. Regarding the interactive element, even when he teaches a class more than once, it is always very unique because the composition of each class is unique. Student interest, mathematical background, and even the mixture of personalities determine how he approaches them with the material. Regarding the motivational element, he makes it intentional that he never introduces topics for which he cannot provide students with a solid motivation.  He believes that mathematics, even with more abstract subjects like Advanced Calculus, grew out of a need and were motivated by very real challenges that humans were attempting to negotiate.  This is a constantly present element in his teaching.

Students comment on his teaching evaluations that he has great projects in his courses. They state that it greatly impacts their learning of the material. He utilizes projects in all of his courses, from the very applied projects in his classes full of engineers to the very abstract and theoretical students in his classes such as Advanced Calculus, to the more pedagogically oriented ones in Modern Geometry.
“Peratt is the ‘Cadillac’ of mathematics professors,” said Nicole Williams, Professor and Chair of the Math Department. “He gets students through the material on a smooth ride where they learn the material, understand conceptually the content, and build expertise in procedural, application, and modelling skills.”

Outside of the classroom, Peratt has contributed to the field of mathematics teaching by collaborating on writing curriculum modular units for the Monterey Institute for Technology in Education, publishing articles on Topology, presenting at conferences, and working with students on undergraduate research projects.

He works diligently to ensure that WSU students are successful in their careers. Along with his outstanding understanding of students’ struggles, Peratt promotes an excellent learning environment and works diligently to ensure that WSU students are successful in their careers.

“As I look back over my life, I can see clearly how many people have played a role in forming me as a teacher, from my parents to former teachers, mentors, students, and colleagues.  I am deeply indebted to each of them,” said Peratt. “ It is only on their behalf, recognizing that this award properly belongs to all of them, that I feel I can sincerely receive and joyfully embrace this honor.”

Source: WSU News Blog

2018 Spring Awards Ceremony

Congratulations to all our AWESOME students!

Mu Sigma Rho Inductees

Pi Mu Epsilon Inductees

Departmental Scholarship Recipients
(more info about scholarship recipients)

Honored Graduates
Gabe Mancino-Ball -- Departmental Outstanding Student
Nick Meyer -- University Distinguished Student of Mathematics
Jimmy Hickey -- Departmental Outstanding Student
Megan Roth -- University Distinguished Student of Mathematics: Secondary Education

Student Research Seminar

12:00 - 12:50 PM, Wednesday, April 25, Gildemeister 155

Refreshments served beforehand Gildemeister 135. 

 

Parametric Weibull Survival Regression Model of Coronary Heart Disease

Courtney Steinmueller

This presentation explores the Framingham Heart Study, which began in 1948 and examined subject biennially for cardiovascular results. The goal of my research was to create a RShiny application that models survival analysis of the Framingham Heart Study data and identifies important predictors of Coronary Heart Disease.


    Fastenal Data Research Assistant  

Samantha Meyer

My internship as a Data Research Assistant at Fastenal involves managing data and creating reports used for business decision-making. One big project I worked on was making a predictive model for forecasting Net Sales. Come learn about my experience.

Student Research Seminar

12:00 - 12:50 PM, Wednesday, April 18, Gildemeister 155

Refreshments served beforehand Gildemeister 135. 

 

Fastenal Commodity Intelligence Analytics

Eddie Schmit 

In my internship at Fastenal, I worked on a country cost projection program for our supply chain. I took current country prices on certain parts and used their projections to try to predict cost from other countries of origin. In other projects, I used R and data manipulation to compare parts on different attributes. I also created programs using Excel VBA to optimize work flows.



    Analyzing an Overwatch Player’s Skillset  

David Stampley Jr. 

 

By scraping data from Overbuff and MasterOverwatch websites, we identified which hero from each of the four classes was the strongest. Building a logistic regression model, we were able to examine which statistics were most important to satisfy the condition of winning for the population of players in a given skill tier in comparison to the player codenamed Stampede20.

Student Research Seminar

12:00 - 12:50 PM, Wednesday, April 11, Gildemeister 155

Refreshments served beforehand Gildemeister 135. 

 

NBA Draft Analytics

Sam Dokkebakken 

Analytics analyzing both individual and team sports performance have become increasingly important. My study centers on the NBA draft. The order in which players are drafted affects both a player’s salary and a team’s immediate and future personnel decisions. I will consider  the many factors that influence draft order, and will present the outcomes of my investigation.



   Mathematics and Art:
The Union of Two Beautiful Worlds  

Talen Raben 

 

Visual artists face the problem of representing a three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface. In this project, I develop a means of mapping points in three-space directly to points on a two-dimensional plane, and then use this method to create the image of a large architectural space.

MUDAC 2018


The Midwest Undergraduate Data Analytics Competition was held April 7-8, 2018 on the WSU campus.

MUDAC 2018 Quick Facts
  • About 130 students from all over the Midwest participated; they represented over 20 universities
  • About 20 academic advisers assisted the teams, volunteered to judge, etc.
  • About 40 working professional assisted with judging of the outcomes
  • Just short of 10 organizations participated in the job/internship fair
MUDAC 2018 Outcomes
  • WSU was able to bring three teams to MUDAC 2018.
  • There were 35 teams total – the top teams from Round #1 judging move into Round #2.  Two WSU teams made it to Round #2.  
  • Outcomes:  WSU Team 05 took FIRST PLACE OVERALL!  WSU Team 26 made it to round #2 but did not place.  WSU Team 12 was ranked #7 (out of 35), and just narrowly missed making it into Round #2.
WSU Teams
  • WSU Team 05 (1st place overall): Bradley Erickson; Uzma Ghanzanfar; Brad Hennes; Jimmy Hickey
  • WSU Team 26 (Top 5 finish): Thomas Gathje; Stacey Miertschin; Austin Ellingworth; Dalton Wardell
  • WSU Team 12 (7th place out of 35 teams): Kapil Khanal; David Stampley Jr; Mariah Quam; Reagan Buske

Student Research Seminar

12:00 - 12:50 PM, Wednesday, April 4, Gildemeister 155

Refreshments served beforehand Gildemeister 135. 

 

My Mathematical Journey with the Z-Transform

Gabriel Mancino-Ball 

This presentation explores the theory of the Z-Transform and its applications. We will investigate an application of the Z-Transform in signal processing and learn how equalizers are used in music. We also discuss the use of asymptotic analysis of divergent series to approximate functions.


  Chaotic Random Number Generation  

Michael Holmblad 

 

This talk focuses on creating and testing a pseudo random number generator (PRNG). Our algorithm uses a chaotic dynamical system called the tent map. We discuss the process of modifying the tent map to produce a more random distribution, coding, testing, and final evaluation of the resulting number generator.