Student Projects

In the Department of Mathematics, we seek to engage students in activities and projects that they find of particular interest. This gives students the opportunity to delve more deeply into mathematical ideas. There have been many projects and senior theses in mathematics over the past few years. Below is a list of some recent student projects:

Mathematics and Art. In addition to her interest in mathematics and teaching, one of our recent graduates was very interested in literature, especially poetry. She did a project in Geometry that integrated the mathematics of rigid transformations (tessellations) and poetry.

The physics of golf. For his senior thesis project, this student chose to investigate the mathematics (primarily, differential equations) involved in describing the flight of a golf ball from the initial force of hitting the ball off the tee, through landing on the ground.

The Brachistochrone problem. A ball is released from a certain height and moves along a path given by some mathematical curve. The question is: along which curve does the ball reach the ground in the shortest amount of time? The student studied an area of mathematics called the “calculus of variations” in order to understand the solution to the problem.