Math & Stats Department News

• Students from our programs were well represented at the Tennessee Academy of Science's 135th meeting at Pellissippi State Community College in November 2025. Congratulations to our winners for the best oral presentations in the two Math and CS sessions

  Session I:

  1st Place: Alysia Norales - Graduate Student

  2nd Place: Jesutoba Lopez - Graduate Student

  3rd Place: Mayuri Patel - Undergraduate Student

  Session II:

  1st Place: Alexis Mahar - Graduate Student

  2nd Place: Quinn Schneider - Undergraduate Student

  3rd Place Christian Avila - Graduate Student
  
• Dr. Nicholas Kirby presented at the 2025 Assessment Institute alongside Dr. Allie Michael from the Office of Institutional Effectiveness. Their work was on "How not to drown in data: Making sense of General Education with a deep dive into data."
  
• APSU students and faculty were well-represented at the Joint Statistical Meeting in Nashville in August 2025. Undergraduate JaNiah Harris presented a poster on "Deep Learning Models for Forecasting Treasury Bill Rates Using Gasoline Prices and Gold EPI," recent graduate Christine Jator presented on "Food Insecurities in a Blooming Rural Town: A Statistical Analysis." Additionally, Dr. Ramanjit Sahi presented work with students Aida Gueye, Laina Skaggs, Chloe Hemmelgarn, and Megan Oelgoetz on "Impacts of Extreme Precipitation on Outbreak of Cryptosporidiosis Risk in Tennessee, 2012-2021" and Dr. Mary Akinyemi gave a presentation on a project with PhD student Blessing Yama titled "Enhancing Credit Risk Assessment Through Machine Learning: A Behavioral Scoring Approach."
  
• Professors Ramanjit Sahi and Mary Akinyemi traveled to Sacramento for the MAA MathFest Conference in early August. They presented research in the session "The Next Frontier: AI Innovations in Mathematics Research, with Dr. Sahi discussing "Levering AI to Mentor Student Math Research Projects" and Dr. Akimyemi on "Forecasting Equity Prices: A Deep Learning Model."
  
• Congratulations to Christine Jator from our Statistics program for the rare feat of earning both the Wiliam McClure Drane Award and the Harvill Civitan Citizenship Award, our university's highest student recognitions. These awards honor Christine's character, scholarship, leadership and service, along with her unselfish contributions made to her school and community.
  
  
  
• The Department of Mathematics and Statistics celebrated our most outstanding students for the 2024-2025 academic year in April. In our undergraduate program, James Copp earned the Outstanding Senior Award, Jazz Kreuser and Lorraine Cutting both received our Outstanding Sophomore/Junior Award, and Christine Jator was chosen for the Nell Rayburn High Impact Practice Award. The awards for Top Student in each concentration for our Master's degree were Michael Kipngeno and Jennifer Gregory for Mathematical Finance, Ethen Carrell for Predictive Analytics, and Leah Winter for Mathematics Instruction.
  
• The Tennessee Epsilon Chapter of Pi Mu Epsilon, the national mathematics honor society, inducted eight new members in April 2025. Students who were selected into this prestigious organization include Carolyn Menees, Sorelle Djuissi Macho, Dylan Hulon, JaNiah Harris, Kemeliz Fuentes, Lorraine Cutting, Samuel Whitaker, and Skylar Carter
  
• The 2025 MAA Southeast Section Conference features ten presentations by our students and faculty.  Six APSU graduate students - Sikem Nkwawir, Dennis Kirui, Christopher Tillett, Cameron Tillett, Alysia Norales, and Michael Kipngeno - presented research within their fields of predictive analytics and mathematical finance.  Undergraduate statistics major Christine Jator gave a talk on her research on food insecurities, and there were three faculty presentations - Brad Fox on Voting Theory research, Kelly Buch on Course-Based Undergraduate Research, and Nick Kirby on Co-Teaching.
  

• APSU faculty and students filled the program at the 2025 TMTA Conference in February hosted at UT-Martin. Faculty presenters included Dr. Audrey Bullock on Math Through Play: Integrating Games for Meaningful Practice, Dr. Ben Ntatin on Mathematical Beliefs and Attitudes: Using Pictures, and Ellen Smyth on Flipped Finally Flopped & Up Floated a Better Model
  Our APSU Student/Alumni who presented were Christopher Tillett - Impact of Climate on Sugar Cane Exports, Alexandra Vezeau – Continuous Improvement Classroom, and India Foster - Order of Operations: Essential Classroom Management for New Math Teachers
• Statistics major Christine Jator presented at the 2025 Joint Mathematics Meetings in Seattle in January. Her research talk was on Clustering Analysis of Obesity and Nutritional Variations Across the U.S.
  
  
• Dr. Audrey Bullock received the 2024 Tenured Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching.  Her excellence not only inside the classroom, but also through her work in curriculum development, pedagogical research, and mentorship of future educators earned Dr. Bullock this terrific honor!
  
  
• In August Professor Sumen Sen presented at the Joint Statistical Meeting in Portland, Oregon.  His research talk was on "Doubly-Inflated Poisson INGARCH Models for Count Time Series."
  
  
• Multiple faculty and one student presented at the national conference MathFest in Indianapolis in August.  Benjamin Bruyns, a math and computer science double major, presented a poster on his research with Dr. Brad Fox on evaluating the fairness of Borda count voting methods.  Dr. Kelly Buch gave a pedagogy presentation on activities developed to introduce new notation in her Precalculus classes, and Dr. Fox presented graph labeling research involving zero-divisor graphs.
  
  
  
  
• Professor Brad Fox presented in June at the 12th International Workshop on Graph Labeling, which was hosted at AGH University in Krakow, Poland.  His presentation was on the topic of Prime Labelings of Zero-Divisor Graphs.
  
  
  
• Mathematical Finance graduate student Olayinka Ugwu and Professor Ramanjit Sahi presented in May at the online MIRDEC International Academic Conference on Economics, Business and Contemporary Discussions in Social Science, hosted in Lisbon, Portugal.  Their paper on "Predicting Oil Prices in the Presence of Geopolitical Factors" was subsequently published in the Conference Proceedings.
• Congratulations to the receipients of our 2024 Department of Mathematics and Statistics Awards!  
       - Outstanding Senior Award: Kemeliz Fuentes
       - Outstanding Sophomore/Junior Award: Kyra Lander
       - Nell Rayburn High Impact Practice Award: Christine Jator
       - Graduate Student Award in Mathematical Finance: Monsuru Durojaiye and Anthony Thai
       - Graduate Student Award in Predictive Analytics: Megan Oelgoetz and Gabrielle Burnett 
       - Graduate Student Award in Mathematics Instruction: Alice Guardo and Leah Winter
  
  
• Five students and one faculty member were inducted this spring into our chapter of the Pi Mu Epsilon Mathematics Honor Society.  Congratulations to Jason Frederick, Christine Jator, Jackson Lewis, Megan Oelgoetz, Joseph Williams, and Dr. Mary Akinyemi for this well-deserved honor!
  
  
• Four of our mathematics students presented posters at the APSU Student Research Symposium in early April.  Great work by Briauna Bonney and Sage Patten (pictured below) on Odd Graceful Labelings with Dr. Fox, Samuel Whitaker on Analysis of Heat Waves in Phoenix, and Quinn Schneider on Oil Production and Price in the US with Dr. Sahi!
  
  
• Two of our students presented at the TAS Conference in April. Jackson Lewis earned 2nd place in the Math and CS session with “Minimal Surfaces: An Introduction to Differential Geometry," and William Keener's "Differential Geometry from a Calculus Perspective" earned 4th place.
  
  

• A terrific group of 3 faculty and 12 students attended the MAA Southeast Section Conference at UT-Knoxville in March. Four of the students - William Keener, Ben Bruyns, Jackson Lewis, and Jazz Kreuser - competed in the Math Jeopardy competition, four students presented in the student or contributed paper sessions - Samuel Whitaker, Olayinka Ugwu, Megan Oelgoetz, and Monsuru Durojaiye, another student - Jackson Lewis - presented in the student poster session, and three of our Math professors presented on their research or innovative teaching methods - Drs. Nicholas Kirby, Kelly Buch, and Brad Fox.
  
  
• The (MT)^2 Conference (Middle Tn Math Teachers) was hosted at APSU in February and featured faculty presenters Dr.'s Darrough, Yantz, Ntatin, Kirby, Vogel, Dalton, and a keynote lecture by Dr. Fox. Student presenters included Shelby Hicks, Cecily Gaither, Cory Yeomans, Main Im, Hannah Olson, Peyton Pope, and Lakisha Williams from our MAED program. Dual Enrollment and Middle College students Ari Vaknin, Aiden Funches, Grace Holt, and Allison Crawford also presented.
• Two of our Math & Stats students presented research at the Posters at the Capitol event February where their work was showcased to the Governor and state legislators. Autumn Schneider investigated "Oil Production and Price in the U.S.", and Samuel Whitaker conducted an "Analysis of Heat Waves in Phoenix," both of which were mentored by Dr. Sahi.

• Five of our students - two undergraduate Statistics majors and three graduate students from our Predictive Analytics and Mathematics Finance programs - earned Student Research Support Grants.  Congratulations to these recipients!
  • Christine Jator - with Dr. Sumen Sen in 2024 on "Food Insecurities in a Blooming Rural Town: A Statistical Analysis"
  • Samuel Whitaker - with Dr. Ramanjit Sahi in 2024 on a "Study of Heat Waves in Phoenix"
  • Megan Oelgoetz - with Dr. Ramanjit Sahi in 2024 on a "Time Series Model to Predict Gastrointestinal Illnesses in Tennessee"
  • Olayinka Ugwu - with Dr. Ramanjit Sahi in 2024 on a "Study of U.S. Crude Oil Prices and Geopolitical Factors"
  • Monsuru Durojaiye - with Dr. Ramanjit Sahi in 2024 on "Quantifying Credit Risk in the Lending Industry"
• Dr. Kelly Buch presented in multiple sessions at the 2024 Joint Mathematics Meetings earlier this month in San Francisco. She gave a talk on her mathematical ecology research and a presentation on teaching math modeling, while also serving on a panel discussing standards-based grading.
  
  

• Professor Brad Fox received one of APSU's Faculty Research & Scholarly Activity grants. He'll be working with a student researcher using ranked choice election data to determine the most mathematically fair voting method.
• One undergraduate math major - Jackson Lewis - and four mathematics graduate students - Olayinka Ugwu, Paul Madu, Olalekan Durojaye, and Idris Ajibade - presented research at the 2023 Tennessee Academy of Sciences Conference in Memphis.  Jackson's talk "On the application of logistic regression to prime numbers" earned the top prize in the Math & Computer Science section.  
  
  
  
• Three undergraduates and six grad students from our Actuarial Science and Mathematical Finance programs attended the Midwest Actuarial Science Conference, where they learned about the actuarial profession, participated in a case study, and networked with employers and other students.  Dr.'s Amusan and Yantz went with students (pictured from left to right) Saheed Akintayo, Megan O’Hara, Busayo Yusuf, Jared Shanks, Chris Nikrant, Babatunde Salaudeen, Uduak Umeng, Michael Langat, and Chris Tillett.
  

• Three of our Math Education faculty, Dr. Audrey Bullock, Dr. Jennifer Yantz, and Dr. MaryLu Dalton, along with Education professor Dr. Joanne Philhower, presented in Washington, D.C. in October at the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Annual Meeting.  Professors Yantz and Dalton presentation was titled "Where's the Math? Finding Math Right under Our Noses in Our Neighborhood," and Dr. Bullock's talk was on "Making Measurement Formulas Meaningful."
  
• Christine Jator, a third-year Statistics major, presented research from her data science summer REU at the Southern Demographic Association Conference in San Antonio.  Her presentation was on a "Financial Analysis of Evictions in Dallas County." 
  
  

• Four students from our graduate program presented research at the TMTA Conference at Belmont University in September.  Paul Madu, Stanley Okoro, Samson Edozie, and Akinfolajimi Bamiigbola gave presentations on topics such as using data analytics to detect credit card fraud and mathematically modeling the relationship between corporate social responsibility and stock liquidity.
  
• Dr. Brad Fox was one of 15 participants in the REUF (Research Experiences for Undergraduate Faculty) program hosted at Brown University in August. Professor Fox worked in a team of 6 researchers in this program, which is designed to generate undergraduate research experiences at the participants' home institutions.
  
• Faculty within the Department of Mathematics and Statistics and staff in the College of STEM gathered to celebrate the retirement of James Sanders in August.  Mr. Sanders served APSU as an instructor for a remarkable 41 years.  Our department is grateful for the impact he has had on APSU studnets over his extensive career!  
  
  
• Christine Jator was one of nine participants in an NSF Research Experience for Undegraduates at Southern Methodist University in Dallas during the summer of 2023.  The program will allowed Christine, a rising junior in our data science concentration, to use cutting-edge data analytics tools to solve environmental problems in urban areas.
  
  
• Twenty middle and high school mathematics teachers began our two-year Master's program in Mathematics Instruction.  This program features a two-week session of courses in Summer 2023 before continuing with hybrid and online courses in the Fall and Spring.  
  
  
  
• Christine Jator, a sophomore statistics major, was chosen as the 2023 Tami Fraley Character Award by the College of STEM.  This awards recognizes a student who exemplifies honesty, integrity, respect, and compassion, and who serves as a role model for those at Austin Peay and in the community.  Congratulations Christine!
  
  
• The Department of Mathematics and Statistics honored its best student on April 24th in our annual awards ceremony.  Congratulations to the following recipients for their well-earned awards!  
  Dr. Nell Rayburn Award for High Impact Practices - Mackenzie Carr
  Outstanding Sophomore or Junior Award - Kemeliz Fuentes
  Outstanding Senior Award - Isac VanWormer
  Predictive Analytics Graduate Student Award - Adekunle Adefabi and Constanza Zurita Valdebenito
  Mathematical Finance Graduate Student Award - Kyle Nunn and Md Romyull Islam
  Mathematics Instruction Graduate Student Award - Kimberly Gould and Alison Fleckner
  
  
  
  
  
• APSU's chapter of the Pi Mu Epsilon Mathematics Honor Society had its 2023 induction ceremony in April.  Congratulations to the newly inducted members: Evan Stack, Marylu Dalton, and Masum Bhuiyan
  
  
• Assistant Professor Kelly Buch presented at the 2023 MAA Southeast Section Conference at Coastal Carolina University in March 2023.  Dr. Buch's presentation was on the pedagogical topic of "Demystifying Logarithms by Introducing Log Notation Before Log Concepts."
• Kayode Ogunsusi, a graduate student in our Math Finance program, presented research at the 21st Annual TMATYC Conference in Chattanooga in February 2023.  His research was on "Applying Mathematical Models in Mitigating Supply Chain Issues."  Kayode's mentor for this project was Dr. Ramanjit Sahi.
• Four Austin Peay students from our department presented at Posters at the Capital event at the TN State Capitol in Nashville.  Samantha Deems is a Math Education major who presented "Math Manipulatives for Special Education Students" on research mentored by Dr. Marylu Dalton.  Amber King, an Actuarial Science major working with Dr. Ramanjit Sahi, presented "Measurement of Real Estate Mutual Funds."  April Torres is a graduate student in our Mathematical Finance program who presented her research with Dr. Sahi on "Descriptive Analysis of Puerto Rico Excess Mortality after Hurricane Maria."  Chloe Hemmelgarn is a Biology major who also conducted research with Dr. Sahi on "Forensic Science Through a Statistical Lens."
  
  
  
  
  
• Two presentations were made by APSU faculty or students at the national Joint Mathematics Meetings in Boston in January 2023.  Professor Kelly Buch presented in a special session on modeling in mathematical ecology on "Basal Sprouts and the Establishment and Spread of Vector-Borne Disease."  Laina Skaggs, a Biology major who has conducted undergraduate mathematics research with Dr. Ramanjit Sahi, presented on the "Impact of Extreme Precipitation on Waterborne Illnesses Due to Cryptosporidiosis in TN."
• Six APSU students received honors for presentations made at the TN Academy of Science Conference in November 2022.  Graduate students Christine Bandol - "Statistical analysis of dengue fever in the Philippines", Roland Fani - "Application of mathematics in civil engineering", Anthony Thai - "Preliminary study of budget allocation in a non-profit grant-funded organization", and April Torres - "Descriptive analysis of Puerto Rico excess mortality after Hurricane Maria" were selected as the top graduate presentations in mathematics.  Undergraduates Chloe Hemmelgarn - "Understanding forensics through statistics lens" and Amber King - "Performance measure for real estate mutual funds" were chosen as the top two undergraduate presentations in our area.  All six students were mentored on their research projects by Dr. Ramajit Sahi.
  
• Professor Brad Fox presented a research poster at the national conference MathFest in Philadelphia in August 2022.  This was joint research with undergraduate math major Holly Carter on a topic within graph theory.
• Madisson Russell was selected as the 2022 Drane Award recipient, which is given to the university's top member of the graduating class based on character, scholarship, and leadership.  Congratulations to Madisson on this incredible honor!
  
• The Department of Mathematics and Statistics honored seven of its top students at our annual awards ceremony.  Congratulations to the following recipients:
  
  Outstanding Senior: Erin Sherman
  
  Outstanding Sophomore: Christine Jator
  
  Dr. Nell Rayburn Award for High Impact Practices: Madisson Russell
  
  
  Graduate Student Award for Mathematics Instruction: Sara Grey
  
  Graduate Student Award for Predictive Analytics: Yunwi Jikong and Tamara Niccum
  
  Graduate Student Award for Mathematical Finance: Enerstin Mbi Kang
  
  
  
• Six students were inducted into our chapter of the Pi Mu Epsilon Honor Society in April.  The new inductees are Leah Dowlen, Chelsea Grant, Gabriella Morin, Mackenzie Carr, and Sebastian Motes. Congratulations to them for this terrific honor!
  
  
• Senior math major Holly Abrams presented her research at the Joint Math Meetings, the largest national mathematics conference in the country, which was held virtually in April.  Holly's poster was included in the AMS-Pi Mu Epsilon Undergraduate Student Poster Session.  Her research on Odd Prime Graph Labelings was with Professor Brad Fox.
• Three APSU students presented research at the 2022 MAA Southeast Section Conference at Berry College in March 2022.  Madisson Russell gave a research talk on "Statistical Analysis of Wildfires," Holly Abrams presented on "An Exploration of Odd Prime Graph Labelings," and Joseph Semler presented a poster on "Rational-Logarithmic 4th Order Method and Application to a First-Order Pantograph Equation."  Congratulations to Holly, whose presentation earned a Patterson Prize as an Outstanding Student Presentation.  Additionally, Holly and Madisson, along with Erin Sherman and Alex Edwards, represented APSU in the annual Math Jeopardy competition. 
  
• Isamar Rachal and Chelsea Martinez, who are Masters students in our Mathematical Instruction program, presented at the Annual (MT)² Conference in January 2022.  Their presentation was on "Technology in Education."
  
  
• APSU was well-represented at the 2021 TMTA Fall Conference in October as several of our Mathematical Instruction Masters and Middle School Math students gave presentations.  Speakers included graduate students Kara Underwood, Sabrina Lindstrom, and Sara Grey on "Engaging Students through Classroom Games," Anthony Taylor on flipped classrooms in his presentation "Flip It!", and Sheri Beaver on "Ideas for Teaching AP Calculus."  Dr. Audrey Bullock also presented alongside Middle School Math major Melanie Hammons on the topic of "Making Sense of the Metric System."
  
• Three APSU students presented at the Math and Computer Science section of the 2021 TAS Conference in November.  Undergraduates Laina Skaggs and Madisson Russell, both mentored by Dr. Ramanjit Sahi, gave presentations on "Severe precipitation events and their effects on waterborne illnesses" and "Pros and cons of California land preservation," respectively.  Graduate student Yufenyuy Sevidzem Simo also presented on "Pricing option strategy using the binomial option pricing model."
• Associate Professor Rebecca Darrough received well-earned recognition as a 2021 Socrates Award for Excellence in Teaching winner.  This award recognizes tenure-track professors who inspire and motivate their students through their outstanding teaching.  Congratulations Dr. Darrough!
• Our Master's in Mathematics Instruction program welcomed a cohort of 26 teachers, the largest in the program's history, for their math boot camp in June.  This intense two-week session of classes begins their two-year journey towards a graduate degree.
  
• Kara Underwood was selected as the 2021 William McClure Drane Award recipient.  This honor is bestowed on the top member of APSU's graduating class based on their character, scholarship, leadership, and service to the university.  This couldn't have gone to a more deserving student, and we are excited for two of our math majors to sweep the top two student awards!  Congratulations Kara!
• The Harvill Civitan Citizenship Award is given to a graduating student for their outstanding contribution to good citizenship during their college career.  The 2021 recipient is Mathematics Education major Sara Grey.  We are so proud of all her accomplishments that led to Sara earning this recognition!
• Congratulations to the following winners of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics awards for 2021: Outstanding Senior - Kara Underwood, Outstanding Sophomore - Madisson Russell, and the Dr. Nell Rayburn Award for High Impact Practices - Holly Abrams.  These honors are well-deserved!