News, Talks, and Teaching

2025

• November: I gave a talk on Simulating the Large Deformations of Thin Sheets at the Graduate Applied Mathematics Seminar.
• Fall semester: I led a semester-long undergraduate research project as part of the Directed Reading Program on the Mathematical Modeling of Thin Sheets. I designed a curriculum, held seminar-style meetings, and advised a final presentation.
• Fall semester: I served as a graduate mentor for We Inspire STEM Empowerment, a course for undergraduates in STEM which informs students about opportunities in their fields of interest, both local and abroad. I revised students’ research poster presentations and resumes, and I provided advice about job applications and interviews in scientific disciplines.
• September: I became a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow (and I was featured on the UW-Math social media accounts like Facebook!)
• September: I passed the Applied and Computational Mathematics PhD qualifying exams!
• June: I visited the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as a research affiliate with Chris Rycroft and our research group.
• May: I presented a poster on my research at the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) Research Symposium at UW-Madison.
• January: I became a teaching assistant for Calculus and Analytic Geometry 1 at Madison. Some student responses:
  • _{“I like how she went around the room to help us all and was available after discussion to help individually. She was very clear and easy to understand, and I felt comfortable going up to her with questions.”}
  • _{“She’s so kind and can see that she loves to teach all her students”}
  • _{“Ann is very helpful and there are no “stupid questions”. She is always assertive and kind to the students.”}

2024

• September: I began my PhD studies and started as a research assistant for Chris Rycroft in the math department at UW-Madison.
• August: I graduated summa cum laude with a BS in applied mathematics from the University of Utah.
• May: I began my position as an LA for MATH 1050 – College Algebra at the University of Utah. This was my sixth time being an LA, and this round was particularly involved in regard to material preparation, discussion facilitation, and student mentorship.
• April: I presented a poster at the Math for All satellite conference in Salt Lake City with my fellow research group members, Sathya Tadinada and Storey Peacock. We presented a summary of our project on the singular value decomposition for complex-valued matrices.

2023

• October: I was selected to attend the GROW conference at Duke University. I learned many helpful tips for graduate school and the application process and spoke with amazing female mathematicians like Ingrid Daubechies (of the Daubechies wavelet).
• January: I began my first LA experience. Here are some reviews from my students:
  • _{“She was incredible, helped explain questions and kept everyone on task. Nice and concise, never made anyone seem stupid for asking their questions.”}
  • _{“Ann was great! She was always willing to help out if we had questions and overall was a great LA!”}
  • _{“Ann was always helpful when having a question. She was really good at teaching us.”}