What attracted you to FAU?
I have lived in Florida for most of my life and completed high school there. FAU attracted me because of its ROTC program and also because of its proximity to my home.
How did you come to choose FAU to pursue a degree in math at FAU?
I chose FAU initially because of its Army ROTC program. I wasn’t aware of the many career fields available with a math degree and instead focused on studying mathematics for pure enjoyment since my dream of joining the military wouldn’t depend on my degree choice. However, after being a part of FAU’s ROTC program for a year, I was medically disqualified from joining the military and shifted my attention toward the math program with a new focus on exploring ways I could get more involved in the department and understanding what career fields were possible through a math degree.
Service in the military appealed to me because of the existence of positions, such as a Civil Affairs Officer, that contribute to global humanitarian aid and community building. In the pursuit of finding a career path that could provide similar contributions, I joined Student Government and explored career paths that could combine math and governmental service. My love for math then deepened as I was finishing my bachelor's degree, and my math classes became more difficult. I also began to learn of the role that applied math research has in supporting and developing a variety of tools aimed at contributing positively to global and local communities. I then decided that I wanted to continue my education in mathematics and participate in math research.
I enjoyed working with my peers, and the professors in the math department were highly supportive and collaborative. This led me to apply to FAU’s master’s program in mathematics. I then reached out to Dr. Motta to begin research in the summer before joining the graduate program. I very much enjoyed the process of getting a master’s in math at FAU, and I was able to find a lot of enjoyment from the classes, colloquiums, and involvement in research and math-related student chapters (SIAM and AMS).
What attracted you to math? Why FAU?
I chose to get a master’s in math because I really wanted to get involved in applied math research. I decided to pursue my master’s at FAU because it was close to home, and I also really liked the math department. Many of the professors are very encouraging and approachable and I had also gotten to know many of the graduate students as I completed my undergraduate studies at FAU. I also wanted to work with Dr. Motta because his research is highly interdisciplinary and applied.
What are your research interests?
At FAU, I have been able to participate in research in Topological Data Analysis (TDA) under the direction of Dr. Motta. Through my research, I gained exposure to working with machine learning (ML) pipelines and neural data. This research gave me insight into the tools available to learn information from large and noisy datasets while giving me the opportunity to contribute to a project aimed at improving the TDA to ML pipeline.
I am interested in using dynamical systems to create mathematical models and would like to use my experience in machine learning to explore ‘hybrid’ models that use both machine learning and mathematical modeling techniques to improve the predictive power of mathematical models.
What are your past/current research projects?
I am currently working with Dr. Motta and Dr. Edwards to create ‘unreduced persistence diagrams’ (UPDs) to be used in the typical Persistent Homology (PH) to Machine Learning (ML) pipeline. The goal of this work is to use these UPDs as a topological descriptor of various datasets while avoiding the computational complexity of creating regular persistence diagrams and even achieving better performance in ML classification tests.
Dr. Motta and I have also collaborated on an ongoing project led by Dr. Rosen and his student Matthew Trang. The project uses neural data obtained from a live mouse over a period of time in which the mouse is either eating or not eating. The data was collected from the Stern Lab in the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience. Our goal was to use the dataset given to us to identify neurons that discriminate between time periods where the mouse is eating vs time periods where the mouse is not eating and extract features that a ML model can use to accurately classify what activity the mouse is engaged in. I gained experience extracting topological features from neural data and exploring the vectorization types of these features.
My primary focus is on the UPD project. I wrote my master’s thesis on this project, and I still continue to participate and work on this project even after graduating and living in DC!
What is life as a graduate student like at FAU?
Being a graduate student came with many challenges. One of the most difficult challenges was the time management between working as a GTA and keeping up with my classes. However, because all of the other GTAs had to be on campus a lot to work and study and because of the fact that our class size was quite small, I felt that I was able to create a really strong support system among my classmates. We often held study sessions and helped each other with homework problems if we had the same shift at the tutoring center. With time, I also began to view many of my classmates as friends, which helped me look forward to going on campus to study and work.
Tell us about your research interests, your MS defense presentation, and if you will continue further with this research? How will you contribute to the literature?
My research interests are in data interpretation and mathematical modeling. While at FAU, I researched problems in Topological Data Analysis (TDA) and wrote my master’s thesis on a project called ‘Topological Machine Learning with Unreduced Persistence Diagrams.” I worked on this project under my committee co-chairs, Dr. Motta and Dr. Edwards.
Both the writing of my master’s thesis and the defense planning were very fast. I started the graduate program in the Fall 2023 semester and was planning on graduating in the Fall 2024 semester, so I started forming my committee in the Spring 2024 semester. I remember regularly staying in my office until 9pm throughout the summer and fall semesters to write my thesis, keep up with my school work, and prepare the thesis defense. I had lots of support from my advisors, though, who gave me really useful feedback, advice, and encouragement throughout the whole process. At the end of the semester, I successfully defended my master’s thesis. The week after my defense, I also attended and gave a short talk about the project at the 31st Annual Fall Workshop on Computational Geometry.
Although I have graduated from FAU, I am still working on the partial persistence diagram project with Dr. Motta and Dr. Edwards. There are a lot of questions in this project that can still be explored which is very exciting. I hope that this project can contribute to improving the TDA to ML pipeline.
Who are the faculty members that were most instrumental in guiding you in your research and your degree at FAU?
Dr. Motta has been very influential in getting me involved in research and offering advice and encouragement throughout my graduate studies. He was always willing to have lengthy discussions about current research projects and I never felt intimidated to ask him questions. He also offered advice and feedback as I applied to PhD programs.
Dr. Edwards was the one who brought the idea for the partial persistence diagrams to Dr. Motta. It has been very fun to work in a small team with them and I have learned a lot from both Dr. Motta and Dr. Edwards about standards and clarity when conducting research and writing abstracts and papers. It’s both fun and rigorous working on this project with them.
The two professors who were assigned to teach Analysis and Algebra the year that I started graduate school- Dr. Mireles-James and Dr. Rosen, respectively- were also highly encouraging and effective in their instruction, which contributed greatly to my academic success. I was also invited by Dr. Rosen’s student, Matthew Trang, to work on my first research project. Working on the project with Dr. Rosen, Dr. Motta, and Matthew exposed me to math research, and I learned a lot from the experience.
What clubs or leadership activities are you involved in at FAU?
During my undergraduate studies, I was a part of the math club as the secretary for about 2 years. I also served in Student Government for three years in various positions, including House Secretary, House Parliamentatian, and then the President's Chief of Staff. During my time in Student Government, I was able to oversee and collaborate on numerous projects- including a public mural-painting event on the Boca Raton campus, sexual assualt/mental health awareness campaigns, the appropriation of $1.13 million to FAU Student Government Programs and Departments on the Boca Raton campus, and the creation of a university-wide committee aimed at creating partnerships between FAU administration and students to prioritize the university's commitment to environmental sustainability efforts and reporting. Through Student Government, I also lobbied the state legislature on behalf of FAU with the interest of securing support for future academic enhancements to the university. As a student leader, I was also selected by the Hillel center to travel to Israel/Palestine with other student leaders and meet with local leaders in the area to learn about the conflict first-hand.
Alongside Student Government, I also represented FAU for two National Model United Nations (NMUN) conferences while serving as the Vice President of the Diplomacy Club. For both conferences, FAU won first place. In the second conference, my partner delegate and I were chosen as best delegates in the Peacebuilding Commission.
During my graduate studies, I served as the secretary for the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) and American Mathematical Society (AMS) student chapters. While part of these organizations, I helped organize student and professor talks, research paper reading groups, and large events such as the 2024 Florida Women in Math Day. As a result of my time in the Diplomacy Club during my undergraduate studies, I was selected to serve as the assistant program director for a study abroad trip to Paris and Geneva during March 2023. During this trip, I joined a small group of student leaders to visit organizations that foster international cooperation and peace, such as the United Nations, the Red Cross Museum, and CERN.
My involvement in these organizations greatly developed my collaborative and organizational skills, while creating opportunities for me to balance my love of mathematics with my desire for public service.
What research accomplishments to date are you most proud of? Where have, or where will, these accomplishments lead you in the near and far future?
I am most proud of completing my master’s thesis/preparing my master’s thesis defense and then presenting the unreduced persistence diagram project at the 31st Annual Fall Workshop on Computational Geometry. It was a valuable experience to prepare information on the same project but in 3 different formats. In my thesis, I had to be very technical and precise. While preparing for my defense, I needed to figure out how to fit the main idea of my research into a 1-hour presentation while still providing a sufficient amount of background, and making decisions about which details to sacrifice. While preparing for the Workshop talk, I needed to condense the project into only a 15-minute presentation.
Preparing the same information in three different formats helped me develop some skills in explaining the same information differently. This skill will be essential as I continue to participate in math research and prepare for qualifying exams.
Have you met life-long friends and colleagues here? How have these relationships helped you in your studies and your life?
I have met so many incredibly intelligent, hardworking, and kind people while at FAU. My peers contributed to my success in completing my master’s program and created a highly collaborative environment. I have made many life-long friends and hope that I will be able to cross paths with them many times again in the future.
What will you do post-graduation?
I will be continuing my math education as a PhD student in the Applied Mathematics & Statistics, and Scientific Computation program at the University of Maryland, College Park, this upcoming Fall. I hope to get involved in applied research focusing on mathematical modeling.
Will you continue with your current research interests? Will that lead to employment? I what fields? Where? What kind of work will you pursue, and where?
I plan to continue working on the project with Dr. Motta and Dr. Edwards. While studying in the PhD program at UMD, I hope to get started on research related to mathematical modeling as soon as I can while focusing on passing the qualifying exams.
What has been the most beneficial aspect of your time here at FAU?
Overall, the most beneficial aspect of my time at FAU has been the ease of research involvement. Many professors are very open to working with students on research projects, and I feel that my research experience made me a stronger candidate for PhD programs and also helped me develop important skills- such as applying to conferences, applying for travel reimbursement, mathematical writing, coding, and giving math presentations. I think that a lot of my success can be attributed to the welcoming and collaborative nature of the math department at FAU from both the faculty, staff, and students.
