Spring 2026
Tuesday, February 24th
Hemanth Kapa '27
Enhancing Tomographic Membrane Analysis: A GUI for Surface Morphometrics Pipeline
Membrane shape and organization are central to cellular function, influencing protein interactions, organelle communication, and signaling. Cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) enables high-resolution 3D visualization of membranes in their native state, but quantitative analysis remains technically demanding. The surface morphometrics pipeline addresses this by measuring membrane properties such as curvature, spacing, and orientation from cryo-ET data. To improve accessibility, we are developing a graphical user interface (GUI) built on python based interactive viewer Napari that streamlines the workflow. The interface includes a configuration editor, integrated visualization of segmentation and quantification data, and a Docker-packaged backend for reproducibility across computing environments. This tool makes advanced membrane ultrastructure analysis more accessible to the broader research community.
Noon
Tome 115
Pizza provided
Tuesday, March 24th
Dr. Lucas Waddel, Bucknell University
Integer Programming: Turning Scheduling Nightmares into Mathematical Dreams
This talk will take place on Tuesday, March 24, in Tome 115 at noon. Seems straightforward enough. But have you ever considered who made that decision? Or how they made it? Scheduling decisions affect our lives in countless ways every single day, yet scheduling remains one of the most notoriously difficult problems in mathematical optimization. ESPN famously introduced this phenomenon to mainstream audiences in their 30 for 30 Short documentary “The Schedule Makers” about Major League Baseball scheduling. One popular technique used to model and solve large-scale scheduling problems is called integer programming (IP). In this talk we will explore why scheduling is so difficult, and we will learn how to create IP models in the context of two real-world applications: (1) daily tutor scheduling at Hopeful Journeys Educational Center, a school for children with autism spectrum disorders and other developmental disabilities, and (2) final exam scheduling at Bucknell University.
Noon
Tome 115
Pizza provided
Tuesday, April 14th
Anne Pham '26 - Departmental Honors Talk (Advisor: Professor Ferland)
Grid Slime Trail is PSPACE-Complete
Slime Trail is a mathematical game featured in Portugal's National Mathematical Games Championship. Despite its simple rules, determining the winner under optimal play is computationally intractable. Professors Ferland and Burke (2017) proved that Slime Trail is PSPACE-complete when played on arbitrary planar graphs but left the grid version as an open problem. This talk presents a proof that resolves that problem via a reduction from the Quantified Boolean Formula (QBF) problem, adapted to handle the geometric and parity constraints imposed by grid structures.
4:30pm
Tome 117
Cookies & drinks provided
Tuesday, April 21st
Victor Heinze '26 - Departmental Honors Talk (Advisor: Professor Schaefer)
Involutions and Generalized Symmetric Space of the Modular $p$-Group
Generalized symmetric spaces, which extend the notion of symmetric spaces on Lie groups to finite groups, have applications in various areas of math and physics. Research in this area has determined the symmetric spaces of many finite groups. In this talk, we find the generalized symmetric spaces of the modular $p$-group, $M_m(p)$. We begin by investigating the structure of $M_m(p)$ including the order and the inverse of each element. We then find the automorphism group of $M_m(p)$ and the involutions within this group. For each involution $\phi$, we determine the fixed-point group, generalized symmetric space, and extended symmetric space. This work extends the research on the generalized symmetric space of the modular 2-group $M_m(2)$.
Noon
Tome 115
Pizza provided
Wednesday, April 22nd
Mathematics and Computer Science Majors' Dinner
6:00-8:00pm
HUB Social Hall
Served meal by Dining Services
Trivia Contest
PME & UPE Inductions
Prizes & Awards
Tuesday, April 28th
Computer Science Senior Seminar and Research Students Poster Session
Noon-1:15pm
Tome Hall Library
Refreshments provided
Wednesday, May 6th
Mathematics and Computer Science Year End Picnic
Noon-1:15pm
Tome Hall Back Lawn
Hamburgers, hot dogs and veggie burgers grilled by our very own Math & CS faculty