Welcome to the M³ Webpage!!!

M³: Mentoring for Minorities in Mathematics is part of the National Research Experience for Undergraduates Program (NREUP) funded by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), the National Science Foundation Division of Mathematical Sciences (NSF-DMS), the National Security Agency (NSA), and the Moody's Foundation (Moody).

The topic for Summer 2007 is Discrete Mathematics with applications to Biology.  We will be in session from May 14^th to June 22^nd.  The following four students are the primary investigators for this research:

• Charell Wingfield (left of James Madison)
• Michael Frempong (right of James Madison
• Jan Herburt-Hewell (behind James Madison)
• Michael Dankwa (in front of  James Madison)

Project Summary:

During the first two weeks of the M³ program, the participants will be introduced to discrete equations focusing on both analysis and numerical simulation. The director will present numerous open questions and ask the students to choose a couple on which to concentrate. The entire program (participants and director) will work together to solve the open questions pertaining to two-gender population models.

During the third and fourth week of this research experience, the students will perform a biological investigation of mate choice by male Betta splendens fish using video playback of females.  In this experiment, the students will determine whether males spend more time with and direct more courtship behaviors to a female with vertical lines than to a female without vertical lines.  This experiment will be in addition to the open questions started during the first two weeks.

During the final two weeks of this research experience, the students will conclude their research along with developing a mathematical model of mate choice in Betta splendens. The students will give a 50 minute presentation of their research results on the last day of the program.  After the conclusion of the research experience, the students will disseminate their results in July at the JMU Biology REU poster session, a poster and oral presentation in October at the Shenandoah Undergraduate Mathematics and Statistics Conference, and the director will be giving an oral presentation of the results in August at the Society for Mathematical Biology's annual meeting.

Final Presentations - Friday, June 22^nd at 1:30 pm in Roop 103

• The influence of Female-Male Interactions on Offspring Sex Selection, Michael Dankwa and Jan Herburt-Hewell
• Infectious Disease Modeling of Human Papillomavirus, Michael Fremprong and Charell Wingfield

Click here to go to Anthony Tongen's webpage.

Thanks again to MAA, NSF-DMS, NSA, and Moody for their generous support of this project!! 

edited on 5/24/07