Leya Tesmenitsky '04 Presents Honors Work At Mathematics Conferences

Leya Tesmenitsky '04 completed an Honors project on "Vertex Magic Labeling" in 2004 under the direction of Professor Erika King. She has done presentations and poster presentations on this work at several mathematics conferences this past summer, with at least one more to come. Leya presented a paper titled "A Game Based on Vertex-Magic Edge Labeling" at MathFest, the national summer meeting of the Mathematical Association of America, in Providence, Rhode Island on August 12, 2004. The pictures on this page were taken at MathFest. More recently, a poster presentation with the same title was accepted to be presented at The Young Mathematicians Conference at Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, on August 21. This conference "is intended to provide an opportunity for undergraduate students around the country to present their independent research. Further it serves as a forum for faculty members who are involved in mentoring undergraduate research." As a participant, Leya's travel, housing and registration expenses were fully paid for by the conference itself. Leya found the conference a very worthwhile experience. Here is an excerpt from her reflections on the trip: "I must say -- I had the best time ever. I met really cool people and had an amazing time. My poster presentation was amazing. All the faculty complimented me and commented on how no other poster got as much attention as mine. They were not exaggerating. I always - for a whole 2 hours - had at least 5 people standing and listening to me talk. I thought that a poster presentation would be easier than a talk - nope. It is more fun though, but I ended up giving my 20 minute talk 6 times. Several times I met the head of the math department at Ohio State and he was really interested in our project (he did something very similar in undergrad). He invited me to the graduate program at Ohio. Leya has also been accepted to present an Undergraduate Student Poster Session based on her Honors Project at the annual Joint Meetings of the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Society of America in Atlanta in January 2005.