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Qingyi Lu Completes Honors Project

Qingyi Lu WS'19, a double major in mathematics and computer science, has completed an Honors project, "Machine Learning for Phylogenomics: Improving Statistical Binning Techniques for Species Tree Reconstruction." The project was mentored by Professor Joseph Rusinko.

An Honors project is a year-long independent project, usually undertaken in a student's senior year, culminating in substantial Honors theses and an oral examination by a panel of three examiners. Lu's project looked for ways of improving classification of organisms into phylogenetic trees. According to her abstract, "Phylogenetics studies the evolutionary history among a set of individuals, genes or species, which plays an important role in biology. Because past evolutionary events cannot be directly observed, statistical models are needed to estimate the phylogenetic trees. Consequently, accurate estimations of phylogenetic trees could provide effective evidence for studies in biology." In the project, Lu approached the problem by implementing "four machine learning techniques (K-Nearest Neighbors, Support Vector Machine, Random Forest and Neural Network)."


Posted 7 May 2019

Computer Science Majors and RockSat-C

Two computer science majors, William Elliman H'20 and Victoria Loshusan WS'20, are among the four students who make up the 2019 Hobart and William Smith Colleges RockSat-C team. RockSat-C is a program sponsored by NASA and the Colorado Space Grant Consortium. The team has designed and built a system for measuring muon flux and magnetic fields that will be launched as one of the payloads on a sounding rocket. The payloads built by various teams will collect data during the rocket flight. The HWS team is one of nine teams that have been selected to contribute payloads to the project. Loshusan and Elliman will spend ten days in June at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility working on the project.

Posted 7 May 2019

Hamdan Ahmed '20 Named Newman Civic Fellow

Computer Science major Hamdan Ahmed (Hobart '20) was named Newman Civic Fellow in March. This fellowship honors students who have worked to solve problems facing their community. Hamdan is one of only 262 students to receive this honor for 2019–20.

According to the HWS web site: "The Newman Civic Fellowship, named for Campus Compact co-founder Frank Newman, is a one-year experience emphasizing personal, professional and civic growth for students who have demonstrated a capacity for leadership and an investment in solving public problems. Through the fellowship, Campus Compact provides a variety of learning and networking opportunities, including a national conference of Newman Civic Fellows in partnership with the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate. The fellowship also affords fellows with access to apply for exclusive scholarship and post-graduate opportunities."

Posted 1 May 2019

Department Student Prizes for 2018

At the end of each academic year, the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science awards a number of student prizes for academic excellence in mathematics or computer science. The prizes for 2018 were as follows:
  • The Robert Beinert Prize, awarded to a a graduating Senior for excellence in Mathematics, Drew Scammell.
  • The John S. Klein Prize, awarded to a graduating Senior to recognize excellence in Computer Science, to Jacque Kane.
  • The Catherine Adele Rippey '35 Prize, awarded to a William Smith Senior to recognize excellence in Mathematics, to Jacque Kane and Theresa Lohr.
  • The Glenn M. Lee Prize, awarded to the Hobart Senior who has been most proficient in mathematics and athletics, to Lukas Ruddy.
  • The Abigail Mosey Book Prize, awarded to a Hobart or William Smith Senior for generosity in helping others to learn and appreciate mathematical ideas, to Wenshi Wang.
  • The William Ross Proctor Prize, awarded to the William Smith Sophomore who has achieved the highest rank in mathematics in her first two years at the Colleges, to Kaitlyn Geraghty and Kelsey Pierce.
  • The Irving Bentsen Prize, awarded to the second year student at Hobart College who has the most outstanding record in mathematics and computer science, to Jesse Maltese and Hugh (Nick) McKenny.

In addition to these prizes, we note that Frank Oplinger completed his Honors project in Computer Science, entitled "ScoutPlus: A Web Application for the Development of Advanced Hockey Analytics".

And two senior Mathematics minors were inducted into the national honor society Phi Beta Kappa: Lauren Kogelman and Mitchell Hutteman.

For more about student prizes in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, including lists of past recipients, visit our department prizes page.

Posted 17 May 2018

Honors Project

Frank Oplinger (Hobart '18), a double major in Computer Science and Physics, is working on an Honors project in computer science during his senior year. For his project, Frank — who is also a member of the Hobart hockey team — is designing and implementing a web site that can be used to record and share statistics for junior hockey players. The title of the project is ScoutPlus: A Web Application for Advanced Junior Hockey Analytics.

Honors at Hobart and William Smith Colleges is a two-semester project, culminating in a substantial Honors Thesis and an oral exam by a panel of three examiners.


Posted 2 December 2017

Mathematical Phylogenetics Scholars

In June of 2016, HWS was awarded a three year $180,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to support research in Mathematical Phylogenomics. This grant made HWS one of only six institutions to receive funding for Mathematical Biology under the Research at Undergraduate Institutions designation.

A primary component of this grant program is the Mathematical Phylogentics Scholars program which provides long-term financial support for HWS students to conduct research in a unique blend of mathematics, computer science and biology. Current Scholars include Qingyi Lu, Jacque Kane, Jesse Maltese and Ally Doherty. The aim of this program is for scholars to gain admission to top doctoral programs in STEM fields, and to publish their research in peer-reviewed journals, and to present their findings at professional meetings.

Last year, participants presented their findings at the Mathematical Association of America's Spring Seaway Sectional meeting held at SUNY-Oswego. This year Jacque Kane has received a travel award from the Mathematical Associate of America to present her research at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Diego.

Students interested in learning more about this program should contact Professor Rusinko.

Posted 1 December 2017

Luke DeLuccia '15 Does Robotics

Luke Deluccia '15, who majored in computer science at Hobart College, was profiled in an article on the HWS web site, DeLuccia '15 Pursues Career in Robotics.

Luke took a course in robotics and was inspired to pursue several independent studies on the topic with Professor John Vaughn. He also took part in a summer undergraduate research experience at the University of California, San Diego. He went on to graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania, where he completed an engineering master's degree in robotics in 2017. He has recently accepted a job with SRI International, a Stanford University spin-off that now serves as an independent, nonprofit research center. His position there focuses on vision and learning.

Posted 17 August 2017

Departmental Prizes for 2017

At the end of each academic year, the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science awards a number of student prizes for academic excellence in mathematics or computer science. The prizes for 2017 were as follows:
  • The Robert Beinert Prize, awarded to a a graduating Senior for excellence in Mathematics, Duncan Lilley.
  • The John S. Klein Prize, awarded to a graduating Senior to recognize excellence in Computer Science, to Erin Condon, Duncan Lilley, and Brian Tosado-Prater.
  • The Catherine Adele Rippey '35 Prize, awarded to a William Smith Senior to recognize excellence in Mathematics, to Yu (Phoebe) Cai.
  • The Glenn M. Lee Prize, awarded to the Hobart Senior who has been most proficient in mathematics and athletics, to Sean Cunningham.
  • The Abigail Mosey Book Prize, awarded to a Hobart or William Smith Senior for generosity in helping others to learn and appreciate mathematical ideas, to Casey Coffey and Mark Curiel.
  • The William Ross Proctor Prize, awarded to the William Smith Sophomore who has achieved the highest rank in mathematics in her first two years at the Colleges, to Qingyi Lu.
  • The Irving Bentsen Prize, awarded to the second year student at Hobart College who has the most outstanding record in mathematics and computer science, to Christopher Stedry and Philip Joon Yoo.

For more about student prizes in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, including lists of past recipients, visit our department prizes page.

Posted 30 May 2017

ΦΒΚ 2017

Several mathematics and computer science students were elected to Phi Beta Kappa (ΦΒΚ) in 2017.

This year's senior inductees include math major August Bruno '17, math minor Katherine Campbell '17, computer science major Erin Condon '17, and computer science major Brian Tosado-Prater '17.

In addition, Duncan Lilley '17, a double major in math and computer science, was elected last year as a Junior. And math minor Emma Gordon '18 was elected as a Junior this year.

ΦΒΚ is a national honor society with chapters at many colleges and universities. Students are elected by current members of the chapter, who were themselves elected to ΦΒΚ during their own undergraduate careers.

Posted 30 May 2017

Finalists for The Pitch 2017

Two computer science majors, Maxim Zibitsker H'19 and Dominique DeRubeis WS'18 were finalists in the 2017 Pitch competition. The Pitch is an annual contest where students develop and promote ideas for products or services. The final contest was held on Wednesday, March 2. The four finalists competed for a $10,000 prize by presenting their projects to a panel of judges made up of four HWS alumni who have been successful in the business world.

Maxim's proposal, "Aqua Salutem Technologies," was to develop a hardware and software system that could be deployed at beaches and pools to detect swimmers who are in danger of drowning and send alerts to lifeguards.

Dominique's proposal, "Rabit Microfinance Initiative," envisioned an organization that would provide microloans to refugees in Jordan’s Zaatari camp with the option of financing according to Islamic banking standards. (Dominique worked with another student, Angel Salas-Espana.)

The Stu Lieblein '90 Pitch was established to promote entrepreneurial leadership and is organized by the Centennial Center for Leadership of Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

Posted 3 May 2017