NDSU to host math event on Sept. 22

The NDSU mathematics department hosted the 16th annual Sonia Kovalevsky High School Mathematics Day Sept. 22. The event attracted 31 female students and eight teachers, the second highest attendance in the past six years.

Participants included 11 students from nearby schools, including Davies High, Fargo North, West Fargo High School and Youth Education Services in Moorhead, as well as 20 students from schools across North Dakota, including Belfield, Dickinson, South Heart, Sawyer and LaMoure.

The program consisted of three hands-on workshops, a keynote address, a career panel, a mathematics competition and prize ceremony. The workshops included: "The game of Nim" presented by Lindsay Erickson, a graduate of NDSU's doctoral mathematics program and a current faculty member at Concordia College in Moorhead; "Cylinders, Moebius bands, and topology," presented by Josef Dorfmeister, NDSU mathematics faculty; and "The geometry of Tetris," presented by Mark Spanier, NDSU mathematics graduate student.

The keynote address on "Pricing an insurance claim with cards and dice" was delivered by invited speaker Catherine Micek of Travelers Insurance in Minneapolis. The career panel featured Micek and four local female engineers, who answered students' questions about their jobs.

NDSU is recognized as one of the nation's top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.