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U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. – Lt. Col. Leann Ferguson has observed many U.S. Air Force Academy Department of Mathematical Sciences female cadets’ confidence soar after attending the Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics.
A cadet from the Class of 2022 desperately needed an experience to boost her confidence, said Ferguson, the department’s faculty development director and assistant mathematical sciences professor. She made certain that the cadet attended the conference in her sophomore year.
“We specifically singled her out to go to this conference,” Ferguson said. “She was a different person when she came back because she saw what was possible and that other women had some of the same struggles that she did.”
A group of female cadets will attend the 26th annual conference in Lincoln, Nebraska, Jan. 26-28. The conference’s goal is to arm participants with knowledge, self-confidence and a network of peers to help them become successful mathematicians.
An increased interest in math
In recent years, the Department of Mathematical Sciences experienced a dramatic increase in its ratio of female-to-male graduates as well as the total number of cadets majoring in math, Ferguson said. Over a three-year period, between 2019 and 2021, only one female math major graduated. The overall number of math graduates doubled to approximately 20 cadets a year and, of these, eight were female.
“We still haven’t pinpointed the reason but, beginning in the spring of 2019, our recruitment numbers started going through the roof,” Ferguson said. “We almost tripled our numbers and now graduate between 27 to 35 math majors a year.”
From attendee to presenter
Cadet 2nd Class Caroline Guiler is one of those people who directly benefitted from attending the conference. She has experienced confidence struggles with her math skills.
“So many of my peers just seemed more successful, and I just wouldn’t get it,” Guiler said. “The conference definitely helps in that respect, whether it is confidence or realizing that you can do research and be a competitive person in the math field.”
Guiler attended the 2023 conference and will present a poster at this year’s conference. Guiler and two other cadets – Cadet 2nd Class Renata Russell and Cadet 3rd Class Jane Santamore – will give presentations on the mathematical posters they created, followed by an informal question-and-answer session.
Guiler’s presentation will focus on a U.S. grain database. She was inspired by the damage to Ukraine’s grain production from the war with Russia, she said. She incorporated data from the public grain database based on state production and trades with other countries and organized her data to determine production trends.
“I’m a Russian minor, and I’ve learned a lot about the conflict with Ukraine,” Guiler said. “A big impact is grain production. That’s why I wanted to look at grain production and trade. We are training a computer program to look at the relationships between the data.”
| Date Taken: | 01.18.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 02.18.2024 11:40 |
| Story ID: | 464224 |
| Location: | U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, CO, US |
| Hometown: | COLORADO SPRINGS, CO, US |
| Web Views: | 173 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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