The Department of Mathematics in the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences hosted a “Girls Summer Math Camp” in August of this year. The event was set up and hosted by Assistant Professor Sabrina Streipert, and Professor Marta Lewicka from the Department of Mathematics. It ran from August 12 -16 of this year.
The organizers received 15 applications from teen girls in the Pittsburgh area and nine girls, aged 13 – 16 were selected to participate in the event. Streipert says one of the motivations of the event was to show how dynamic math degrees can be and to get the younger, female, generation excited about a possible career in STEAM.
During the week-long event, students listened to attended lectures in different mathematical areas such as on Mathematical Biology, Geometry, Analysis, and Algebra before applying it themselves in group projects. The lecturers include Streipert and Lewicka as well as Associate Professors Jason DeBlois, Bogdan Ion. The afternoon project sessions were assisted by PhD Students Isabel Barrio Sanchez, Rui Fang, Anna Thomas, Akshara Vincent and Sara Weinstein of the University of Pittsburgh Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) Chapter.
Students also benefited from departmental and guest lecturers by Andrew Melon Professor Thomas Hales, Post-Doctoral Associate Rahnuma Islam, Distinguished Physics Professor Jeremy Levy. Camp visits were arranged for the students to Jeremy Levy’s Quantum Physics Lab and Associate Professor Wei Xiong's Materials Science Lab in the School of Engineering. On the final day of the event, each student presented one of the projects that they worked on during the week and found particularly intriguing. A visit to the Cathedral of Learning and a certificate ceremony completed the event.
Streipert says math is not a dead science as some students believe and wanted this program to get younger students to start thinking about math differently.
“[We are] Challenging students in a specific way and getting them started in thinking in different ways to solve problems.”
She says the event was made possible by the Chair of the Department of Mathematics, Dehua Wang, the lecturers, the PhD students, colleagues Jeremy Levy and Wei Xiong and their entire labs, as well as the staff members who supported this event. After having a successful pilot run, both Lewicka and Streipert hope to continue this camp annually for the foreseeable future.