“This exposure to national conferences in math and STEM is so valuable in opening students’ eyes to future career opportunities while introducing them to networking within the larger mathematics community,” said Dr. Leslie Aquino, associate professor of mathematics and chair of UOG’s Division of Mathematics & Computer Science.

The students’ research posters were the result of their work during UOG’s Summer Math Research Experience last summer. It was an intensive eight-week program that challenged the students to use math to inform solutions on the spread of diseases among humans and corals and other real-world problems. The students applied game and graph theory to take a deeper, data-driven look at specific issues. 

The UOG student poster presentations at JMM were as follows:

• A Graph Theoretic Approach to Studying Gout on Guam
  Ricardo Duenas II, Cindy Gitiri Ruto, and Colin Valencia
• A Game-Theoretic Model for Mpox in a Heterogeneous Mixing Population
  By Johndeo Bulatao, Ryan Daproza, and Alexander Greene
• Modeling the Effectiveness of Facial Cleanliness to Combat Trachoma
  Mark Ira Galang, Liam McManus, and Angel Velasco
• Sudoku Polynomials
  Ash Kiel and Anastasia Smith

“Presenting their research at a national conference like JMM is an honor for students and shows that all their hard work from summer has paid off,” said Professor of Mathematics Dr. Hyunju Oh. “This also shows that a small program like ours can consistently produce high-quality research.”

Aquino and Oh accompanied the students on the trip. Aquino additionally represented Guam and UOG in a special session on Indigenous Voices in Mathematics with a presentation about UOG’s Summer Math Research Experience, which has successfully mentored both university-level and high school students for 6 years, with many continuing on to earn advanced degrees in mathematics or related fields.

“We are always so proud of our summer math research students and the work they do. The teams from Summer 2024 were all accepted for poster presentations at a national conference this year,” Aquino said, adding that one team presented at the SACNAS NDISTEM Conference October in Phoenix.

At the event of nearly 6,000 people, the UOG group found several familiar faces in the crowd, including Michael Dorff, professor of mathematics at Brigham Young University and former president of JMM, who came to Guam in 2022 as a visiting speaker for UOG’s Math Day. They also reconnected with several UOG alumni:

• Jovic Caasi, ’22 B.S. Mathematics and B.S. Computer Science, who completed his master’s in applied mathematics at University of Washington in 2024.
• Vince Campo, ’19 B.S. Mathematics, who is pursuing a doctorate in math at Arizona State University.
• Henry Song, ’21 B.S. Computer Science, who has since completed his master’s in computer science from Seattle University.

Their travel was funded through a National Security Agency grant and a National Science Foundation Incorporating Human Behavior in Epidemiological Models (IHBEM) grant.

Students from 10th grade to university level who are interested in participating in the math research experience next summer can email mathreu@triton.uog.edu.