Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

An Operational Drought Prediction Framework With Application Of Vine Copula Functions, Mahkameh Zarekarizi

Student Research Symposium

Early and accurate drought predictions can benefit water resources and emergency managers by enhancing drought preparedness. Soil moisture memory is shown to contain helpful information for prediction of future values. This study uses the soil moisture memory to predict their future states via multivariate statistical modeling. We present a drought forecasting framework which issues monthly and seasonal drought forecasts. This framework estimates droughts with different lead times and updates the forecasts when more data become available. Forecasts are generated by conditioning future soil moisture values on antecedent drought status. The statistical model is initialized by soil moisture simulations retrieved from …

Cox Processes For Visual Object Counting, Yongming Ma

Student Research Symposium

We present a model that utilizes Cox processes and CNN classifiers in order to count the number of instances of an object in an image. Poisson processes are well suited to events that occur randomly in space, like the location of objects in an image, as well as to the task of counting. Mixed Poisson processes also offer increased flexibility, however they do not easily scale with image size: they typically require O(n3) computation time and O(n2) storage, where n is the number of pixels. To mitigate this problem, we employ Kronecker algebra which takes advantage of the direct product …

Math And Sudoku: Exploring Sudoku Boards Through Graph Theory, Group Theory, And Combinatorics, Kyle Oddson

Student Research Symposium

Encoding Sudoku puzzles as partially colored graphs, we state and prove Akman’s theorem [1] regarding the associated partial chromatic polynomial [5]; we count the 4x4 sudoku boards, in total and fundamentally distinct; we count the diagonally distinct 4x4 sudoku boards; and we classify and enumerate the different structure types of 4x4 boards.

Non-Orientable Objects As Gaming Surfaces, Haley P. Bourke, Paul Latiolais

Student Research Symposium

Developed in Python, Klein Space Fighter is an interactive learning tool and mathematically themed arcade game that allows the player to combat on different mathematical surfaces including a 2D Klein bottle. The app is available for Android and desktop devices, and will be made available for iOS in the future.

To receive an invitation to download the app through Google Play, contact me at HaleyoBourke@yahoo.com

The Smallest Intersecting Ball Problem, Daniel J. Giles, Mau Nam Nguyen

Student Research Symposium

The smallest intersecting ball problem involves finding the minimal radius necessary to intersect a collection of closed convex sets. This poster discusses relevant tools of convex optimization and explores three methods of finding the optimal solution: the subgradient method, log-exponential smoothing, and an original approach using target set expansion. A fourth algorithm based on weighted projections is given, but its convergence is yet unproven. Numerical tests and comparison between methods are also presented.