The NDSU Department of Mathematics is set to host the 25th annual Sonia Kovalevsky Day Saturday, Oct. 8, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the A. Glenn Hill Center’s room 300.
The event focuses on mathematics activities, games and career information for young women in grades 8-12. Female high school students and their teachers from throughout the region come to Fargo to meet NDSU mathematics faculty, professional women who use math in their careers and other high school students who are interested in math.
Organizers include NDSU faculty members Maria Alfonseca-Cubero, Artem Novozhilov and Jessica Striker.
“The Sonia Kovalevsky Day is the NDSU mathematics department's yearly outreach activity for high school female students,” said Alfonseca-Cubero, professor of mathematics. “It provides a unique opportunity to high school girls to find out about the many applications of mathematics to fields such as medicine, finance, aviation, cybersecurity and city planning, and to meet professional women from the F-M area who work on these areas. This is particularly important for small enrollment high school students, who may not have such female role models in their hometowns. Participants come from all of North Dakota and Minnesota, starting with the Fargo-Moorhead area but even from towns bordering Montana or Canada, or beyond the Twin Cities. Depending on the year, we have had between 20 and 50 participants in the past.”
The keynote speaker is scheduled to be Ekaterina Lukasheva, an expert in origami designs and the author of the kusudama.me website. Planned workshop leaders are Janet Page, assistant professor of mathematics, and NDSU graduate student Chase Reuter.
The event honors Kovalevsky, a pioneering Russian mathematician who made contributions to analysis, differential equations and mathematics mechanics. She was the first woman to obtain a doctorate in mathematics and the first woman to be appointed to a full professorship in northern Europe.
All participants will receive prizes. A light breakfast and pizza lunch also will be provided.
The program is supported by the NDSU Department of Mathematics, the NDSU College of Science and Mathematics, the office of the Provost, the NDSU Foundation, Microsoft and the NDSU Alumni Friends of Sonia Kovalevsky Day.
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