Julie
Lang
My Résumé & My
Curriculum Vita
Please
pardon any question marks appearing on this page; the editor does not like
apostrophes, accent marks, quotation marks, or certain spaces... but only sometimes
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My hair's shorter(ish) now and
I wear way more jewelry than pictured.
Résumé Last updated Jan 2015 CV Last updated Jan 2017 CONTACT ME
I
have a mailbox on the 4th floor of LeConte which I check daily SCHEDULE
SPRING 2017 (Subject to change during the first week of class; the fitness events are more
of an aspiration than a fixed schedule)
THINGS THAT ARE NOT MINE, BUT YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT
ANYWAY *Quiet, number theorists! =P |
GTA
TEACHING
I LOVE teaching! For details on how I like to teach, see the
"Math stuff I'm into" section below
Review sheet from a previous semester of Calc I is available here. Topics sheet from a previous semester of College Algebra is available here. And please, call me Julie! Every semester, my
students insist on dumping some awkward title in front of my name. Please do
not fall into this trap. Call me Julie. PRESENTATIONS
(Email me for details)
LINKS TO
PAST PROJECTS
MATH STUFF I'M INTO I have been hooked on graph
theory for years- domination and identifying codes, but I have also looked
into locating-dominating sets, knot tiles, and teaching! (as well as all of
the stuff described above in my past projects). Some of my favorite classes
that I took during my undergraduate years were (in no particular order
whatsoever) topology, graph theory, real analysis, capstone, electricity and
magnetism, complex variables, discrete mathematics, optics, modern physics,
and Spanish conversation. In grad school, my favorite class tends to be
whichever one I understand better at the time. At the moment, I am working with Dr. Skaggs on defining the "spring number" of a graph, as well as trying to find the identification number of n×n queen's chessboard graphs in our spare time... kind of. It's fun to doodle these topics. I'm still playing with (1, ≤2)-identifying codes too! I love talking about my research; I encourage you to ask me about it! It will make sense to you even if you are not a mathematician! It makes me so happy!! Adelina Kaye once said "How do you make Julie smile? Ask her how her research is going!" So I'm really into discrete
math and that is something that I want to work on more. I would also like to
learn more about geometries and stuff like that. Teaching is another thing that I enjoy more than I can say. My teaching style is moderately interactive and very energetic. (I know that I am on ratemyprofessors under Kansas State as well as USC, so if you'd like to read some of those reviews, go right ahead). I not only try to convey the course material in a down-to-earth, accessible way, but I also try to squash math's undeserved reputation of being "boring". It is so much fun to explain things to people and watch their faces light up when they finally "get it". I really find it intriguing how we can best communicate our idea not only to share in understanding, but also to admire the beauty and cleverness of proof! I care deeply about my students; I will give students all the attention they desire if it will help them learn. Additionally, I work hard to build my students' confidence in their answers and not give things away so easily; this way they recognize that they need to justify things to themselves based on what they already know, not just take MY word as law. My opinion is that I am a resource that students should be able to utilize as much or as little as they find useful. My first research projects, with Dr. Dora Ahmadi, actually sought to improve how College Algebra classes were taught. This is still a very interesting topic to me and I am eager to tell all about it. Additionally, I enjoy creating mathematical fiber arts (see the "A little bit about me" section for links). A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ME I love being a nerd. I grew up
in a little town called Alexandria in northern Kentucky with my parents and
two sisters, graduated high school in 2008 and went to Morehead State
University. There, I completed an area of concentration in mathematics as
well as majors in physics and Spanish. I was privileged to be able to work as
an undergraduate research fellow for four years with the wonderful Dr.
Dora Ahmadi, mostly concerning a redesign of college algebra classes at
MSU and a similar project in regional high schools. I spent a lot of my free
time at Morehead hanging out in the physics lounge and going to classes in
which I was not enrolled (all of the learning with none of the stress!) My
capstone project in 2011 was about modeling complex networks with
preferential attachment graphs and I got to collaborate with Blake Nickell
and Angela Collier, as well as my advisor, Dr. R.
Duane Skaggs. I was thrilled to work with him and Lindzey Thacker on identifying
codes of graphs the following year (the project that inspired me to make I'm into domination t-shirts!) I also
worked as Dr.
Robin Blankenship's assistant for a semester where I learned important
things like how to grade and got to enjoy her bubbly personality. I was an
active member of Morehead's Math, Computer Science and Physics club and was
elected a co-vice president in 2010 as well as being a co-president of the
Physics club 2011-2012. With these clubs, I was able to attend many
conferences and take trips to wonderful places such as Fermilab. In the summers of 2010 and 2011, I had REUs at Marshall University where I made many marvelous friends and worked with Dr. Howard Richards on math under the label physics and Dr. Peter Saveliev on physics under the label math. In the summer of 2012, I visited the Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica to work with Dr. José Rosales Ortega and John Casey studying complexification of real vector spaces as well as improving my Spanish. After graduating from Morehead and my little adventure abroad, I came to K-State and continued working on my project with Dr. Skaggs. For my master's thesis, I decided to investigate a weird idea that I had come up with while bored at a conference. I explained the concept to Dr. Sarah Reznikoff and she agreed to be my advisor and help me turn doodling into a real thesis. What I had been calling bidentifying codes turned out to already have the (somewhat less fun) name (1, ≤2)-identifying codes, so I proved a handful of theorems about those. After my master's, I studied for a semester at the Universidad de Puerto Rico Río Piedras, tutoring, and teaching a Zumba knock-off that we called Zúmbate. Obviously, my Spanish improved a lot, but sadly, I discovered that I am not okay with how UPR runs their department. Since that was a bust, I went back to Manhattan, KS and spent the Spring of 2015 tutoring math at Sylvan Learning Center (everything from Kindergarten Let's practice writing numbers to AP Calculus... sometimes simultaneously), tutoring upper level math through Educational Support Services at K-State (Intermediate Algebra, Business Calculus, Calculus I, II, and III, Differential Equations, and Discrete math), and working as a freelance tutor. I let students set their own rates (to ensure that help is available at prices the student is okay with!). Working at ESS gave me a neat opportunity to help visually impaired students learn math!! In May of 2015, I took my first non-math-related trip in almost a decade, going to Buenos Aires for two weeks with the amazing Edward Minor to learn Argentine tango and to visit the Cataratas de Iguazú. It was life-changing! In case it isn't completely obvious, I love collaborating on cool projects with awesome people. To me, that is one of the best parts about doing math! Almost everything is more fun when it is shared! But besides studying, I enjoy dancing (salsa, merengue, bachata, east and west coast swing, Argentine tango; honestly, I am a bit of a dance addict and I'll dance pretty much anything with structure), walking, foreign languages (me encantaría hablar consigo en español - ¡tengo que practicar!), baking, zumba, yoga, a plethora of fascinating and disturbing animal facts, being Plant Mom to as many plants as possible, and chatting with friends. In my spare time, I really like doing mathematical fiber arts; I knitted a Sierpinski Carpet afghan and crocheted two afghans with a golden spiral. I have dubbed these mathghans because that's kind of a fun word. I have also made a hyperbolic skirt -- a portion of the order 7 triangular tiling of the hyperbolic plane (2 coronas). If I get any free time this semester (which is unlikely because graduate school believes that no time is free) I will likely spend it dancing. If you know a good place to dance in Columbia, let me know!! DFTBA |
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tl;dr: Julie loves math,
prefers graph theory, and has done a lot of nerdy math things. She has
bachelor's degrees in math, physics, and Spanish from Morehead State, a
master's in math from Kansas State, did a stint at Universidad de Puerto
Rico, then spent a semester tutoring. She is excited to be at University of
South Carolina now, teaching awesome classes and working on her PhD. Email
her for details on anything! |
