Abstracts for the MAA Undergraduate Poster Session Atlanta, GA January 6, 2017 Organized by Eric Ruggieri College of the Holy Cross and Chasen Smith Georgia Southern University Organized by the MAA Committee on Undergraduate Student Activities and Chapters and CUPM Subcommittee on Research by Undergraduates Dear Students, Advisors, Judges and Colleagues, If you look around today you will see over 300 posters and nearly 500 student presenters, representing a wide array of mathematical topics and ideas. These posters showcase the vibrant research being conducted as part of summer programs and during the academic year at colleges and universities from across the United States and beyond. It is so rewarding to see this session, which offers such a great opportunity for interaction between students and professional mathematicians, continue to grow. The judges you see here today are professional mathematicians from institutions around the world. They are advisors, colleagues, new Ph.D.s, and administrators. We have acknowledged many of them in this booklet; however, many judges here volunteered on site. Their support is vital to the success of the session and we thank them. We are supported financially by Tudor Investments and Two Sigma. We are also helped by the mem- bers of the Committee on Undergraduate Student Activities and Chapters (CUSAC) in some way or other. They are: Dora C. Ahmadi; Jennifer Bergner; Benjamin Galluzzo; Kristina Cole Garrett; TJ Hitchman; Cynthia Huffman; Aihua Li; Sara Louise Malec; Lisa Marano; May Mei; Stacy Ann Muir; Andy Nieder- maier; Pamela A. Richardson; Jennifer Schaefer; Peri Shereen; Eve Torrence; Violetta Vasilevska; Gerard A. Venema; and Jim Walsh. There are many details of the poster session that begin with putting out the advertisement in FOCUS, ensuring students have travel money, making sure the online submission system works properly, and organizing poster boards and tables in the room we are in today that are attributed to Gerard Venema (MAA Associate Secretary), Margaret Maurer (MAA), and Donna Salter (AMS). Our online submission system and technical support is key to managing the ever-growing number of poster entries we receive. Thanks to MAA staff, especially Margaret Maurer for her work setting up and managing the system this year. Preparation of the abstract book is a time-consuming task. Thanks to Beverly Ruedi for doing the final production work on the abstract book. Thank yous go to Angel R. Pineda (California State University, Fullerton), James P. Solazzo (Coastal Carolina University), Rebecca Garcia (Sam Houston State University), and Dora Ahmadi (Moorehead State University) for organizing an orientation for the judges and authoring the judging form. Thanks to all the students, judges, volunteers, and sponsors. We hope you have a wonderful experience at this years poster session! Eric Ruggieri College of the Holy Cross Chasen Smith Georgia Southern University 1 The MAA gratefully acknowledges the support of Tudor Investment Corporation and Two Sigma. Their generosity on behalf of the 2017 Undergraduate Student Poster Session enables students to interact with peers and role models in the mathematical sciences during the largest mathematics meeting in the world. Support for the student travel grant is provided by the National Science Foundation (grant DMS-1341843). Judges and Judge Affiliations 1. Roza Aceska, Ball State University 2. Bahar Acu, UCLA-USC 3. Stephen Adams, Cabrini University 4. Terrence Michael Adams, US Government 5. Konrad Aguilar, University of Denver 6. Waleed K. Al-Rawashdeh, Montana Tech 7. K. Scott Alberts, Truman State University 8. Ricardo Alfaro, University of Michigan-Flint 9. Mohamed Allali, Chapman University 10. Leyda Almodovar Velazquez, Stonehill College 11. Carlos Enrique Amendola, TU Berlin 12. Ibukun O.O. Amusan, Kentucky State University 13. Katie Anders, University of Texas at Tyler 14. Jacqueline M. Anderson, Bridgewater State University 15. Kathy Andrist, Utah Valley University 16. Angela Antonou, University of St. Francis 17. Moa Apagodu, Virginia Commonwealth University 18. Kassie Archer, University of Texas at Tyler 19. Mary Armon, Knox College 20. Andrea Arnold, North Carolina State University 21. Alexander G. Atwood, SUNY Suffolk County Community College 22. Chad Awtrey, Elon University 23. Mohammad K. Azarian, University of Evansville 24. Liljana Babinkostova, Boise State University 25. Nicholas R. Baeth, University of Central Missouri 26. Eric Bancroft, Grove City College 27. Debendra Banjade, Coastal Carolina University 28. Madhuri Bapat, Easten Arizona College 29. Rachel Barber, Mississippi State University 30. Roberto Barrera, Texas A&M University 31. Terry Lee Barron, Georgia Gwinnett College 32. Jeremiah D. Bartz, University of North Dakota 33. Deepak Basyal, University of Wisconsin Colleges 34. Daniel J. Bates, Colorado State University 35. Rachel Bates, Redlands Community College 36. Scott F. Beaver, Western Oregon University 37. Julie C. Beier, Earlham College 38. Julie A. Belock, Salem State University 39. Robert Benim, University of Georgia 40. Jenn Berg, fitchburg state university 3 4 Judges and Judge Affiliations 41. Heidi Berger, Simpson College 42. Charles Bergeron, Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Science 43. Jennifer Bergner, Salisbury University 44. Daniel Irving Bernstein, North Carolina State University 45. Ghanshyam Bhatt, Tennessee State University 46. Karen M. Bliss, Virginia Military Institute 47. Kelly Bodwin, UNC Chapel Hill 48. PRIYA BOINDALA, Georgia Gwinnett College 49. Lynette J. Boos, Providence College 50. John Botzum, Kutztown University 51. Rachelle Bouchat, Indiana University of Pennsylvania 52. Dani Brake, University of Notre Dame 53. David M. Bressoud, CBMS 54. Abra Brisbin, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire 55. Elisabeth Mary Brown, North Carolina State University 56. Melanie Brown, Champlain College 57. Kurt M. Bryan, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology 58. Douglas G. Burkholder, Lenoir-Rhyne University 59. Steve Butler, Iowa State University 60. Jason Todd Callahan, St. Edward’s University 61. Santiago Camacho, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 62. Kristin A. Camenga, Juniata College 63. Mindy Capaldi, Valparaiso University 64. James W. Carlson, Creighton University 65. Lori Carmack, Salisbury University 66. Debra Carney, Colorado School of Mines 67. James Case, Baltimore MD 68. Christopher J. Catone, Albright College 69. Pritha Chakraborty, Texas A&M University Corpus Christi 70. Darryl Chamberlain, Georgia State University 71. Sandra Chandler, Kennesaw State University 72. Shih-Wei Chao, University of North Georgia 73. Scott Chapman, Sam Houston State University 74. Kevin E. Charlwood, Washburn University 75. Vinodh Kumar Chellamuthu, Dixie State University 76. Tao Chen, CUNY LaGuardia Community College 77. Zhengqing Chen, Clarkson University 78. Po-Keng Cheng, SUNY-Stony Brook University 79. Elena Cheser, University of Hartford 80. Sher Chhetri, Florida Atlantic University, FL 81. Leah Rene Childers, Pittsburg State University Judges and Judge Affiliations 5 82. Youngin Cho, Ewha Womans University 83. Sl-Ghi Choi, University of Texas at Arlington 84. Timothy Chumley, Mount Holyoke College 85. Yu-Min Chung, College of William and Mary 86. Emily Cilli-Turner, University of Washington Tacoma 87. Veronica Maria Ciocanel, Brown University 88. Karen Elizabeth Clark, The College of New Jersey 89. Richard J. Cleary, Babson College 90. Henry L. Cohn, Microsoft Research New England 91. Benjamin Collins, University of Wisconsin-Platteville 92. James Burton Collins, West Texas A&M University 93. Randall E Cone, Salisbury University 94. Ivan Guillermo Contreras, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 95. Catherine Lynn Crockett, Point Loma Nazarene University 96. Jennifer Crodelle, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 97. Susan Crook, Loras College 98. Lawrence A. D’Antonio, Ramapo College 99. Ulrich Daepp, Bucknell University 100. Raj Dahal, Coastal Carolina University 101. Daniel A. Daly, Southeast Missouri State University 102. James Andrew Davis, University of Richmond 103. Rachel Davis, University of Wisconsin-Madison 104. Laura De Carli, Florida International University 105. Meghan Maureen De Witt, St Thomas Aquinas College 106. Louis A. Deaett, Quinnipiac University 107. Joyati Debnath, Winona State University 108. Steven M. Deckelman, University of Wisconsin 109. Mihiri DeSilva, Texas Tech University 110. Sougata Dhar, Northern Illinois University 111. John C. D. Diamantopoulos, Northeastern State University 112. James Dilts, University of California, San Diego 113. Dinh Trung Hoa, Auburn University 114. Tam Do, Rice University 115. Daniel W. Dobbs, Trine University 116. Yinlin Dong, University of Texas at Arlington 117. Elizabeth Donovan, Murray State University 118. Suzanne Doree, Augsburg College, Minneapolis 119. Allison Dorko, Oregon State University 120. J. Matthew Douglass, NSF / UNT‘ 121. Sarah Dumnich, Frostburg State University 122. Jacob Duncan, Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame 6 Judges and Judge Affiliations 123. Eric Alan Eager, University of Wisconsin - La Crosse 124. Richard Abe Edwards, Michigan State University 125. Joseph A. Eichholz, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology 126. Sarah Eichhorn, University of California, Irvine 127. Galit Eizman, Harvard University 128. Ahmad El-Guindy, Texas A&M University at Qatar 129. Sharon Emerson-Stonnell, Longwood University 130. Martin F. Engman, Georgia Institute of Technology 131. Rachel Epstein, Georgia College 132. Samantha Erwin,