Sarah Gourlie, Graphical Studies
of the Complex Geometric Series
Maryland, DC, Virginia section of the Mathematical Association
of America
Spring Meeting, University of Virginia, April 2, 2005
Sarah was one of two student speakers
who won awards for their presentations at this conference. The judges
cited her clear explanations, knowledge of her subject, and the level of
interest of her results. She received a $50 prize and a book.
Sarah's presentation described a graphical representation for infinite series
in the complex plane. These summation graphs, as she calls them, can
take on striking geometric patterns. In her research during the summer
of 2004, Sarah investigated how and why these patterns occur. A few
sample patterns are shown below. To
see the slides from her presentation, click here.