Oct 10Member-onlyA Tale of Three TalksWell, I did it, I made it to the final year of my PhD program. This has been a very dynamic semester so far as I am not teaching or taking classes. Instead my focus has been on conducting research and putting together my thesis, as well as giving talks…Mathematics5 min readMathematics5 min read
May 16Member-onlyHow did restructuring my course go?What will be my last time teaching “Mathematical Reasoning” at the University of Tennessee has just concluded. Since I had taught the course a handful of times before, I decided, for sake of experimentation, to make some substantial structural changes to the course. …Mathematics5 min readMathematics5 min read
May 15Member-onlyA rewind before the finish lineWith my one exam of the semester behind me, I am all but complete with my fourth year of grad school, and have about a year left before I defend and ultimately receive my doctoral degree. I met with one of my classmates and friends for coffee after our exam…Mathematics11 min readMathematics11 min read
Apr 19Member-onlyGraduate Student Interviewing Potential FacultyWait what, did I get the title of this post backwards? Is it supposed to be “Faculty interviewing potential graduate students?” Nope. I actually got an opportunity to be part of an interview process for a potential faculty member at the University of Tennessee, as a current graduate student. …Jobs4 min readJobs4 min read
Mar 31Member-onlyNearing the finish line: an inventory of my sources of stressEarlier this month, I formed my PhD dissertation committee and am now officially a PhD candidate as per the University of Tennessee registrar. I also had to fill out some paperwork, including signatures from my committee members and a list of all the courses I’ve taken to fulfill my degree…Mathematics3 min readMathematics3 min read
Mar 7Member-onlyA new way to view 1-to-1 correspondencesOne thing I love about teaching is that, no matter how many times you teach a certain course, you can still uncover new ways to explain the same concepts. This is exactly what happened earlier this semester in my mathematical reasoning course, when I was trying to help my students…Mathematics4 min readMathematics4 min read
Feb 7Member-onlyRelationship-building with PhD advisorsSomeone recently asked me how I’ve developed meaningful relationships with my two PhD advisors, over the 2.5 years (so far) we’ve been woring together. I think taking these steps has also helped me become a more effective researcher. For context: I am a little over a year away from defending…Mathematics2 min readMathematics2 min read
Jan 24Member-onlyOld Course, New FormatI’m excited to announce that once again, I will be teaching the Mathematical Reasoning course at the University of Tennessee. This course is a quantitative reasoning and problem-solving course aimed at non-math majors, and the enrollment is predominantly humanities students. …Education3 min readEducation3 min read
Jan 10Member-onlyTackling coding challenges in constrained optimal controlWhen I took the graduate course “Numerical Mathematics I” at the University of Tennessee two years ago, my initial understanding was that the phrase “numerical mathematics” (or “numerical analysis”) referred solely to the aspect of writing code to approximate solutions to problems numerically: systems of equations, ordinary or partial differential…Mathematics3 min readMathematics3 min read
Nov 16, 2022Member-onlyLessons learned from writing first thesis paperWell, according to my thesis advisors, the first paper between the three of us is nearing readiness for submission (and this will become part of my PhD dissertation as well). For sake of security for the project, I don’t want to go into detail on the content right here. What…Mathematics6 min readMathematics6 min read
