Mathematics Undergraduate Research
Research Opportunities in Math
How do undergraduates do research in mathematics?
Many of the Department of Mathematics faculty members are engaged in scholarly research and often have opportunities for students. In addition, the department is currently participating in interdisciplinary research with the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems and Department of Chemistry.
Students may participate in undergraduate research in two ways:
- Individual, independent study conducted on a topic selected by the student
- Individual or group studies conducted on an existing faculty member's research interest
These options are an essential part of the University's Undergraduate Research Program (URP) and Quality Enhancement Program (QEP). The department's research activities support both the URP and QEP programs.
For additional information on recent research projects in math and other
disciplines, visit the University Undergraduate Research page
at https://www.una.edu/ug-research/
Current Research Projects
2022-2023
Hanna Joy Jefcoat
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
CHCHD2 Impact on Autosomal Dominant Parkinson 22.
First Place STEM Poster Session November 2022, HudsonAlpha Symposium 2023
Andrew Mullins
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Characterizing a Variant of TGFBR2 associated with Marfan Syndrome
STEM Poster Session November 2022, HudsonAlpha Symposium 2023
Scarlett Swinea
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Exploration of the FBXW7 Missense Mutation R505H
STEM Poster Session November 2022, HudsonAlpha Symposium 2023
Emily Gregory
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Exploration of the GNB5 Protein Variants at Position L307R
STEM Poster Session November 2022, HudsonAlpha Symposium 2023
Ruben Henrickson
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Investigation of PKD2 Variants
STEM Poster Session November 2022
Baxter Avie Halder
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Exploration of the Gene CLCN5 in Dent Disease
Third Place in STEM Poster Session November 2022
Recent Research Projects
2021-2022
Morgan Fisher
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Exploration of Gene CLCN2's Role in Bipolar Disorder
Presented at NABT CESR Poster Session 2022, STEM Poster Session 2021, and HudsonAlpha Symposium 2022
Emily Ingle
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Investigation of E181K on CDKL5 Gene
Awarded Honorable Mention at HudsonAlpha Symposium 2022, UNA Scholars Day Presentation 2022
Abbey Steadman
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Characterization of K510N on the APP Gene
Awarded Best Presentation at UNA Scholars Day Presentation 2022
Hannah Robertson
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Investigation of PSEN1 Variants Related to Dementia
Third Place Award at HudsonAlpha Symposium, UNA Scholars Day Presentation 2022, UNA STEM Poster Session, Third Place UNA STEM Poster Session
Kendall Crowell
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Characterization of R354W in KCNA5 Gene
Presented at HudsonAlpha Symposium 2022 and UNA Scholar Day
Austin Castleberry
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Comparison of CYP11B1 Gene Mutations
Presented at HudsonAlpha Symposium 2022 and UNA Scholar Day
Hannah Tidwell
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Characterization of P73L on TREX1 Gene
Presented at HudsonAlpha Symposium 2022 and UNA Scholars Day 2022
Irma Ajualip Huarcas
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Exploration of the FECH Protein Variants C411G and C411F
Presented at HudsonAlpha Symposium 2022, UNA Scholars Day 2022, and STEM Poster Session 2021
Olivia Morris
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Investigation of variants of F8 and F9 relate to hemophilia
Presented at NCUR 2022, HudsonAlpha Symposium 2022, Selected as CUR STR Intern 2022, second place UNA STEM Poster Session 2021
Luke Terwilliger
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
An Investigation of the PSEN2 Swap Mutation T380M
Intern at HudsonAlpha BioTrain Program, Presented at Alabama Academy of Science 2022, First Place STEM Poster Session 2021, HudsonAlpha Symposium 2022, Selected as CUR STR Intern 2022
Page Joyner
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Beta Hexosaminidase A and Tay-Sachs Disease
Presented at STEM Poster Session 2021
Jalen Goodloe
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
A Study of the Variant R1628P in the LRRK2 Protein Linked to Parkinson's Disease
Presented at STEM Poster Session 2021
David Friend
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Analyzing Variant G345S of HEXA in Humans
Presented at STEM Poster Session 2021
Anja Einarsdottir
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
PTPN22 Associated with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis and the Unknown of Variant K750N
Internship Summer 2021 at deCode in Iceland, Presented at HudsonAlpha Symposium 2021 and UNA 3MT competition
Chong Zhao
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Computational analysis of the consequence of the missense swap Y454S inHARS1
Josie Williams
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
An investigation of the association between the MERTK mutation R727Q and retinitis pigmentosa
Presented at HudsonAlpha Symposium 2021
Sydney Leavitt
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
An Exploration of the Impact ofTP53and Its Missense Mutation R249K on Glioblastoma
Presented at HudsonAlpha Symposium 2021
Holden Mullican
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
A Computational Analysis of the Exploration of Alzheimer’s Disease with the Variant A360T in PSEN1.
First Place UNA 3MT, Presented at HudsonAlpha Symposium 2021
2020-2021
Anja Einarsdottir
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
PTPN22 Associated with Hashimoto's Thyroiditis and the Unknown of Variant K750N
Jacob Laughlin
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Analysis of CFTR Missense Swap Y515C
Rebekah Sameulson
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
CFTR Missense Swap W496R
Dylan Uibel
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
An Exploration of CFTR Missense Swap G500D Compared to Phe505del
Jenna Marvin
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Investigation of the CFTR Gene Variant Q493P
Meet Patel
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
A Missense Swap on SLC6A1 Gene from Q to K at AA Position 209
Bliss Bailey
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
An Exploration of FGFR3 Missense Swap R669G
Whitley Waters
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Investigation of the SLC6A1 Protein and Variant G111R
Khushmeet Kathuria
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
An Exploration of HDAC8 Missense Swap of I94T
Grace Dodd
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
An Exploration of GRIN2A with Landau-Keffner Syndrome with a Missense Swap at G97D
Jennifer Olszyna
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
A Comparative Study of Two Variants in the HDAC8 Gene Linked to Cornelia de Lange Syndrome
2019-2020
Ethan Hood
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Investigation of the Structure of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein 3D Model and its Relationship with ACE2
Chloe Carroll
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Bioimformatics Analysis of ASXL3
Jessa Plunket
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Bioinformatics in Secondary Education
Breanna Martin (HS)
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
An Interdisciplinary Approach to Genetics Education in the High School Classroom
Amber Mills
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Bioinformatics Investigation of RAC1
Justin Watson
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Bioinformatics Analysis of TREM2 Gene
Sara Gentry
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
An Exploration of SLC6A1 Gene with a Missense Swap of Glutamine for Arginine at AA position 199
Jordan Wright
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Studying the Significance of Variant F5Y on SLC6A1
Sara Woodley
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
An Exploration SLC6A1 Gene with a Missense Swap of Alanine Acid for Valine Acid at AA position 357
Mary Warren
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
SLC6A1 Mutation F256S
Jennifer Olszyna
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
A Missense Swap of Cysteic Acid Replaced by Phenylalanine Acid at Position 102 of the SLC6A1 Gene
Ethan Hood
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Investigation of the Structure of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein 3D Model and its Relationshipwith ACE2
Ryan Gann
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
An Exploration SLC6A1 Gene with a Missense Swap of Arganine for Histidine at AA position 417
A. Kolby Thrasher
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Lee Raney and Dr. Mark Greer
The Octonionic Eigenvalue Problem
Anna Creekmore
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Ashley Johnson
Analysis of the Accuracy of Government Contract Pricing
Olivia McGriff
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Ashley Johnson
Effectiveness of Technology in the Math Classroom
Sylver Carter
Domain Decomposition for Nematic Liquid Crystals
Research conducted at LSU Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates
2018-2019
Lauren Bergeron (HS)
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Bioinformatics Analysis of RYR2 Lesson for High School Students
Walker Ericsson
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Bioimformatics Research of PAC1R
Cyndra Graves
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Bioinformatics Analysis of Mutations CHD8
Trey Reiser
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Bioinformatics Analysis of APOE Gene
Mary Warren
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Bioinformatics Analysis of CR1 Gene
Lee Beadle
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Impact of Associated Mutations of NLGNX4
Austin Mitchel
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Bioinformatics Analysis of Shank3
Austin Rainer
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Bionformatics Analysis of SORL1 Gene
A. Kolby Thrasher
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Effects of GPR153 on Childhood Onset Schizophrenia (COS)
William Weatherby
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Analyzing ACVR1 and its Mutations
Kevin Saint and MacKenzie Hicks
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
The Genetic Correlations Between RYR2 Mutations and Childhood Onset Schizophrenia
Ashton Harrelston
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
GNAO1: A Bioinformatics Analysis
Leah Buck
Internship at MSU
Holleigh Landers and Walker Mattox
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Jared Painter
Harmonious Labeling of Graphs
Michelle Veach
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Kyle Golenbiewski
Investigation of Two-Dimensional Fluid Flow Through Conformal Mapping
Leah Buck & Chloe Carroll
Faculty Mentors – Dr. Cynthia Stenger & Dr. Jill Stupiansky
Characterizing ASXL3
Ashton Haralson
Faculty Mentors – Dr. Cynthia Stenger & Dr. Jill Stupiansky
Genetic Correlations Between GNAO1 Mutations and Epilepsy/EIEE17
McKenzie Hicks & Kevin Saint
Faculty Mentors – Dr. Cynthia Stenger & Dr. Jill Stupiansky
Genetic Correlations Between RYR2 Mutations
William Weatherby
Faculty Mentors – Dr. Cynthia Stenger & Dr. Jill Stupiansky
Analyzing the Various Mutations of ACVR1 and how they result in Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressive
Lee Beadle
Faculty Mentors – Dr. Cynthia Stenger & Dr. Jill Stupiansky
Genetic Correlations between NLGN4X Mutations and Autism Spectrum Disorder
Walker Ericsson
Faculty Mentors – Dr. Cynthia Stenger & Dr. Jill Stupiansky
Effects of Genetic Variants on ADCYAP1R1 Structure and Function
Cyndra Graves
Faculty Mentors – Dr. Cynthia Stenger & Dr. Jill Stupiansky
Linking Genetic Mutations in CHD8 to Autism Spectrum Disorder
Amber Mills
Faculty Mentors – Dr. Cynthia Stenger & Dr. Jill Stupiansky
Connections Between Neurological Disorders and RAC1 Genetic Mutation
Austin Mitchell
Faculty Mentors – Dr. Cynthia Stenger & Dr. Jill Stupiansky
The Relationship Between SHANK3 and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
Trey Rieser
Faculty Mentors – Dr. Cynthia Stenger & Dr. Jill Stupiansky
Connecting APOE4 to Late Onset Alzheimer's Disease
Mary Warren
Faculty Mentors – Dr. Cynthia Stenger & Dr. Jill Stupiansky
PSEN-1: Connection to Early Onset Alzheimer's Disease
Justin Watson
Faculty Mentors – Dr. Cynthia Stenger & Dr. Jill Stupiansky
Variant Effects on the Structure and Function of TREM2
2017-2018
Leah Buck
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Bioinformatics Analysis of ASXL3
Derek Brown
Faculty Mentors – Dr. Lee Raney & Dr. James Jerkins
A Cryptanalysis of the Autokey Cipher Using the Index of Coincidence
Christina Chambers, David Hyde, Millie Tittle
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Jesse Prince-Lubawy
Analyzing the potential correlations between math anxiety and math self-efficacy and computer anxiety and computer self-efficacy in lower level statistics courses among non-math majors
Emma Fancher, Anna Mosley, Joshua Tittle
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Jillian Stupiansky
The Math Behind March Madness
Caroline Hargett
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Miranda Bowie
The Competition-Independence Game
Victoria Krohn
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Mark Greer
The Value of Entering the “Real World”
Bella Martinez
Faculty Mentor – Dr. James Jerkins
User Perceptions of the Security of Musical Passwords
Luke Mason
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Jillian Stupiansky
Population Modeling the Slackwater Darter
Cody McCrary
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cindy Stenger
Emma McFall
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Jessica Stovall
An Exploration of In-Service Teachers’ Conceptual Understanding of Proportional Reasoning
2016-2017
Matthew Cooper, Erin Cosby, Ryan Rogers, and Joseph Schafer
Faculty Mentor - Dr. Lee Raney
Forecasting Zika Virus Disease in Brazil: a comparative analysis utilizing Wikipedia and Google Trends data
Katelyn Payton-Page
Faculty Mentor- Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Using Computer Programming to Improve the Ability to Generalize Mathematical Concepts
Cody McCrary
Faculty Mentor- Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Building Mental Frameworks for Abstract Reasoning
Hannah Hopkins
Faculty Mentor- Dr. James Jerkins
Is Dating Advice Received From Artificial Intelligence More Trustworthy Than Dating Advice Received From Other Humans?
Tyler Delano
Faculty Mentor- Dr. James Jerkins
When is an Algorithm Bias Free?
2015-2016
Daniel Branscomb
Faculty Mentor- Dr. Jesse Prince-Lubawy
Metric distances between Cayley tables
Victoria Davis
Faculty Mentor - Dr. Lee Raney
3D Printing in the Mathematics Classroom
Andrew Craft and Austin Oldag
Faculty Mentor - Dr. Lee Raney
Sliding Disk Puzzles and Permutation Groups
Alex Edwards and Michael Beaver
Faculty Mentor - Dr. Jessica Stovall
Investigating Cardano’s Irreducible Case
Kyle Kurzhal
Faculty Mentor - Dr. Mark Greer
Quasigroups and Zero-Knowledge Protocols
John Carr
Faculty Mentor - Dr. Mark Greer
Decompositions of Complete Graphs and P-Groupoids
Aaron Avery and Emily Malone
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Ashley Johnson
Bunting in Baseball
2014-2015
John Carr
Faculty Mentor- Dr. Mark Greer
Quasigroups, Groups, and the Sudoku Property
Elizabeth Kee
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Ashley Johnson
Geodesics in the Heisenburg Group
Daniel Branscomb
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Jesse Prince-Lubawy
Metric Distances Between Cayley Tables
Katie Goldsmith
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Investigating the Effectiveness of Peer-Led Supplemental Instruction
Alex Edwards
Faculty Mentors- Dr. Stovall and Dr. Moeller
Developing a Generalized Least-Squares Method
2013-2014
Kayla Dailey
Faculty Mentor- Dr. Miranda Bowie
The Competition-Independence Game on Paths
Autumn McMunn
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Ashley Johnson
Determining the Effectiveness of Peer-Led Supplemental Instruction (Honors Thesis)
Elly Couch and Kayla Dailey
Faculty Mentors- Dr. Cynthia Stenger and Dr. James Jerkins
Model Rocket Flight and Simulation as a Pedagogical Tool
Sharon Eccleston
Faculty Mentor – Dr. Cynthia Stenger
Growth Rates of Rehabilitated and Wild Eastern Gray Squirrels
Ricky Moore
Faculty Mentor- Dr. Herve Dovoedo
Measuring the Randomness of Numerical Sequences
Josh Reinoehl
Faculty Mentor- Dr. Dasgupta
Interval 3-Grapsh Impropriety
Lacey Richards, Amy Brown, Arin Graham
Faculty Mentors – Dr. Stenger, Dr. Stovall, and Dr. Jerkins
An Investigation of New Algorithmic Approaches to Analyze Weather Data
