SIAM Texas-Louisiana Section Meeting

On 3-5 November 2023, the Mathematics Department hosted the sixth annual meeting of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) Texas-Louisiana Section. The section meeting set a record with more than 350 participants. There were 249 speakers and 165 undergraduate and graduate students. This record reflects the tremendous growth of the SIAM TX-LA Section and vitality of our mathematics program.

Presentations included discussions of cutting-edge methodologies, theoretical results, and computational algorithms in research areas such as Applied Algebra and Algebraic Geometry, Biomathematics, Computational Mathematics and Data Science, and applications in science and engineering.

The meeting agenda consisted of a career panel discussion, a mentoring workshop, four plenary lectures, a poster session, and 34 mini-symposia.

The career panel panelists were Dr. Henry Schenk (Auburn University), Dr. Matthias Maier (Texas A&M University), and Dr. Phillip Whitman (University of Louisiana at Lafayette). There were many interesting questions and a lively discussion among the panelists and the audience.

There were four very interesting plenary lectures. Visit the meeting webpage for more information about the speakers and their lectures.

• Dr. Susanne Brenner of Louisiana State University discussed DD-LOD which is a multiscale finite element method for problems with rough coefficients.
• Dr. Maxim Olshanskii of the University of Houston discussed unfitted finite element methods for partial differential equations posed on surfaces.
• Dr. Marta D’Elia of Pasteur Labs discussed methods and examples of scientific machine learning in industrial pipelines.
• Dr. Robert Kirby of Baylor University discussed high-level software for numerical partial differential equations.

Photo caption: (L to R) Dr. Susanne Brenner (Louisiana State University), Dean Azmy S. Ackleh, and Dr. Robert Kirby (Baylor University)

There were 53 poster submissions. The six Outstanding Student Poster Winners are: Jaryd Domine (Southern Methodist University), Kyle Earp (Tarleton State University), Daniela A. Florez Pineda (Tulane University), Kendall Gibson (Tulane University), Sang-Eun Lee (Tulane University), and David Pecoraro (Texas A&M University).

SIAM contributions provided travel support for the four plenary speakers and 20 travel awards for students. Drs. Amy Veprauskas, Bruce Wade (Chair), Xiangsheng Wang, and Yangwen Zhang, were the local organizers.

The meeting was widely praised for its vibrant scientific program and strong student presence. We have every reason to believe that this success will carry over to the 2024 meeting at Baylor University.

Photo caption: (L to R) Dr. Jude Kong (York University), Saburi Rasheed (UL Lafayette), Dr. Olaniyi Iyiola (Morgan State University), Dr. Bruce Wade, (UL Lafayette), Ayodele Ashefon (UL Lafayette), and Nchedo Nwankwor (UL Lafayette))

Photo caption: Banquet, Atchafalaya Room, UL Lafayette Student Union