My Experience Presenting at the Carolina Math Seminar

In April of 2016, I was asked by a Professor of Mathematics at Francis Marion University to present at a small conference at a nearby college. The conference is called the Carolina Math Seminar, they host a meeting each semester at different universities and colleges across South Carolina.

This particular conference was hosted by Newberry College for the spring 2016 semester. This would be the first presentation I ever did outside of Francis Marion, or at the “conference” level.

​I was going to present my research that I was currently doing called, “Closing the Gap on Multi-Fold Triple Systems”. This research was mentored by another Professor of Mathematics at FMU, and it happened to be the first research project I had ever attempted.

The abstract for this project was:

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In part of a dissertation completed by N. Newman, he fully solved the problem of lambda-fold 4-cycle systems, but only partially solved the problem of enclosing a triple system of TS(v, lambda) in a triple system of TS(v + s, lambda + m). Enclosings were found for all admissible values outside of a quadratic gap.  This problem of enclosing a triple system in another one has not been fully solved yet, but research I am doing under his direction attempts to close the gap and fully solve this problem.

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Upon arrival, I met with the organizer who was very nice. I was directed to the auditorium in which the presentations would take place. I was presenting my research first, so I had to go ahead and set everything up.

​Since I was going first I did not know exactly how the crowd would be. They could be the crowd who asks questions while you give a presentation, or a crowd that asks questions at the end. They, even, could have been the crowd who literally tries to destroy you while you are up presenting, or a crowd that gives you constructive criticism while destroying you.

As of right now, I have experienced it all, and I do not mind having any combination of those types. Essentially, you have to keep an open mind, but also make sure you know exactly what you are talking about when you get up to present.

This crowd was very nice, compared to others I have been around. I could say they were the nicest crowd, but I am not gonna give that title out. When I started presenting everything went by smoothly, did not mess up too bad at any part. But, I did lose my train of thought midway through.

This did not stop me, however, because I knew what I was talking about. I was not going to just pull something out of thin air to make myself seem smart, because all someone has to do is question you on it and you lose all creditably in an instance.

Once I was done, and others started to present I actually learned new stuff. Some conferences you attend will be boring, others will be interesting and you will gain interest in other areas. So, all in all this conference is a very good conference anybody should attend. I have placed the link to the website below.

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