Mentoring, Outreach, & Service

UT Directed Reading Program Mentor

The DRP pairs undergraduate students with graduate student mentors to undertake independent projects in mathematics. The program helps students learn about topics that either aren't covered by or don't appear until the end of a typical math major. In addition to building up their mentoring network and sense of belonging in the mathematical community, DRP also helps prepare students for REUs and graduate school. 

Here are the students I've mentored and the titles of their projects:

• Kaius Noble, "Using knots to construct 3- and 4-manifolds" (Summer 2026)

• Anika Asher, "Knit Theory: knot invariants and knit stitches" (Fall 2025)

• Rohith Muthukumar, "Smooth Manifolds and the Whitney Embedding Theorem" (Summer 2025)

• Kaissa Doichev, "Computer Assisted  Proofs using Lean" (Fall 2024)

• Tong Wu, "Logical Foundations of Computer Assisted Theorem Proving" (Fall 2024)

• Angel Yuan, "Poincaré Duality" (Summer 2024)

"Test Tube Talk" at Temple College

Gave an invited talk for community-college students discussing my path to graduate school, sharing what I enjoy about math research, and introducing rubber-sheet topology. My emphasis was on making advanced mathematics accessible to a broad audience, and I was particularly happy with how many questions students and faculty had at the end.  The talk was in March, 2026, titled: "Drawing shapes for a living (while getting a PhD in mathematics)"

Sanger Learning Center Math Refreshers and Reviews Instructor

The Sanger Learning Center provides free academic support available to all undergraduates at UT. Their math resources include tutoring sessions, 3-day refresher courses, and 2-day midterm and final exam review sessions. The refresher courses are designed to support students whose high school math background may not have prepared them to succeed in a faster-paced college setting.

Here are the courses and panels I've taught and participated in:

• Calculus I Midterm Exam Reviews (Spring 2025)

• Preparation for Calculus II Refresher Course (Fall 2024, Spring 2025)

• How to Succeed in UT Math Courses Panel (Fall 2024, Spring 2025)

Miscellaneous Outreach

• Designed and created a new website for the UT Directed Reading Program (Summer 2025)

• UT Math representative at 2022 SURE in CNS (Symposium for Undergraduate Research Exploration), an annual event (now discontinued) for recruiting exceptionally promising students with identities historically marginalized in the sciences.

UT Junior Topology Seminar organizer (2025-2026 academic year)

The UT Junior Topology Seminar is run by and for graduate students interested in topology and geometric structures. Weekly talks are given by grads at all stages of the PhD program, on topics including introductions to foundational tools, exciting results from recent (or not-so-recent) papers, and students' original research. Speakers have the opportunity to gather constructive feedback after each talk.

• Fall 2025 schedule; Spring 2026 schedule

Graduate Representative Committee

The Graduate Representative Committee is an 8-person body of mathematics graduate students democratically elected at the beginning of each fall semester to represent the interests of our fellow grad students to the Mathematics Department, the College of Natural Sciences, and the broader Graduate Student Assembly. The GRC also organizes social events, oversees the maintenance of the lounge, and ensures tea is consistently available.

• 2023-2024 Secretary

• 2022-2023 Social Chair

Miscellaneous Service

• Updated/maintained the conference website for Texas Women In Math Symposium 2023

Captain of SO(2), the math grad ultimate frisbee team

I inherited this team from the esteemed Dr. Theodore Weisman, who led the team to victory on the same day as his thesis defense in April, 2022. We have yet to repeat his success. Stay tuned for the Spring 2028 season -- perhaps lightning will strike twice.

• Spring 2026 (co-ed): 2nd place! The league is now so stratified that the outcomes are known before any games are played.

• Spring 2026 (men's): 8th place (out of 12). We technically did win a game.

• Fall 2025: 3rd place (out of 20 teams)

• Spring 2025: 3rd place (out of 24 teams)

• Fall 2024: no playoffs. Not our best season. Perhaps our worst season, but we learned a lot.

• Spring 2024: tied for 3rd in the B bracket, which had 12 playoff teams. A bracket had 8 teams. There were at least 24 teams total.

• Fall 2023: lost in quarter finals of the A bracket

• Spring 2023: 2nd place! Shared the CNS College News Weekly spotlight with Luis Caffarelli winning the Abel Prize.

• Fall 2022: lost in quarter finals of the A bracket. We are not a rain team. Maybe because so many of us wear glasses.