On Tuesday 23 May 2017, the BMS welcomed a delegation of 20 undergraduate students and three faculty members from Morehouse College and Spelman College, two American universities situated in Atlanta, Georgia. This event aimed to give the visiting students and faculty a chance to connect with their counterparts in Germany, and gain first-hand exposure to prospective careers and research opportunities in the field of mathematics.
BMS Deputy Chair, Prof. Dr. John Sullivan, began by giving a presentation about the BMS, its PhD Program, and about the mathematics landscape in Berlin in general. This was followed by talks from three BMS Phase II students, who each presented their own research projects. Patrick Gelß, based at the FU, gave a talk on “The tensor-train format and its applications - Modeling and analysis of chemical reaction networks, catalytic processes, fluid flows, and Brownian dynamics”. Ana Djurdjevac, also based at the FU, presented her research on “Random PDEs on evolving hypersurfaces”. Finally, using material from his PhD project, Carlos Echeverría Serur, based at the TU, gave a talk entitled “On the solution of linear systems arising from Shishkin mesh discretizations”. Carlos said he hopes that all the talks will encourage some of the American students to come to Berlin for their graduate studies.
Following the BMS presentations, the delegation then visited the TU Berlin's 3D LAB. Afterwards, the American students and faculty were given the chance to interact informally with BMS students, faculty and staff over lunch in the BMS Lounge.
This event was part of the STEM LAUNCH Study Tour of Germany organized by Cultural Vistas, a non-profit organization that facilitates connections between American and international students, academics and professionals. Through a two-week professional and cultural tour of Berlin and Munich, this study tour aims to encourage students from Georgia-based historically black colleges & universities to consider adding an international context to their educational and career paths.
Written by S. E. Sutherland-Figini
