2021 National Convention

2021 National Convention Speaker Sessions:

JULY 12, 2021
Opening Ceremony Click here to watch.
Keynote Speaker: Wendy Morgenstern
Help us kick off our 2021 National Convention! Learn important information about this week and watch a special keynote presentation from NASA Aerospace Engineer Wendy Morgenstern.

Session: For students (sponsors are welcome to watch this, too): (LIVE session + Q&A!) 8:00 pm ET on July 12. (Link will be shared with sponsors.)
Speaker: Dr. Ann Dietrich
How to Design a Trajectory to the Moon
To land on the moon, we first need to design an orbital trajectory to get there. In the simplest sense, the spacecraft trajectory begins in a circular orbit around Earth, maneuvers into an elliptical transfer orbit out to the Moon, and then maneuvers into a circular orbit around the Moon. In the initial phases of trajectory design, we can use a Hohmann Transfer to design this trajectory. This talk will go over the basics of a Hohmann Transfer using circles, ellipses, vectors, and a little bit of physics with help from Newton’s and Kepler’s Laws.

JULY 13, 2021
Session: For students (teachers are welcome to watch this, too): (taped) Click here to watch.
Speaker: Tom Reardon
Modeling COVID Vaccination and Case Data Mathematically Using Transformation Graphing:
Obtain the most current COVID data (July 5) and model it with transformations of parent functions. Obtain a TI-84 program or a TI-Nspire file that automatically places the data into your calculator. Or obtain an Excel spreadsheet with the data and model the data with other math modeling software.

Session: For teachers (students are welcome to watch this, too): (taped) Click here to watch.
Speaker: Tom Reardon
Families of Functions and 6 Transformations – Complete Online 7-12 FREE Modular Course with 300+ Videos
How to graph 16 parent functions by hand - with vertical shifts, horizontal shifts, reflections, dilations, combinations of transformations. Modular – only use the videos that students need – pre-algebra through calculus. Review/catch up what has been missed, augment in-class learning, flipped classroom, independent study. Download and share the Quick Reference Guide with your students!

JULY 15, 2021
Session: For sponsors: (LIVE) 3 pm ET on July 15. Zoom meeting link has been sponsors for distribution. Livestreaming will be available. Link will be provided here on July 15.
Speaker: Chris Musco
Mathematical Modeling and Coding in the Classroom
Join us for a three-hour, interactive introduction to the world of mathematical modeling. We will dive head-first into a very real, but not very serious, modeling problem, and participants will have the chance to test out their own ideas and learn new techniques. We will also see how a little bit of programming (in Python or MATLAB) can go a long way in mathematical modeling, and how bringing modeling into the classroom can be a great way to get students coding, without a lot of overhead. All you need to participate is a computer -- all coding will be done using free online tools, with no software installation necessary. You will need an email address to sign-in to some platforms.

SPEAKER BIOS:
Speaker: Dr. Ann Dietrich
Dr. Ann Dietrich won 16th place in the Area and Volume topic test at the Florida State MAO Convention in 2006. Sporting her only MAO trophy, she received a BS in Aerospace Engineering from University of Florida in 2012, and her MS and PhD in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 2017. She is currently a senior member of the technical staff at Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, MA and was recently a task lead in the area of precision navigation for the Dynetics-led team of the NASA Human Landing System competition, and supports the navigation team on the NASA Orion capsule. Ann’s research interests focus on spacecraft navigation techniques, and using optical camera and LIDAR measurements to land on or orbit around celestial bodies such as the Moon and asteroids.

Keynote Speaker: Wendy Morgenstern
Wendy Morgenstern is a NASA Aerospace Engineer who has served previously as control analyst for the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM); as the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) Attitude Control Subsystem Lead; as the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) Mission's guidance, navigation and control lead; and currently as the lead engineer for On-orbit Servicing Assembly and Manufacturing (OSAM-1) team. (You can Google them to see their robots build things in space!) She graduated from Virginia Tech (B.S. in Aerospace Engineering) and the University of Maryland, College Park (M.S. in Aerospace Engineering with a Special Interest in Controls). In her free time, she enjoys reading, cooking, target shooting, and gardening, and her three cats are the bosses of her household.

Speaker: Chris Musco
Christopher Musco is a professor of Computer Science and Engineering at New York University and is the lead Technical Computing Judge for the annual SIAM/MathWorks Math Modelling Challenge for high school students.

Speaker: Tom Reardon
Tom Reardon taught mathematics for 35 years at Fitch High School and 40 years at Youngstown State University in Ohio. Since 2009, he is a full-time Senior Math Advisor for Texas Instruments in Product Development and Strategy. He has provided professional development in 49 states and 7 countries since 1995.