Students and Alumni – Mathematics

Montclair Mathematics Celebrates Dr. Geena Taite’s Homecoming to Ramapo College

wiesea — Tue, 26 May 2026 15:11:34 +0000

The Department of Mathematics at Montclair is proud to celebrate a major milestone for one of our own. Dr. Geena Taite, a recent graduate of our doctoral program in Mathematics Education, has accepted her dream position as a full-time Lecturer of Developmental Mathematics at .

In a full-circle moment, Dr. Taite returns to Ramapo, where she first earned her undergraduate degree. Her appointment reflects both her deep commitment to students and her expertise in supporting meaningful mathematical learning across diverse contexts.

In her new role, Dr. Taite will deliver high-impact, inclusive instruction in developmental mathematics while also supporting adjunct faculty, leading innovative teaching and student support initiatives such as supplemental instruction and active learning, and contributing to ongoing course improvement. She will collaborate with colleagues on curricular design, and work closely with campus student success offices to strengthen mathematics support across the institution.

Dr. Taite’s journey reflects the kind of impact we hope to see from our graduates, thoughtful, dedicated educators who bring both vision and care to their work. We are thrilled to see her return to the institution where her academic path began, now as a faculty member shaping the experiences of future students.

Congratulations, Dr. Taite! We are incredibly proud of you and can’t wait to see all that you accomplish in this exciting new chapter.

We are excited to share a new publication highlighting important work in mathematics teacher education!

wiesea — Mon, 18 May 2026 19:57:00 +0000

The publication examines how preservice teachers notice and respond to students’ reasoning about rate of change. This work, titled , explores how teachers attend to, interpret, and respond to students’ quantitative and covariational reasoning in dynamic mathematical contexts. The study offers insights into how teacher preparation can better support future educators in making sense of students’ thinking, particularly in challenging topics like rate of change.

Alfred is now teaching in the mathematics department at Drake University in Iowa. We are so proud to see Alfred continuing to contribute meaningful research to the field!

Successful Thesis Defenses Galore!

wiesea — Mon, 11 May 2026 18:18:20 +0000

Kaitlyn Cohan defended her master’s thesis entitled Analysis of collective behavior in living and nonliving systems. Her committee included Dr. Ashwin Vaidya (thesis sponsor), Dr. Bogdan Nita, and Dr. Deepak Bal.

Edward Czudak defended his master’s thesis entitled The Tones And Frequencies Of A Glockenspiel. His committee included Dr. Bogdan Nita (thesis sponsor), Dr. Ashwin Vaidya, and Dr. Jonathan Cutler.

Vlad Nita defended his master’s thesis entitled An Exploration of Autorotating Pendulum Models. His committee included Dr. Ashwin Vaidya (thesis sponsor), Dr. Arup Mukherjee, and Dr. Jonathan Cutler.

Kevin Vargas defended his master’s thesis entitled Computational and Experimental Study of Energy Extraction from Vertical Axis Wind Turbines in Realistic Environments. His committee included Dr. Vaidya (thesis sponsor), Dr. Mukherjee, and Dr. Nita.

Congratulations to you all for a successful defense. We are proud of you!

Mathematics Education Students at the 2026 ��Ʒ��˸�� University Student Research Symposium

wiesea — Mon, 04 May 2026 14:55:25 +0000

Undergraduate Student Research

Undergraduate student Noelani Brown presented a poster entitled Bringing Back Belonging: Do Students’ and Faculty’s Perceptions of Student Belonging Align in STEM? (faculty mentor: Dr. Nina Bailey)

Master’s Student Research

Masters student Grace Pomaah Amoako presented a poster entitled TikToks and High School Students’ Statistical Literacy: An Exploratory Case Study (faculty mentor: Dr. Nina Bailey)

Doctoral Student Research

Doctoral student Asja Alić presented two individual posters. The first entitled Patterns of Critical Statistical Literacy Habits of Mind across Preservice Teachers and Adults (faculty mentors: Dr. Nina Bailey and Dr. Karoline Smucker of Eastern Oregon University). The second Examining Descriptive Statistics Tasks in Introductory Statistics Textbooks (faculty mentors: Drs. Nina Bailey and Joseph DiNapoli).

Doctoral student Ariel Bonneau Rodriguez presented a poster entitled Introductory Statistics: How Textbooks Shape Student Learning (faculty mentor: Dr. Joseph DiNapoli).

Doctoral candidate Emily Olson presented a poster entitled The Role of Logic in Motivating In/Direct Proof: Analysis of Proof-Based Curriculum (faculty mentor: Dr. Joseph DiNapoli).

Doctoral student Gabriella Migliore presented a poster entitled Mathematical Modeling in the Big Ideas Blue Book (faculty mentor: Dr. Joseph DiNapoli).

Doctoral students Asja Alić and Ariel Bonneau Rodriguez co-presented a poster entitled Embodied Choreo-graphing of the Polar Coordinate System (faculty mentor: Dr. Steven Greenstein).

Doctoral candidate Amanda Provost, and doctoral students Ariel Bonneau Rodriguez, Michael Frimpong, and Toheeb Olatunji presented a poster entitled Multiplicative Reasoning Through Dynamic Measurement (faculty mentor: Dr. Nicole Panorkou).

We are so proud of you all!

Successful Admitted Students Days

wiesea — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 16:32:46 +0000

��Ʒ��˸�� University’s Department of Mathematics recently welcomed admitted students to campus for two lively Admitted Students Days, held on April 12 and April 19. These events gave prospective math majors a chance to experience the department firsthand, connect with faculty, and hear directly from current students about what it’s like to study mathematics at Montclair.

Throughout the day, visitors explored campus, asked questions about coursework and opportunities, and engaged in conversations that highlighted the collaborative and supportive nature of the program. A special thank you goes to our dedicated student ambassadors, Coda Mearizo, Lauren Khalil, Annabella Ganun, and Preston Pietruszewski, who helped make the experience both informative and welcoming.

Doctoral Students from Mathematics Education and TETD present at AERA 2026

wiesea — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 17:37:34 +0000

Doctoral students John O’Meara (Mathematics Education PhD candidate), Tim Aberle (TETD PhD candidate), and Shanna Anderson (soon-to-be graduate of the TETD PhD program) presented two papers on the Wipro SEF teacher leadership program with Dr. Mika Munakata (Mathematics) and Dr. Monica Taylor (Educational Foundations): Centering on the peripheral: Reimagining administrator support through the voices and networks of teacher leaders and Disrupting silos: Unpacking teacher leadership in an out-of-district community of practice.

Congrats everyone! Great job representing Montclair at AERA!

Enactive Educational Ecosystem for the Emergent Learning of Polar Graphing

wiesea — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 16:28:23 +0000

Each week in class, they pose and pursue their own mathematical inquiries into the wild world of the polar coordinate system through pole-based movement and with other invented tools, tasks, and practices. As they do so, they reflect on how spaces, bodies, things, and feelings shape our mathematical thinking and enliven our understandings. It’s a curious playground, for sure.

At a pivotal moment in their inquiry, they recently joined renowned NYC subway dancer, Ikeem Jones (), on the E-train where he gave them all kinds of choreo-mathematical things to think about. And be in awe of. Check him out. In the first video, he’s doing what he does. In the second one, he’s enacting his interpretation of the 4-petal graph of r = sin 2θ.

Montclair Math Club hosts first Integration Bee

wiesea — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 19:56:47 +0000

The Montclair Math Club was inspired by the well-known competitions held at MIT. Students competed through four rigorous rounds, tackling challenging integrals for a chance to place among the top finishers. The competition was fierce, with Lenovo laptops awarded to the top three performers and additional prizes for students who advanced to the third round.

Congratulations to our Winners

From left: Nyaisha Green, Vlad Nita, Luis Araujo with their prizes winning the Integration Bee

Third Place: Nyaisha Green

Second Place: Vlad Nita

First Place: Luis Araujo

Thank you to everyone who participated and helped make the first Integration Bee a success. We are excited to make this a new tradition!

Fraction Multiplication bringing back Confidence

wiesea — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 16:04:27 +0000

Hailee Lowry is an elementary education major. She described a rocky relationship with math in the past: “I honestly used to be so bad at math so it made me hate it.” But as she explored fraction multiplication in her course and had the support of her professor, Dr. DiNapoli, she began to feel a new sense of confidence. So much so that she excitedly claimed,

I was honestly so confused but when he gave me little insights and extra help I understood the topic so well and got a 98 on my test. It was the best I have felt about math in a long time!

Keep up that excitement Hailee!

Doctoral Students and Faculty Present at RUME

wiesea — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 16:08:00 +0000

Five doctoral students and two faculty presented at the in Alexandria, VA.

From left: Emily Olson, Amy Daniel, and John O’Meara speak to audience members after their talk

Doctoral candidates John O’Meara and Amy Daniel, and doctoral student Emily Olson presented their work for the broader research team of doctoral student Toni Tork, John O’Meara, Amy Daniel, Emily Olson, Dr. Eileen Fernández, and Dr. Mika Munakata on Approaches to College Mathematics: Reimagining Remediation and Improving Student Outcomes in Precalculus. They drew a huge crowd that stayed long after their session to seek their advice on how to improve their own courses.

From left: Emily Olson, Amy Daniel, and John O’Meara

Doctoral students Asja Alić and Ariel Bonneau Rodriguez presented a poster with Dr. Greenstein: From the Polar to the Pole: The Enactive and Embodied Choreomathematics of the Polar Coordinate System (see feature image). It was a pivotal moment at RUME, as this poster attracted the masses. Attendees engaged with the tools, tasks, and embodied actions to conceptually explore polar graphing.

From left: Dr. Nina Bailey and Amy Daniel

Doctoral candidate, Amy Daniel, and Dr. Nina Bailey presented a brief report on Math anxiety data sources: Capturing individual differences through diverse lenses. Their work demonstrates that observations of student participation can supplement more conventional assessments to enable researchers to attend to the triggers and responses of students’ math anxiety.

Keep up the fabulous work Amy, Ariel, Asja, Emily, and John. We are so proud of you!