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Berea College

Math Lunch: A Community of Mathematical Discovery. Math Lunch is a dynamic seminar series designed to foster a rich learning environment for Berea College students, faculty, and the broader community. Each semester, we host five engaging presentations featuring diverse speakers, including faculty from Berea and nearby colleges and universities, industry professionals, and both graduate and undergraduate students.

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Speakers benefit from the opportunity to present their work in a relaxed, supportive atmosphere, refining their communication skills for an undergraduate audience. We've been privileged to host speakers from institutions like EKU, UK, UC, Centre College, the Kentucky Center for Statistics, and Geometric Data Analytics, as well as presentations from our own esteemed faculty. Join us for Math Lunch and be part of a thriving community dedicated to mathematical exploration.

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This research introduces a novel two-stage cluster randomized design, the order restricted cluster randomized block design (ORCRBD). The ORCRBD builds upon the cluster randomized block design by incorporating a second layer of blocking, achieved through ranking cluster units that are randomly sampled from the population. This approach creates a two-way layout, with blocks and ranking groups, and employs restricted randomization to enhance the accuracy of treatment contrast estimation. We calculate the expected mean square for each source of variation in the ORCRBD under a suitable linear model, develop an approximate F-test for the treatment effect, calculate optimal sample sizes for a given cost model, formulate multiple comparison procedures, and apply the design to an educational setting.
<a href="https://www.centre.edu/about/faculty-staff/dalton-hopper">https://www.centre.edu/about/faculty-staff/dalton-hopper</a>

Dalton Hopper: Two-stage Cluster Randomized Design

Prime numbers are the building blocks of number theory, yet their distribution remains one of the great mysteries of mathematics. This presentation explores the behavior of prime gaps, the differences between consecutive prime numbers, through a probabilistic and analytical lens.

Oussema 2026: Prime Gaps

Everyone talks about the value of a postsecondary education but what do the data say? We look at non-traditional students and how their wages change before enrolling to pursue an associate degree in Kentucky and what their wages look like eight years later. We also look at how these learners compare relative to the entire commonwealth both before and after this time period. The concept of income mobility is discussed throughout the presentation.
<a href="https://kystats.ky.gov/">https://kystats.ky.gov/</a>

Beth Kelly: Income Mobility for Non-Traditional Students

What does origami have to do with math? Come learn to fold an origami crane with Dr. Bouchat, while also exploring the mathematical concept of colorability and how the two relate.
<a href="https://www.rachellebouchat.com/home">https://www.rachellebouchat.com/home</a>

Rachelle Bouchat: The Mathematics of Origami

We will see how to construct deep neural networks that can arbitrarily well approximate/compute the square function x ↦ x² and the product function (x, y)  ↦ xy. Once our networks can compute those two functions, they can compute any polynomial, and, therefore, thanks to the celebrated Stone-Weierstrass Theorem, they can approximate any continuous function with arbitrary precision.

Math Lunch

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