Dr. Jimmy Fetterly won the 2024 Teaching Excellence Award! We are very proud of Dr. Fetterly’s accomplishments.
Dr. Fetterly is a UCA alum. He later received his Ph.D. from Florida State University. He has been teaching at UCA for 9 years and is currently the Graduate Program Coordinator for the Master of Arts program in Mathematics Education.
Congratulations!
In May of 2022 the department hosted the Data Analytics and R Programming Workshop. The workshop was designed to serve the needs of UCA staff, faculty and the community.
I am originally from Arkansas. I received my Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics from Arkansas Tech University and my Master’s Degree in Mathematics Education from UCA. I then moved to Waco, TX to pursue my Ph. D. in Statistics at Baylor University. During that time, I met my wonderful husband and we moved back to Conway together in 2018. I enjoy cycling and playing racquetball with my husband, spending time with my family, participating in activities with our church, and watching movies.
Statistics is my passion, and I love sharing that knowledge with our students. I enjoy teaching Statistical Methods, where students are taught probability and statistical inference using the R programming language. I am also looking forward to teaching Multivariate Analysis next fall as this relates to my research interests.
I have conducted research in the field of Multivariate Analysis. Specifically, I have worked with data of high-dimension, in which the number of variables exceeds the sample size. A problem of interest is detecting differences in mean vectors from two high-dimensional samples, indicating that a difference exists between the two populations from which the samples were taken.
High-dimensional analysis is commonly used in genetics research. When working with microarray data, we tend to have more gene expressions than patients. High-dimensional analysis can be used to detect differences in gene expressions of patients from differing populations. For example, breast cancer patients who have been in remission for at least 5 years tend to display different gene expressions as compared to patients whose remission lasted less than 5 years.
As a former UCA student, transitioning to UCA felt like a homecoming. I immediately felt the support of my fellow faculty members, both inside and outside of the mathematics department. UCA feels like a family and it was wonderful to have been met with such open arms.
As a young faculty member working in my first full-time position, I have to be conscious that I am no longer a graduate student. My opinions and views are valued by my colleagues, and I have to be willing to share them.
On Saturday, April 28, 2018, the UCA Department of Mathematics hosted the annual State Mathematics Contest. It 
was sponsored by the Arkansas Council of Teachers of Mathematics (ACTM). There were 235 students from high schools across Arkansas competed in one of six exam categories -Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry, Trig/Pre-Calculus, Calculus and Statistics. Dr. Charles Watson, Associate Professor of Mathematics, served as the director of the state contest and was assisted by mathematics faculty members,Dr. Garth Johnson, Dr. Carolyn Pinchback, and Ms. Loi Booher, and graduate student Kayla Waters. Exams were proctored by the UCA math graduate teaching assistants.
All students participated in the state contest were top ten finishers in one of the 11 regional contests that were held in colleges and universities across the state on March 5, 2018. All students who placed in top three at the state level were awarded trophies. Algebra I and Geometry winners received TI-84 calculators and the other contest winners received scholarship awards to a future college of their choice. Awards were presented by Dr. Watson and Ms. Kim Hughes, president of ACTM.
Dr. Patrick Carmack
The University of Central Arkansas (UCA) Department of Mathematics is saddened by the unexpected loss of Dr. Patrick Carmack on January 23, 2018.
Dr. Carmack joined UCA in August 2008 as an Assistant Professor of Mathematics. Over the years, he gained a reputation as a conscientious teacher, friend, colleague and an exceptional mentor for students. He was a very good statistician and an active researcher. Dr. Carmack received funding to develop spatial modeling techniques to have a better interpretation of data from MRI scans of Gulf War veterans. He played an active role in developing the new data science track in B.S. Mathematics.
Dr. Carmack earned his doctoral degree in statistics in 2004 and a Master of Statistics degree in 2002 from the Southern Methodist University. Also he received a Master of Mathematics degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio and a B.A. Mathematics degree from the University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Carmack was well liked and admired by students, faculty and staff. He will be greatly missed. A service will be held to honor Dr. Carmack on Saturday, January 27 at 2:00 PM at Bishop-Crites Funeral in Greenbrier.
Dr. Carmack’s obituary may be read on the Bishop-Crites Funeral Home website at http://bishopg.funeralplan2.com/obituaries/patrick-carmack.aspx
Three undergraduate math majors Madison Martin (also majoring in chemistry), Andrea Weaver, and Azaryah Wilson presented research posters at the 2018 Joint Mathematical Meetings (JMM) in San Diego from January 9 – 13. JMM is the largest mathematical meeting in the world. Madison’s poster entitled “Modeling Growth in Polymers.” She was mentored by Dr. Danny Arrigo (Math) and Dr. Rick Tarakka (Chemistry). Azaryah, mentored by Dr. Long Le (Math), presented his poster on “ Population Movement in an Epidemic.” Andrea’s poster was titled “Nonclassical Symmetries of a Power Law Harry Dym Equation” and she was mentored by Dr. Arrigo. All three students received travel funding from the Math Department and the CNSM Dean’s Office. Also, the Department of Chemistry provided travel funds for Madison.
UCA faculty members Ms. Loi Booher (Lecturer of Mathematics), Ms. Michelle Buchannan (UCA STEMteach Master Teacher in the Department of Teaching and Learning) and Dr. Carolyn Pinchback, (Professor of Mathematics) traveled to Costa Rica in August, 2017 as part of a teaching team with Teachers-2-Teachers Global. T2TGlobal is an organization, which fosters collaboration, community and cultural exchange opportunities for teachers to work together to provide a high quality STEM-based education that transcends borders. The team worked in the primary and secondary schools in a rural town outside of San Ramon, Costa Rica. All three UCA faculty members partnered with local teachers, observed teaching techniques, and provided professional development in science and mathematics. The team enjoyed sharing teaching methods and comparing algorithms with local teachers. This was Mrs. Booher’s third trip with the non-profit company; she helped design the trip to the new location in Costa Rica and served as team leader.
Winning Team
The fourth annual Calculus Tournament was held in the afternoon of November 16, 2017 in the Math Resource Center in the Math and Science Building. The tournament was open to students currently enrolled in either Calculus I , II or III. Seven teams, with a total of 19 students, participated in the contest. The winning team is consisting of Presley Mullins (currently enrolled in Dr. Jeff Beyerl’s Calculus I), Alexia Ramick (enrolled this fall in Dr. Weijiu Liu’s Calculus III), and Anna Wolff (enrolled in Dr. George Bratton’s Calculus II) . Congratulations to all three students.
Dr. Jeff Beyerl organized the tournament. Many mathematics graduate students and faculty members provided support. Each member of the winning team will receive a gift card for $15. Also, the winning team will represent UCA at the Math Jeopardy competition at the OK-AR Sectional Meetings of the American Mathematical Society Spring meetings to be held in April 2018 at the Arkansas Tech University
Teams in Action
A two-day Math Graduate Teaching Assistants Orientation was organized and conducted by Dr. Charles Watson, Associate Professor of Mathematics and Math GTA Supervisor on August 11th and 12th, 2016. The Department of Mathematics has thirteen GTAs for the AY 2015-16, out of which 11 are pursuing the M.S. Degree in Applied Mathematics and the rest are in the M.A. Mathematics Education. There are seven new GTAs who have joined the department this fall and the others are in their second year. Several topics including lesson planning and assessing student progress, teaching resources, integrating technology and software in the classroom, were discussed. Mrs. Charlotte Strickland, Director of Professional Development, gave a 1- hour presentation on Sexual Harassment training during the orientation. Dr. Ramesh Garimella, Chair of the Math Department and Dr. Joan Simon, Interim Graduate Dean, welcomed the students. Each GTA in the program receives a 9-month stipend of $10,800 and a tuition scholarship of 9 credit hours per semester for the academic year. Inquiries about the graduate programs in Mathematics or financial assistance may be sent to rameshg@uca.edu.
L to R: Front row-Dr. Charles Watson, Innocent B. Sano (MS 1st year), Sarah Spellmann (MS 1st year),Chantelle Giles (MS 1st year), Christina Junkans (MS 1st year),Seth Bloomberg (MS 2nd year),Katie Burden (MA 2nd year), Dr. Ramesh Garimella
Back row- Hamed Akkari (MS 1st year, Kayla Waters (MA 1st year), Eddie Gallarno (MS 1st year), Hung Lu (MS 2nd year), Edward Tawiah (MS 2nd year), John Harrelson (MS 2nd year)
