Math Awareness Week
April 6 - 9, 2026 | 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Join us for Math Awareness Week at the campus of your choice or online! Enjoy engaging presentations, tasty snacks, pizza, gift card prizes for solving the daily challenge, and cool PBSC swag giveaways.
Event Information
This year's theme is "Ocean of Math...Patterns, Shapes, and Waves"
Campus Locations:
- Belle Glade: TEC127
- Boca Raton: HT103
- Lake Worth: CE119
- Loxahatchee Groves: LGA139
- Palm Beach Gardens: SC161
Prizes (PBSC swag and gift cards), snacks, and pizza will be provided for in-person attendees!
Can't make it in person? Join Online via Teams

Event Schedule
Monday, April 6
12:30pm - 1:30pm: STEM Making Waves: Diving into Math Awareness Week | MLK Plaza
on the Lake Worth campus
Make waves with us! Join the STEM Academic Community as we partner with our Math Faculty
to kick off Math Awareness Week with an exciting in-person event exploring how mathematics
shapes the ocean, from wave motion to density-driven currents. Dive into engaging,
hands-on mini demos that bring the science and math behind the ocean’s waves and rhythms
to life, connect with faculty and peers, and enjoy lunch along with some fun giveaways!
Tuesday, April 7
9:30am - 10:30am: Math in Mechanical Engineering | View Online
Math is a powerful tool in mechanical engineering. It allows us to do everything from
optimizing the design of a product used in everyday life to understanding how the
world moves around us. Talk will include some of the applications of math in mechanical
engineering. Presented by Monique McClain.
11am- 12pm: Famous Patterns in Mathematics | CE119 on the Lake Worth campus or View Online
This talk introduces some well-known mathematical patterns and explores their key
features and significance. The presentation focuses on how these patterns are structured
and why they are important within mathematics. Presented by Anthony Piccolino.
12:30pm - 1:30pm: Palm Beach State to Math PhD (classes, careers, people, places and
all things in-between!) | View Online
An interview-style session with audience questions about my journey from Palm Beach
State to a Math PhD to my current role as a modeler at Discover Financial Services.
Along the way, I’ve worked (and failed!) with math, computer science, and the messy
parts of real life beyond the technical world. Bring questions, skepticism, and a
healthy dose of optimism! Presented by Omar Eldaghar
2pm - 3pm: Diving into Patterns and Sequences | CE119 on the Lake Worth campus or
View Online
Patterns are everywhere! Join this interactive Kahoot-based game where students analyze
number sequences, visual patterns, and geometric figures to predict what comes next.
This session highlights how mathematical patterns connect numbers, shapes, and real-world
structures in engaging ways. Presented by Terri Speights.
Wednesday, April 8
9:30am - 10:30am: The Role of Mathematics on Wall Street | SC161 on the Palm Beach
Gardens campus or View Online
Mathematics has become the backbone of modern financial markets, transforming Wall
Street from a world of intuition-based trading to algorithm-driven decisions. "Quants"
(quantitative analysts) apply advanced mathematical concepts to financial problems,
creating models that identify patterns, manage risk, and generate trading strategies.
This mathematical revolution has fundamentally changed how markets operate, creating
new career paths for those with strong mathematical backgrounds and reshaping the
financial landscape. Presented by Tod Fairbanks.
11am - 12pm: Understanding Financial Derivatives | SC161 on the Palm Beach Gardens
campusor View Online
This talk introduces the fundamentals of options, including puts and calls, premiums,
underlying securities, and expiration dates. It also explores how options function
in bull and bear markets, along with key strategies. Presented by Mark McKay.
12:30pm - 1:30pm: Math and Dancing | SC161 on the Palm Beach Gardens campus or View Online
Join Professor McDonald in an interactive presentation highlighting the links between
math and dancing. Presented by Carrie McDonald.
2pm - 3pm: STEM Career Panel | SC161 on the Palm Beach Gardens campus or View Online
Professionals from various occupations will speak about how they use math in their
work and discuss ways that math is connected to the 'real world'. Moderated by David
Jenks with the PBSC Career Center.
Thursday, April 9
9am - 11am: Digital Signal Processing with Modern Applications in Engineering, Science
and Mathematics | HT103 on the Boca Raton campus or View Online
Mathematics Theory and practice behind many interesting and modern applications of
Digital Signal Processing in Engineering, Medical Fields and Science are presented.
Mostly suitable for students with Calculus and Differential Equations background.
Presented by Mike Talebi.
11am - 12pm: How I Build and Self-Publish Mobile Games (And You Can Too) | View Online
Math Nightmare launched in 2024, Math Nightmare 2 is in live demo — and both were built with AI, no dev team, no budget, no app store
required. In this session, Jesse Rogers walks through the full process live: using
Copilot or any AI assistant to build a browser-based math game from scratch, then
publishing it for free to a real URL using GitHub Pages. You'll see how to prompt
an AI to build a playable game engine, customize it for any skill, and ship it to
the web in minutes — no coding experience required. Presented by Jesse Rogers.
12:30pm - 1:30pm: The Curious Case of Whatever’s Going On Here | HT103 on the Boca
Raton campus or View Online
This talk will be exploration of topics that may or may not be related, meaningful,
or authorized. Attendees should bring curiosity, a sense of humor, and absolutely
no expectations whatsoever. Side effects may include eyebrow raises, squinted eyes
and quiet (or loud) intrigue. Presented by Anurag Katyal.
2pm - 3pm: Where Math Meets Art: My Creative Journey | HT103 on the Boca Raton campus
or View Online
Laura Heath shares her journey from mathematics professor to artist, revealing how
mathematical thinking, patterns, and structure shape her creative process and continue
to influence her ArtMathLove work. Presented by Laura Heath.