User:Mwood
From REU@MU
(me) eating punkin pie in the Winona State University's dining hall
Personal Info
Name: Matthias Wood
a mathematician interested in education and computer science (for kicks). currently enrolled at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, MO, seeking a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics with a minor in Education (for certification purposes).
Research: working with Dr. Kim Factor and (somewhat) Elias Kehr on a Game theoretic analysis of raising incentives for business to abide by waterway, environmental regulations onset by the EPA and/or local governments. In the process, this research should help individuals know a few targeted characteristics business value concerning waterway regulations and how to limit a business's environmental footprint.
Milestones & Goals
- Review past projects done in this area by Rutgers students
- Meet with mentor on Tuesday and Thursday
- Attend talk on Thursday regarding good research practices
- Post milestones and goals to REU Wiki
- Write accomplishments in REU Wiki
- Travel to Winona State University for a Command, Control, and Interoperability Center for Advanced Data Analysis (CCICADA) - sponsored workshop on Game Theory and Security
- Work all day every day for six days in the workshop; determine
- Specific topic for REU
- Scope of topic, as well as possible directions of research
- Think of expansion into an education module
- Create a presentation for the end of the workshop
- Write experiences in the REU Wiki
- Meet with mentor all week
- Attend talk on presentations and papers on Tuesday
- Meet with mentor on Tuesday and Thursday
- Continue on research started at workshop
- Write up accomplishments in REU Wiki
- meet with mentor Tuesday and Thursday
- list of viable resources (by end of the week)
- outline for next week’s presentation and example pay-off matrix to mentor by Thursday
- continue with research and possibly education module
- write up accomplishments in REU Wiki
- Attend mini presentations on Tuesday
- Meet with mentor on Tuesday
- write up background (formal) (due: July 6th)
- start applying information of utility function on examples
- Continue with write up, research, and education module
- Write up accomplishments in REU Wiki
- Attend talk on Tuesday regarding poster creation
- Vacation day on July 4th
- Continue with write up, research, and education module
- Meet with mentor on Tuesday
- have a completed background write-up (due: July 6th)
- Write up accomplishments in REU Wiki
- have a general utility function
- test it!
- have a completed, working utility function by the end of the week
- Meet with mentor Tuesday and Thursday
- Write up accomplishments in REU Wiki
- use utility function to analyze what we want to find out (to do)
- Have draft of poster (very drafty is fine) by Thursday - look online for template
- Continue with write up of paper
- Outline for remainder of paper based upon last week’s plan
- Meet with mentor Tuesday and Thursday
- Write up accomplishments in REU Wiki
- Proposed poster in electronic form emailed to mentor by Monday at noon; response back from mentor no later than 6 PM Monday
- Final version of poster due Wednesday—email electronic copy (pdf form is good) to Dennis
- Outline for final talk emailed to mentor by Friday; response back from mentor no later than Saturday evening
- Contact Mentor about any concerns
- Write up accomplishments in REU Wiki
- Slides for final talk emailed to mentor by Tuesday 6 PM (they may not be completely done yet, but should be getting close)
- Meet with mentor on Tuesday
- Poster session on Tuesday
- Redo and/or complete slides for Thursday’s talk
- Draft of paper to mentor on Wednesday
- Final form of paper emailed to your mentor (Dr. Kim Factor) and Dr. Dennis Brylow by 11:59 PM Friday
Working Journal
Week 01: Orientation
Tuesday, May 29
- completed orientation
- gave introductions, filled out paper work, took written survey
- explored the campus and its outskirts via multiple tours
Wednesday, May 30
- read three research papers on applications of Game Theory and Graph Theory
- discussed key concepts with Elias and collaborated to resolve minor complications
Thursday, May 31
- further collaborated with Elias about the three articles (read the day before)
- at 1pm, attended a lecture/discussion session with Dr. Kim Factor
- learned and experienced the process of conducting research
- met with Dr. Kim Factor and Elias and previewed the articles
- discussed strengths and weaknesses of each article
- went over plans for next week and the CCICADA Reconnect Conference
Week 02: Conference
Sunday, June 3
- drove to a CCICADA Reconnect conference at Winona State University
- participated in a meet & greet dinner with colleagues
Monday, June 4
- attended a series of lectures on Game Theory (speaker: Dr. Midge Cozzens)
- completed homework
- attempted to solve each homework problem
- prepared to present our findings the next day
- ate dinner with the vice president of Winona State University
Tuesday, June 5
- reviewed homework in the morning (presented and threw-down)
- participated in lectures on diverse topics
- different equilibria (speaker: Dr. Midge Cozzens)
- sequential games (speaker: Dr. Midge Cozzens)
- worked on homework
- took trolley tour of Winona, MN
Wednesday, June 6
- checked homework in the morning
- listened to lectures till 3pm
- on practical applications of Game Theory (speaker: Dr. Midge Cozzens)
- on auctions and statistical probability (speaker: Aaron Jaggard)
- choose research topic with Elias
- Elias: progression of policies
- Matthias: a community's motivation to limit their consumption of natural resources
- took notes on Dr. Kim Factor's advice for research progression
Thursday, June 7
- reviewed over homework from the previous night
- attended a few lectures, which covered:
- economic games - duopolies, monetary policy (speaker: Dr. Midge Cozzens)
- more auction games (game theory) (speaker: Aaron Jaggard)
- the internet (speaker: Aaron Jaggard)
- worked on research
- narrowed research topic with Elias
- pushed through creating a module with Dr. Kim Factor
Friday, June 8
- paid-attention to morning lectures on the history and projects from The Department of Homeland Security
- (speaker: Vicki M. Bier)
- during lunch, talked with Dr. Kim Factor about research - exceedingly encouraging and helpful!
- finalized PowerPoint presentation for Saturday morning
- wrote an outline and agenda document, which depicts particular aspects of my upcoming research
Saturday, June 9
- listened to four groups present their possible topics for creating modules and targeting research
- presented with Elias to faculty members about Game Theory and an application to modify environmental concern
- rode back to Marquette University with Elias while Dr. Kim Factor drove - THANK YOU, KIM!!!
Week 03: Reading
Monday, June 11
- went to Raynor Library
- picked up authorization forms to gain renting privileges
Tuesday, June 12
- set up Marquette wireless accounts
- met with Dr. Kim Factor (mentor) and Elias
- further discuss official milestones and goals
- attended a talk with the entire REU group
- learned about good presenting, technical writing, and how the two differ
- read and collaborated with Elias about Utility Functions (Game Theory)
Wednesday, June 13
- read 2 more books (Utility Theory)
- discovered a useful source
Thursday, June 14
- read anther Game Theory book (history)(a lot of WWII)
- attended working lunch
Friday, June 15
- read about definitions of terms in a Game Theory book
- looked online for more clear definitions
- organized books from useful, maybe-use, and return
Week 04: (working)
Monday, June 18
- received an email from Elizabeth Kemajou about a possible source
- discovered the source concerned CO2 emissions rather than water pollution - interesting mathematics, but not useful for water pollution
- gathered data for meeting Dr. Kim Factor on Tuesday
Tuesday, June 19
- read a quick chapter of a book
- met with Dr. Kim Factor
- discussed difficulties in finding viable sources
- talked about next week's presentations
- discussed the difficulties of Game Theory (no one right answer)
- Elias changed his topic
Wednesday, June 20
- attended a LaTeX tutorial meeting, led by Dr. Corliss in the early morning
- read two volumes of Game Theory (interesting mathematical applications)
Thursday, June 21
- created an example pay-off matrix
- did some minor brainstorming about creating a utility function
- arrived at the working lunch mid-day
- listened to Dr. Kim Factor give a technical talk on (1, 2)-step domination graphs and applications to food chain graphs
- spoke briefly with Dr. Kim Factor about objectives due
- technical talk outline
- example pay-off matrix for topic (help focus research)
- created a draft outline and example pay-off matrix
Friday, June 22
- woke up early to send in presentation outline and pay-off matrix to Dr. Kim Factor
- completely finished reading all books
- piled 6 books to return to the library
- viewed previous technical talk and revised slightly for upcoming talk
Week 05: Show & Tell
Monday, June 25
- reviewed over sources before attempting to integrate them into references
- adjusted example pay-off matrix for better fit a real-world situation
- fixed wiki page and updated research topic
- went through old presentation from Reconnect and added in new slides and information
- looked at Dr. Kim Factor's presentation and modeled my citations after hers
- conducted minor preparatory work for tomorrow's presentations starting at 10AM.
Tuesday, June 26
- woke-up entirely too early to prepare for today's presentations
- listened and learned from other REU participants
- presented own research by showing and telling my past work, current goals, and hopeful-future product
- met with Dr. Kim Factor (mentor)
- discussed current struggles and derived several solution
- organized a few goals for next week
- outlined what needs to be included into the background of a professional paper
- talked to HR about a another late check :(
Wednesday, June 27
- wrote an abstract for an application to a young mathematicians conference
- reviewed over goals which Dr. Kim Factor and I derived the previous day
Thursday, June 28
- worked on writing the background to my research paper
Friday, June 29
- created an outline of my background
- matched sources to each section and sub-section
- started the paper
Week 06: Identifying Characteristics
Monday, July 2
- searched online for characteristics business follow concerning waterway pollution
- wrote what characteristics came about from which sources
- saved sources on a text document
Tuesday, July 3
- surfed the web for more sources
- documented more characteristics which come from a variety of sources
- matched information with sources
Wednesday, July 4
- Independence Day: a day of celebration!!!
Thursday, July 5
- woke up early to organize data
- derived three targeted characteristics which most influence a business's decision (to abide or disregard waterway regulation)
- followed the three characteristics with a detailed list of viable cites and their content (my summarized version)
- attended to work lunch at 11:30AM
- met with Dr. Kim Factor (mentor) after the lunch
- reviewed data, sources, and three 'targeted' characteristics
- corrected minor verbiage, which was unclear
- received a new goal for this upcoming Tuesday
Friday, July 6
- downloaded LaTeX
- read about related programs to make LaTeX easier to handle
- began working with example codes in LaTeX
Week 07: Utility Power, weight!
Monday, July 9
- sick :(
- preformed a massive make-over on wiki-page (hyperlinks + pictures)
Tuesday, July 10
- wrote out each form of punishment for environment-law-breakers
- categorized each object under the three, main, targeted characteristics
- money, Reputation, and vitality (possessions which a company holds dear: waterway restrictions)
- from that, weighted a basic utility function
- met with Dr. Kim Factor at 1PM
- talked about difficulties with current incentives and weighting
- discussed the process of editing a utility function and adjusting the weights
- received new goals for next meeting (Thursday, July 12)
Wednesday, July 11
- tried to write/ re-write (abstract, introduction, background)
- decided that I hate writer's block
- switched gears to utility function and incentives
- attempted to derive an equation to describe a business's utility
- major difficulty with relating tangible to intangible objects (money vs reputation)
- how does one address vitality? is this characteristic an 'on off' switch for the utility function?
- derive proper values and proportions for a certain company (the arbitrary nature of a utility function)
Thursday, July 12
- went back to writing
- decided to work on Microsoft Word and, later, transfer work onto Lyx for pdf and professionalize
- created a Word cover page
- re-wrote the abstract
- went to work lunch at 11:30AM
- met with Dr. Kim Factor for guidance
- went over old goals
- reviewed abstract
- revised some old work from previous goals
- discussed new goals
Friday, July 13
- discussed abstract with Elias and received helpful suggestions
- made those suggested corrects and emailed abstract to Dr. Kim Factor
- corrected some minor research flaws (which Dr. Kim Factor pointed out the day before)
Week 08: Writing and Posting
Monday, July 16
- tweaked the utility function, slightly
- searched outline for sample case
- surfed around for awhile, looking for a sample case with values
Tuesday, July 17
- finally entered an awesome web search
- found a good case and plenty of sources
- experiencing difficulty with finding actually monetary amounts (payoffs)
- decided it would be a good topic to bring up with Dr. Kim Factor later today.
- met with Dr. Kim Factor
- talked 9about the poster project - rough drafts before Monday 11AM (7/23)
- learned that creativity is better than mundane and boring (concerning posters)
- went over my difficulty with finding actually numbers
- resolved to KEEP LOOKING!!! :)
Wednesday, July 18
- looked over webpages
- searched related topics to discover RELIABLE sources on payoff values for the business(s)
- read wayyyyy too many blogs and online news articles
- computer shut down (sad/important part) and lost my browser
- tried to recover pages from history - failed
- re-search the same wording to find the same 'good' sources - not so great
- frustrated.
Thursday, July 19
- updated wiki...
- prepared for a meeting with Dr. Kim Factor
- set-up payoff matrix for players
- met with Dr. Kim Factor
- discussed my frustration
- received ample help and support from my mentor. (THANKS Kim!)
- devised a method for setting new waits to the utility function
- lightly touched on poster ideas
Friday, July 20
- worked on poster layout
- gathered and summarized works for a draft
Week 09: The Poster!
Monday, July 24
- received a correction email from Dr. Kim Factor concerning my poster
- reviewed the suggestion corrections
- adjusted my poster and added in more text
- sent in poster to mentor
Tuesday, July 25
- again, received a correction email from Dr. Kim Factor concerning my poster
- made the suggested corrections
- printed poster and observed the layout and works
- added in more text and adjusted working
- sent in poster to mentor
Wednesday, July 26
- attempted to compile more content for my sample case
- found a plethora of information and news articles, but couldn't find anything definitive
- completed another cycle of receiving an email, re-reading/posting, and sent another poster out
Thursday, July 27
- received my last correction email from Dr. Kim Factor
- made corrections and adjusted the layout of my poster (completely changed)
- changed the flow of my poster and made it more like a story board
- added a problem and conclusion section
- emailed my final copy to both Dr. Kim Factor and Dr. Dennis Brylow
Friday, July 28
- printed final poster product
- finalized abstract
- sent abstract to Dr. Kim Factor
Week 10: It All Ends
Monday, July 30
- gathered several sources on sample case (Malibu)
- determined methods for setting up the utility function
Tuesday, July 31
- prepared for poster presentation
- met with Dr. Kim Factor
- discussed deadlines
- explained my difficulties with the sample case
- got the assignment for presentation and paper due tomorrow
- worked on research and summed things up
- put presentation together and sent it in
Wednesday, August 1
- sent in the correct copy of presentation - oops
- received revision advice
- conducted further research with my sample case
- conducted a lot of research with my sample case (enough for 2 bullets)
- finalized presentation and practiced before tomorrow morning (presentation day!!!)
Thursday, August 2
- wrote up early and prepared for presentations.
- @ 10am, started presentations
- presented work!
- wrote more of my final research paper
- wrote a lot more of my final research paper (it has been a busy week!)
- sent my draft to Dr. Kim Factor
Friday, August 3
- finished writing a couple sections of my paper
- received correction advice from my mentor
- filled in sections which lacked depth
- re-wrote a couple sections
- added more in the conclusion
Saturday, August 4
- before leaving for home, added a little bit more to the paper
- wrote and filled in a few missing areas
- received critiques from my mentor
- corrected my mistakes and sent the paper in!!!!!
- !-!-!DONE!-!-!
- slept for the winter :0)
