Senior mathematics and computer science double major Alex Yelovich’s passion for numbers helped him thrive in UMD’s Math and Robotics clubs. 

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When Alex Yelovich came to the University of Maryland as a freshman in 2021, he didn’t waste any time getting involved. Before classes started that fall, he emailed the UMD Math Club’s then-president to ask how to join.

“I guess I didn’t want to leave it to chance,” Yelovich joked. “I grew up loving math all the way through high school and was inspired by my calculus teacher to explore all things math, including the history of calculus and what you can do with numbers. I couldn’t picture myself at UMD without math, which is why I joined the club and chose to be a math major as soon as I could.”

Today, Yelovich is a senior mathematics and computer science double major and Math Club president. He plans the club’s activities year-round, from guest talks to game nights (including integration bees, a bracketed competition to solve complicated integrals, or math pictionary–a club favorite!). He also orchestrates bi-weekly presentations for UMD math students, staff and faculty members that showcase the diverse world of mathematical thinking at all levels. 

“The Math Club provides a platform for undergrads, graduate students and professors to present on any math-related topic of their choosing, just based on their interest or passion,” said Yelovich, who gave a talk on the history of the French mathematician François Viète and his impact on solving the cubic. “It’s a safe place where people can share their theories, ideas and projects with the rest of the department and have meaningful discussions about them beyond a classroom.”

Yelovich’s journey to leadership began almost by accident. During his first year at UMD, he enrolled in MATH 340: Multivariable Calculus, Linear Algebra and Differential Equations, an accelerated course designated for advanced incoming freshmen. Although it differed greatly from his high school math classes, Yelovich loved it. 

“In high school, students feel like they’re on this pathway that ends at calculus,” Yelovich explained. “But MATH 340 showed me everything you could do in math beyond that. My experience in the class ignited my excitement to explore an even wider variety of math content through my activities and courses.”

Impressed by Yelovich’s enthusiasm and aptitude, Mathematics Principal Lecturer Wiseley Wong—who is also the Math Club’s faculty advisor—approached him at the end of the semester to ask if Yelovich would be interested in becoming a Math Club officer. “Alex was always on top of things in the course, even asking what to read ahead for the next class,” Wong said, noting that he was impressed by Yelovich’s math skills and love of learning.

“Long story short, I got ‘promoted’ over the years, and now I’m giving back to the organization that’s been with me since the beginning and helping the next generation of math majors get involved,” Yelovich said.

Finding new ways to explore math 

Yelovich also shares his knowledge and leadership skills with UMD’s Robotics Club, where he serves as a technical lead for Qubo, one of three robots being developed by UMD student-led teams. Capable of navigating and course-correcting itself through underwater obstacles without direct remote guidance, Qubo is the club’s smallest (weighing almost 50 pounds) and longest-running robot project to date, starting development in 2014. 

“Qubo is our entry for RoboSub, this annual competition where you can earn points depending on how well your robot makes decisions on its own while submerged underwater,” Yelovich explained. “We’ve equipped Qubo with pressure sensors, thrusters, stereo vision cameras and even a custom-made torpedo launch system. I started working on Qubo my freshman year, became its software manager and now I’m its project manager. All the technical decisions we make as a team go through me before they’re made on the robot and I do my best to manage Qubo’s progress.”

Yelovich began managing Qubo’s software his junior year, the same year he became the president of the Math Club. Balancing his two leadership roles was difficult but immensely rewarding, connecting his love for math with his passion for computer science and developing software. Two summers ago, Yelovich interned at Lockheed Martin, where he worked to improve the computing power of a central computer system node that he likened to a “basic four-function calculator.” 

“There’s a lot you can do to connect math with problem-solving in the real world. For example, we use linear algebra for computer vision, allowing robots to interpret visual data from images taken with their camera to orient themselves,” Yelovich said. “I developed some creative thinking skills during my internship by combining the concepts of automatic differentiation with operator overloading, which essentially tells the computer the rules of differentiation for various expression, such as the chain rule or well-known derivatives of elementary functions, enabling the computer to compute both the functional value and its derivative at a point. They’re all connections between math and computer science that aren’t so obvious.”

After he graduates, Yelovich plans to move to Atlanta, where he landed a job as a firmware engineer at Mueller Systems, the oldest manufacturer of water meters in the U.S. Looking back, Yelovich feels grateful for the skills he developed at UMD and hopes that students just beginning their journeys at UMD will make the most of the opportunities available to them on campus, just as he did.

“Take advantage of the excellent professors in the math department,” he said. “Go to office hours. Even if you’re already comfortable with the material, get to know your professors and have conversations and grow from them. You never know where these moments will take you.”

Written by Georgia Jiang

Mathematics major Jerome Mathew wants to make a low-profile yet vital profession more accessible to students.

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When Jerome Mathew first encountered the concept of actuarial science during his freshman year at the University of Maryland, he was drawn to its unique blend of mathematical rigor and business application 

“It’s a combination of math, business, economics and more,” said Mathew, now a senior double majoring in mathematics and computer science. “The Actuary field is really entrenched in the fabric of our society, even though most people outside of the field don’t really know what the job of an actuary entails.”

Actuarial science, with roots that date back thousands of years to the Code of Hammurabi in ancient Babylon and insurance-like programs in ancient Greece and Rome, is the art of calculating and quantifying risk and compensation for losses. In the late 17th and 18th centuries, English mathematicians John Graunt and Edmond Halley (best known for his namesake comet) pioneered the idea of analyzing longevity and death in segmented population groups, forming the basis of modern life insurance—and the start of the actuarial profession.

Today, actuaries are essential across numerous industries, from insurance and health care to banking and government. Modern actuaries manage risk, specifically employing sophisticated  mathematical models to predict outcomes ranging from natural disaster impacts to health care costs. That mathematical connection sparked Mathew’s interest.

“Actuarial math appealed to me because it has such broad implications, but there wasn’t much awareness of the profession on campus,” Mathew said. “I needed to learn more, so I joined the Actuary Club on campus that same semester and became its third member.” 

UMD’s Department of Mathematics does not currently offer an actuarial sciences degree, although students can take classes within the statistics major track that heavily overlap with actuarial exam requirements and receive actuarial academic advising. Non-math majors can also enroll in the department’s actuarial mathematics minor, which provides them with the mathematical foundation needed for actuarial work. This academic structure made the Actuarial Club even more important for math students interested in actuarial careers like Mathew, as it aimed to bridge the gap between classroom theory and professional practice. 

But Mathew soon ran into a problem: the club was small and its future was in jeopardy after he joined. “Once the then-president and vice president graduated, I became the de facto president and sole member,” Mathew said. “For a while, I was lost and didn’t know what to do to keep the Actuary Club alive. It was just me and our faculty advisor, Math Professor Eric Slud, who offered me a lot of valuable perspective because he’s a credentialed actuary himself.” From a one-person club to a thriving community of aspiring actuaries

To come up with a plan to revive the club and learn more about the skills required of actuary professionals, Mathew enrolled in STAT 470: Actuarial Mathematics. Originally designed decades ago by Slud to introduce students to the mathematical foundations of risk assessment, the course proved transformative because it connected Mathew with other students interested in actuarial careers.  

Drawing on relationships formed in the class, Mathew overhauled the original club and created a new leadership team, website and social media presence with his classmates. “I realized I couldn’t do it all alone. The best ideas really come when you have a team and everyone works together to put those ideas to action,” Mathew said. “With everyone’s help, we brainstormed ideas about how to reach out to people.”

The revitalized Actuarial Club adopted a new approach to membership. Instead of targeting only students who were already committed to becoming actuaries, they focused on increasing exposure to those who were curious about or simply unaware of the field as a potential career option. The strategy worked. The club quickly expanded to an executive board with four positions and a growing membership roster. Now, the group generally meets twice a semester with guest speakers who provide insight into the actuarial profession and advice to students interested in pursuing the career. “A recent presentation from an industry professional drew about 25 attendees to our club meeting,” Mathew noted. “We managed to get the word out and people wanted to learn more.” Slud, who has been the go-to UMD faculty member for actuarial sciences expertise since the 1990s, was impressed by the group’s growth and development under Mathew’s leadership.

“In my experience, it seemed like there were never more than about a dozen students university-wide who were planning an actuarial career and taking actuarial exams, but Jerome has been very entrepreneurial in encouraging continuing participation beyond the club’s previous format,” Slud noted.  

In the future, Mathew hopes to incorporate exam study sessions to help students prepare for the rigorous professional exams required to become a credentialed actuary and other tests that keep actuaries current with industry changes and help with career advancement in the field.“The profession requires you to be very well-trained and up-to-date, which can be intimidating,” Mathew explained. “Having the credentials sets the stage for getting a job in the field and being successful at it.”

To advance his own practical experience, Mathew recently completed an actuarial internship at Cigna Group and will soon work in health care consulting at Aon, a multinational firm that offers a variety of risk-mitigation products, this summer. As Mathew approaches the end of his tenure as Actuary Club president, he hopes to pass on his passion to a new generation of aspiring actuaries and keep the club alive. “If you’re curious about what an actuary does and if becoming one is possibly the right fit for you, you should definitely come at least once—if only to understand what the field is,” Mathew said. “Being a math major with a solid baseline of quantitative skill is great, but computer science, econ and finance majors have a lot to contribute, too. We welcome anyone who wants to learn a different way of applying their math skills.”

Written by Georgia Jiang

From promoting Pi Day on live TV to penning articles in Scientific American, Max Springer (Ph.D. ’25, applied mathematics & statistics, and scientific computation) brings math to the masses. 

If you’ve ever wondered about artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot hallucinations, the accuracy of tornado science in the 1996 film “Twister” or whether the “stable marriage problem” in mathematics could yield better matches on the reality dating show “Love Island,” just ask University of Maryland recent graduate Max Springer (Ph.D. ’25, applied mathematics & statistics, and scientific computation).

Through a 2024 Mass Media Science & Engineering Fellowship with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Springer wrote about mathematical topics and more for Scientific American, a publication he devoured for years but never dreamed of writing for. “I grew up reading Scientific American,” he said. “My grandpa got me a subscription when I was in middle school and I never really stopped.”

Springer doesn’t plan to pursue a career in journalism—instead, he will study fairness in algorithms as a postdoc at Princeton starting this September. However, a grounding in science communication helped Springer break down complex subjects and share his passion for math with a wider audience. Most recently, Springer joined Mathematics Professor Larry Washington for a Pi Day interview with Baltimore-based station WJZ-TV. The two mathematicians explained pi’s relevance beyond its connection to sweet treats, and in doing so, showed that math can be accessible—and even entertaining.  “People think that math is so abstract and hard to understand,” Springer said, “but when you write a good story about it in layman’s terms, readers quickly get drawn in.”

‘A beautiful merging’

Springer’s appreciation for popular science started at a young age. He recalls looking up to astronomer Carl Sagan and Bill Nye, the TV host who introduced a generation of children to the fun side of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. “Those were the first people who taught me about science and, above all else, to be curious about everything,” Springer said.

At times, Springer’s fascination with “everything” made it challenging for him to find his niche. During his sophomore year at Cornell University, a professor helped Springer pick a major as the declaration deadline loomed. “He didn't tell me to pursue math, but he emphasized that you can explain so many different phenomena using mathematical principles,” Springer said. “Studying math was a beautiful merging of all my interests.”

That advice ultimately sealed Springer’s decision to pursue a career in applied math. After graduating with his bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 2019, Springer completed a yearlong research position at Yale’s medical school, where he used machine learning and statistical methods to predict when patients with epilepsy might experience seizures. While looking for a graduate school that would continue to expand his diverse interests, Springer felt that UMD’s interdisciplinary applied mathematics & statistics, and scientific computation program would offer the best variety. 

The price of fairness 

After joining UMD in 2020, Springer started conducting research with Professor Mohammad Taghi Hajiaghayi, who holds the Jack and Rita G. Minker Professorship in UMD’s Department of Computer Science. Hajiaghayi introduced Springer to combinatorial problems in algorithm design, including how to efficiently and equitably divide resources among people. “That got me interested in the idea of what it means for an algorithm to be fair, and conversely, what does it mean for an algorithm to be biased,” Springer said. 

Springer started analyzing clustering problems, or ways of grouping similar data points and discovered that these technical considerations could have real-world impacts. This included cases where the data used to create clustering algorithms contained underlying biases. “There are a lot of instances where clustering algorithms are used to decide mortgage or which ads to deliver to people,” Springer explained. “What's been shown countless times in the past decade is that these algorithms can inherently pick up on people's gender or race and discriminate on those grounds.”

Springer’s dissertation focused on one central question: Does incorporating certain fairness constraints into an algorithm make its solution—or outputs—less accurate or less optimal? Ultimately, Springer found that “the price of fairness” was significantly lower than he expected. “What I showed across a bunch of problems is that when you incorporate these fairness considerations, you don't degrade your solution by much,” Springer said. “I hope that my research serves as a statement and shows that we should be considering these problems through this lens.”

While engaged in these technical problems, Springer also thought about how to communicate his work—and science more generally—to non-experts. When he first started writing for Scientific American last summer, he struggled to switch from an academic style of writing to popular science, which aims to break down complex subjects as clearly as possible.

“I wrote an article about satellite debris collecting in the ozone layer, and the physics editor marked up my entire draft and said, ‘You’re writing like an academic,’” Springer said. “I finally realized that if you’re talking about a research result, you want to walk the reader through that discovery and show them that science is a natural pursuit and they can understand it, too.”

Responsible AI

Another one of Springer’s interests is a subject that attracts widespread attention: the ethics of AI. “The AI space is moving so quickly, especially with large language models,” he said. “A lot of my more recent research was about how we can steer these models to ensure that AI systems don't develop to be biased in any way.” During his last year at UMD, Springer worked on data efficiency problems related to machine learning as an intern with Google Research’s Algorithms and Optimization Team. He also served on the inaugural student committee for the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), an international scientific society aimed at advancing safe and responsible AI that benefits society. 

“Graduate students are the backbone of AI research, especially in academia, so there are a number of things that we wanted to work on,” Springer said of his work with AAAI. “In particular, I wanted to work on mentorship and developing a host of resources for students who are interested in AI research.”

Springer helped to coordinate the AAAI’s first hackathon, in which competing teams developed “cutting-edge AI solutions” over a weeklong virtual event in February. Harking back to his interest in science communication, Springer also supported the development of an AAAI podcast series with student hosts interviewing AI experts. As Springer reflects on his time at UMD and starts packing his bags for Princeton, he feels that familiar sense of curiosity propelling him forward.

“When I read an article or a preprint that comes up, I’m instantly generating research questions,” Springer said. “I think that’s probably a good sign that I’m ready to start defining my own research. It’s super exciting.”

Written by Emily Nunez