My name is Kristen, and I’m a mathemagician.
The first chapter of my professional life — more than a decade — is rooted in academia. From graduate school at the University of Texas at Arlington, to a teaching postdoc at the University of Arizona, and finally a tenure-track gig at Saint Mary’s College of California, I have taught and mentored many hundreds of college students and worked alongside dozens of academics from both technical and non-technical fields. In this chapter, I enjoyed a rich teaching experience and made contributions to the field of mathematics research.
I’ve taught courses covering a very wide swath of the college math curriculum, including statistics, (both single- and multi-variable) calculus, linear algebra, cryptography, real analysis, and proof writing. I’ve also designed and taught problem-solving and seminar-style courses. I continue to stay pedagogically active (part-time) through my work with von Becker Consulting and as an adjunct faculty member at San Diego Miramar College.
Image courtesy of Michael Seth Shipman.
As a scholar, I have published several articles in respected, peer-reviewed journals and presented at numerous regional and international mathematics conferences and workshops. My research interests have recently evolved from the very abstract world of commutative ring theory and homological algebra, to the much more applied and digital landscape which includes problems in machine learning (ML), the computational engine of artificial intelligence.
Image by the author.
In 2021, a year after earning tenure at Saint Mary’s, I made the bold decision to leave academia in search of something mathematically bigger / more hands-on / more challenging / more fulfilling, and also having plenty of room for art. Since that time, I’ve worked hard to diversify my professional “toolbox” with projects focused on data science and ML, as well as those involving modeling and 3D printing.
To support my data-related ventures, I completed a bootcamp in Machine Learning Engineering through UC San Diego Extension, where I developed very solid skills in Python (including the standard data science and ML libraries) and SQL. I also gained significant experience with web-scraping, natural language processing, API-integration, version control (Git), shell scripting, virtual environments, Docker, cloud computing, and web server configuration. My capstone project for the bootcamp involved the design, training, and deployment of an educational chatbot, Explorer AI.
My recent 3D modeling and printing interests are mathematical (of course) in nature, and were first inspired by notes from a course I designed and frequently taught at Saint Mary’s College — The Art & Practice of Math, a mishmash of mathematical topics which invite students to engage in “participation in the discovery and development of mathematical ideas”. One of my favorite topics to cover in this course was dimension, and I have embarked on a series of works related to it. I’m currently working on a piece which will illustrate the hypnotic movement of a hypercube in 4-dimensional space using a generalized notion of “shadow.”
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