In my Social Psychology class, I learned that people are typically bad at estimating their own contributions. For instance, if asked to report the percentage of a project they contributed, the total sum of everyone’s estimation is more than one hundred percent. That being said, I think if you asked most of my fellow fellows…
Author: Emmaline Rial
Currently a mathematics major & CS minor at the University of Pittsburgh, set to graduate in December 2020.
One Thing Leads to Another
Tasked with connecting with previous Brackenridge Fellows, I reached out to Adrienne Newcomer Judson, who is currently an Economics PhD at Georgetown University. She earned a Math-Econ degree at Pitt in undergrad, which is why I was originally interested in her profile. I’ve been considering an Economics PhD as a potential path for myself, as…
Lost in Translation: How a Metaphor Can Be a Map
Oftentimes when I tell people I’m a math major, that’s all they want to know about it. Many people, unfortunately, have a tense relationship with Calculus, which means that I’m fraternizing with the enemy. But I believe that math gets a bad rap, and part of that comes from a lack of understanding. My research…
All Together Now: Cannon Crew
A major part of my initial interest in the Brackenridge program was the community it promised. An interdisciplinary group of bright undergraduates, with diverse backgrounds and experiences, all coming together to explore and share their individual interests. The level of curiosity and ambition I’ve seen these first few weeks has been motivating and inspiring, and…
Common Denominator: Using Math to Measure Language Similarity
Hi everyone! My name is Emmaline Rial, and in December I’ll be graduating with a degree in Mathematics and a minor in Computer Science. I wasn’t always a STEM person – in high school I was passionate about art and music. To everyone’s surprise (including my own), I became a math major, but I still…