Ateneo Math scholar wins poster competition in national DOST-ASTHRDP Conference

Kurt Anthony C de los Santos, MS Math graduating student and current Assistant Instructor in the Department of Mathematics, won first place in the Poster Competition in the Mathematical and Computational Sciences category of the 12th Accelerated Science and Technology Human Resources Program (ASTHRDP) Graduate Scholars’ Conference held at Dusit Thani Resort in Lapu-Lapu City last 12 - 13 September 2024.

Under the supervision of Dr Eden Delight Miro and Dr Mark Loyola, his poster entitled “Construction and Symmetries of k-Free Lattice Systems from Biquadratic Number Fields,” was awarded in part for its ability to communicate complex mathematical knowledge in a precise, concise, clear, and powerful manner.

Said Mr. de los Santos, “Seven or so years ago, the last time that I made a research poster before this, I was able to join RSTF [Regional Science and Technology Fair] and as a high school kid, I dreamed of reaching the national stage. This week, we were able to do it and even beyond that, we received an award. Dreams do come true, and sometimes, they just really take their sweet time.”

Jim Ralphealo Mijares, another MS Mathematics graduating student and current Assistant Instructor in the Ateneo Department of Mathematics, also presented his poster in the same category on his work entitled “On the diffraction of a constant-block random substitution”, which was also a part of his master’s thesis under the advisory of Dr Eden Delight Miro and Dr Luis S Silvestre, Jr.

Organized by the DOST-Science Education Institute (DOST-SEI), headed by DOST Secretary Renato Solidum and DOST-SEI OIC Director Albert Mariño, the two-day conference gathered graduate student DOST scholars from various colleges and universities in the Philippines that are part of the National Science Consortium (NSC) with the goal of improving the state of human resources for the sciences in the country.

Dr Elvira de Lara-Tuprio and Dr Timothy Robin Teng of the Department of Mathematics also attended the conference and served as judge in the oral presentation and poster competition, respectively.