Danielle Spence
Editor-in Chief
On Tuesday, May 13, North Central College celebrated and acknowledged student achievements from the 2013-2014 school year at Wentz Concert Hall for Honors Day.
The full-day celebration opened with a keynote speech by Dr. Satyan Devadoss, ‘93, associate professor of mathematics at Williams College with his lecture, “The Shape of Nature: Bees, Trees, Origami” and commented on how math and science influence one another.
“Where does math and art work? How does art and math work? How does it all fit together?” said Devadoss. “When you think of math the equation must be there, because we’ve been trained (to think) that way. We don’t take art seriously.”
Devadoss further explained the relationship between math and art with examples from famous art pieces and how they incorporate math. He used Anish Kapoor’s “The Bean,” Marcel Duchamp’s “Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2” and Julie Mehretu’s “Stadia” to give real-life proof that math and art intersect.
Another argument in the lecture was how “nature tells us how to do things right, how to do things well (and) how to do things quickly,” said Devadoss.
On the presentation, Devadoss showed the honeycomb conjecture, which is the speculation of how to efficiently partition planes into equal areas. It turns out that bees have had it right by wasting the least amount of energy using regular hexagons for their honeycombs.
Devadoss continued by explaining the same question, but in terms of volume. The Kelvin conjecture is the speculation of how to cut up space into equal volume. The Weaire-Phelan structure uses the least amount of volume in space. The structure shows up in nature, which proves that it is the best option.
President Troy Hammond was intrigued by Devadoss’s study of Williams College alumni and how their career doesn’t necessarily match with what they studied in college.
“We tracked what every alum did, what their major was and what their career became,” said Devadoss.
Devadoss ultimately discovered that “your major doesn’t matter” because students in each major have gone on to all different types of careers. The point of college is to take courses in all disciplines and to keep your studies well rounded by not limiting yourself to one area of study.
The lecture closed with a quote from “The Princess Bride,” that “life is pain. Anyone that tells you differently is selling you something.”
After the lecture, students presented their research at the Rall Symposium poster and oral presentations. Undergraduate students have been preparing research for the last year by conducting surveys and thoroughly researching their selected topics.
This year more than 70 students participated in Rall Symposium, proving the popularity of the event.
Junior Hannah Kramer conducted research on “The Teaching of the Holocaust in German Schools and the Presence of Guilt.” She wanted to learn how children in Germany are taught about the Holocaust and whether or not they should feel guilty or ashamed of their country’s history.
Her research took about six months where she conducted interviews and ran surveys.
“Teachers in Germany don’t force guilt upon anyone and they teach the subject as objectively as they can,” said Kramer.
Senior Patrick Noonan conducted research on the “Influence of Ethnicity and Depressive Symptoms in Dieting Behaviors and Binge Eating.” His was inspired to learn more about the topic when he attended an annual conference sponsored by the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders. Noonan came across a few challenges during his research including the statistics and getting results from the surveys.
“Certain students didn’t answer all the questions, which impacted the data,” said Noonan. “There is a negative stigma when it comes to eating disorders. My research confirmed that certain aspects of depression trigger eating disorders.”
Seeing all the students describe their experience of putting together their biggest assignment of the year reminds Hammond of when he conducted his own research for an event similar to Rall Symposium for his undergraduate degree.
“Those experiences were transformative for my education,” said Hammond.
Once the presentations were complete, the next stage of Honors Day was shedding light on the outstanding student of each major offered at the College. Only one student from each major is chosen for this honor.
During the ceremony, the chair of each department listed the diverse accomplishments, whether on or off campus, for each outstanding recipient.
The highest honors of the ceremony went to Ian Wright for Outstanding Senior Man and Christina Richardson for Outstanding Senior Woman.
The day of celebration concluded with induction ceremonies across campus to welcome new members into their respective honors societies.
Honors Day not only recognizes the seniors, but all North Central students in each grade level for their academic and scholarly excellence.
“As exciting as commencement is, I almost look forward to Honors Day more than the commencement ceremony,” said Hammond.
