Our Faculty - Mathematics

Mahmoud El-Hashash has taught many undergraduate and graduate courses including Precalculus, Calculus, Discrete Mathematics, Differential Equations, Elementary Statistics, Graph Theory, Linear Algebra, Operations Research, and Topics in Finite Mathematics.

Mahmoud El-Hashash's scholarship interests are in Combinatorics, Graph theory, and Statistics.

Selected publications:
M. El-Hashash, M Gabr "Bilinear Garch Time Series Models" Proceedings of the 2011 International Conference on Scientific Computing (CSC 2011, July 18-21, 2011, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA) pp.102-108.
M. El-Hashash, M Gabr "Iterated Neural Networks Time Series Forecasting and Applications" Proceedings of the 2009 International Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ICAI'09: July 13-16, 2009, USA) Vol I, 2009 pp.57-64.
M. El-Hashash, H. Burgiel "The Permutahedron is Hamiltonian" Int. J. Contemp. Math. Sciences, Vol. 4, 2009, no. 1, 31-39.
M. El-Hashash, H. Burgiel, and A. Hassan "On the Hamiltonicity of the Permutahedron" Contressus Numerantium, Vol 189 (2008), pp. 145-160.
M. El-Hashash "Almost the largest possible Cycle on the subgraph, of two consecutive levels, of the Hypercube" Congressus Numerantium Volume 166 (2004), pp. 33-42.
M. El-Hashash "A long Cycle on the subgraph, of two consecutive levels, of the Hypercube" Congressus Numerantium Volume 157 (2002), pp. 21-32.
M. El-Hashash "Hamiltonian Cycles and long Cycles, on the subgraph, of four consecutive levels, of the Hypercube" Proceedings of the 6th. World Multiconference on Systematics, Cybernetics and Informatics (SCI2002) vol. XI, pp. 188-198, July 14-18, 2002, Orlando, Florida.
M. El-Hashash and A. Hassan "On the hamiltonicity of Two Subgraphs of the Hypercube" Congressus Numerantium Volume 148 (2001), pp. 7-32.

Laura K. Gross has a BS degree in Applied Mathematics with a concentration in computer science from Yale University. She did an unofficial minor in Chinese language and literature as an undergraduate. Dr. Gross received MS and PhD degrees in mathematics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Before coming to BSU, Dr. Gross taught at The University of Akron in Ohio. Dr. Gross's interests include modeling and simulation of nonlinear dynamics and the scholarship of teaching and learning. She enjoys spending time with her family, practicing languages, and taking online courses.

Dr. Nguyen Ho teaches Precalculus and Calculus II. His research interests include fluid dynamics, mathematical biology, and numerical methods. His hobbies include hiking and playing badminton.

Rebecca Metcalf has been a liaison between her department and the College of Education and Allied Studies. She has been the facilitator of CONNECT Math and the Massachusetts higher education representative at PARCC Algebra II Assessment meetings. She is currently a contributing member of the Massachusetts Commonwealth Taskforce on Redesigning Developmental Math as well as an Executive Board Member of the Mathematics and Computer Science Collaborative (MACS) at Bridgewater.

Dr. Metcalf's teaching load consists of mostly mathematics courses for the preparation of elementary teachers, but also includes secondary mathematics methods courses and others. She teaches Mathematics for Elementary Teachers I (MATH 112), Mathematics for Elementary Teachers II (MATH 113), Mathematics for Elementary Teachers III (MATH 114), Elements of Precalculus (MATH 140), Precalculus and Trigonometry (MATH 150), and Methods for Teaching High School/Middle School Mathematics (HSED 456/MSED 422).

Her professional work and scholarship falls under the broad umbrella of Undergraduate Mathematics Education. Specifically, she has focused on issues related to transfer of undergraduate mathematics courses and teacher preparation of elementary teachers.

John Pike is a probability theorist who is particularly interested in problems with a combinatorial or algebraic flavor. His research has involved topics such as Markov chain mixing, cellular automata, and Stein's method for distributional approximation. Many of these investigations were inspired by ideas from the physics literature, but he is generally interested in exploring randomness wherever it arises.

John came to Bridgewater in 2016 after a PhD at the University of Southern California followed by a postdoc at Cornell. He has enjoyed teaching a variety of classes at all levels and is especially excited about taking part in student research. 

Polina Sabinin joined Bridgewater State University in 2011. She is the faculty coordinator of Games Teachers Play (an outreach program for P-12 teachers through the Center for Advancement of STEM Education) and Math Kangaroo (an international mathematics competition for students in grades 1-12).

Prior to coming to Bridgewater, Polina was the Associate Director of the Center for Mathematics Achievement at Lesley University, Associate Consultant for Teachers21, and developmental editor for Pearson Addison-Wesley. Currently she coauthors educational games for FoxMind Games, Canada. Her most recent game publication is Smart Cookies with Michel and Robert Lyons. Smart Cookies introduces children and adults to logic.

In the last ten years, Dr. Sabinin was the founding board member, president, newsletter chair, and conference chair for the Massachusetts Mathematics Association of Teacher Educators (MassMATE). She was also the Newsletter Chair for the Association of Teachers of Mathematics in Massachusetts.

Polina Sabinin teaches Mathematics for Elementary Teachers I (MATH 112), Mathematics for Elementary Teachers II (MATH 113), Mathematics for Elementary Teachers III (MATH 114), and Second Year Seminars about Games in Mathematics.

Her scholarship interests are in students' deductive reasoning as well as mathematics education through games and puzzles.

Philip Scalisi is the former chair and graduate school coordinator in the Mathematics department. He is a member of the MAA, HOMSIGM, NCTM, and Pi Mu Epsilon. Professor Scalisi frequently participates in the MAA Math Study Tours. He often lectures in the History of Mathematics.

Professor Scalisi teaches both graduate and undergraduate level History of Mathematics and all Analysis courses. His scholarship interests are in history of mathematics and mineralogical crystallography.

Uma Shama has been teaching in the department of Mathematics and Computer Science since 1987 at Bridgewater State University. She mainly teaches mathematics courses from freshman to graduate level but has also taught directed study and independent research courses to undergraduate and graduate computer science students. Professor Shama has taught freshman seminar and first year seminar courses. Through GeoGraphics Laboratory, she has offered training workshops to practitioners in using geographic information system and spatial analysis in improving access to transportation. Bridgewater State University has revitalized the honors program and has actively introduced undergraduate research. To connect the Core Curriculum with each major, students are required to complete one writing intensive course in their major. In response to these changes, Dr. Shama has regularly taught a course in Applied Mathematics as writing intensive in the major. She has also taught graduate level research based writing intensive courses. When students show interest to learn more, she has always accommodated their needs by offering directed and independent study courses above and beyond her regular load.

ADVISING: Dr. Shama advises more than forty undergraduate and graduate students who major in mathematics and computer science. She has advised new students during freshman and transfer student orientation regularly. She also mentors students in their career paths as well as planning for advance degree programs.

STUDENT THESES AND PROJECTS: In the last seven years, she has directed two undergraduate honors theses, four undergraduate Adrian Tinsley Summer Projects and six masters projects in both mathematics and computer science.

COURSE DEVELOPMENT: Dr. Shama has been actively developing seminar courses, new courses to fill the needs in both mathematics and computer science programs at both undergraduate and graduate level. She worked with colleagues in modifying Calculus courses for mathematics majors and mathematics courses for elementary education majors. She participated in the CONNECT workshop in aligning courses for transferring among University of Massachusetts, community colleges, and Bridgewater State University. She also worked on creating a one-credit problem solving course as part of the E and T sections for some of the basic mathematics courses in the department. As part of the STREAMS course development, Dr. Shama developed Problem Solving courses that have become corequisite with a Calculus I course. Elements of Calculus courses were required for management science majors until a separate one semester applied calculus was introduced. She has worked on modifying the Elements of Calculus courses as the students in these courses are mainly science majors.

HONORS AND AWARDS: In the last seven years, Dr. Shama received four awards. In 2007, she received the Presidential Award for Distinguished Teaching, one of the highest recognitions for teaching at Bridgewater State University. In 2007, she also received Honors Outstanding Faculty Award that was initially recommended by students of Bridgewater State University. In 2009, she received the Martha D. Jones Outstanding Dedication to Students Award from the Bridgewater State University Alumni Association. In 2010, she received Bridgewater State Lifetime Faculty Research Award, the highest award that one can receive at Bridgewater. Since 2008, she was honored to serve as the University Marshal. Dr. Shama feels truly blessed to have been working at Bridgewater State University for the last twenty-six years and to have her work recognized with various awards.

COMMITTEE WORK: Dr. Shama has served in several committees within the department as well as college-wide. She served as treasurer of an international organization, Natural Philosophy Alliance. College-wide she has served on Honorary Degree Advisory Committee, Asian Studies Program, Campus Climate Action Group, Honors Program, Undergraduate Research Program, Executive Committee of MSCA, Bridgewater Chapter and HERS Bridgewater Chapter. In the mathematics department, Dr. Shama has served on graduate committee, undergraduate curriculum committee and search committee. She also serves as course coordinator of several courses on a regular basis.

SCHOLARSHIP: Dr. Shama's PhD thesis topic was "The Transformation Equations of Electromagnetic Field Vectors in Accelerated Systems"

GRANTS: In the last seven years during review period 2006-2013, Dr. Shama has been involved in eleven externally funded grants and one internally funded grant. She has been able to hire and train many undergraduate and graduate students on these externally funded projects. This has helped students who have worked in the GeoGraphics Laboratory to find full-time employment when they graduate from Bridgewater State University. She has actively served on the Project Compass grant. This work was especially fulfilling to her as it addressed the issues about improving student success at Bridgewater for all our students, in particular for underserved students.

PUBLICATIONS: In the last seven years, Dr. Shama co-authored ten publications and ten technical reports as part of externally funded grants. Her research fields include Geographic Informations systems, mobility management technology research in transportation, intelligent transportation systems, and electrodynamics.

PRESENTATIONS: Dr. Shama has been invited to present her research work at national and international conferences every year. She has also regularly presented project results to the funding agencies.