Josiah Banks is surely an energetic and outgoing student that has a love of math.
A senior double majoring in theoretical mathematics and math education, Banks attributed the love of math to your very special part of his life, Michael Soroka, a calculus teacher at Campbell Memorial Highschool.
“He was obviously a wonderful teacher,” Banks said. “He was very funny, into earth, and knew how you can explain things really productive way. He’s one which really got me into math education. I wasn’t originally into math education. ?I wasn’t even going to go towards math; I’m about to do architecture initially.”
Three-quarters through Banks’ senior year, Soroka kicked the bucket.
“The teacher that were only available in, she never taught calculus [before] … therefore we all still wanted to find out more on [math] in memory of him,” Banks said. “We knew [Soroka] would still want us to master. I got my friend’s notes with the year before and also finished up understanding the material…and basically helped the [new] teacher teach the category. That started my mathematics journey.”
Originally planning to teach math with the highschool level, Banks took a theoretical math class from Dr. Jacek Fabrykowski as part of the regular curriculum for integrated mathematics education majors.
“[Dr. Fabrykowski] really pushed me, also it was most likely the hardest math course I had,” Banks said. “He taught me to understand or know that theoretical mathematics is really so beautiful.”
Banks plans on pursuing a Ph.D. in math so he will teach theoretical mathematics in the college level. His main interests come in number theory and abstract algebra. Earlier this summer, Banks studied number theory at Texas A&M on a Research Experience for Undergraduates.
“[Number theory is targeted on integers] – no fractions, no decimals,” Banks explained. “It’s study regarding every one of the properties of such numbers, [such as] divisibility.”
A type of number theory that interests Banks is modular arithmetic.
“[Modular arithmetic is] actually in a lot of things nowadays, and it is worth it to read,” Josiah said. “It’s similar to a section outside of mathematics called discrete mathematics. On this planet we live in – we reside in a very continuous world – we’re familiar with seeing things constantly flowing. Well, with integers there are spaces between 0 and 1. You are not investigating 0.1 or 0.2; you’re looking at just 0 or Several ?broke and alone in between. You just aren’t taking a look at fractions; nothing can beat that. So, some people find discrete mathematics and number theory very challenging, because…we’ve been utilized to the things that are continuous.”
During his time at Texas A&M, Banks studied number theory. Areas of number theory he studied included the particular parts function, the partition function and asymptotic formulas.
“It’s just amazing how number theory can depend on so many different aspects of mathematics without [people] even knowing it,” Banks said.
But Banks did more than just study numbers in his time in Texas.
“It was wonderful. I met lots of wonderful people; I learned a lot of interesting things. I networked a great deal, and i also visited lots of cool places in Texas,” Banks said. “Pretty sure I had the top BBQ of my life.”
After his summer in Texas, Banks made a comeback to YSU and participated and presented research in the annual MathFest competition in DC, in addition to competing inside competition.
He additionally competed inside the prestigious Putnam exam twice, the Integration Bee, the Calculus Competition, and has now been a Presidential Mentor in the past eighteen months, all on top of being active in over 10 student organization on campus.
“There are so many things our students must know about, with there being numerous opportunities in this math department,” Banks said. “I’m very happy with this math department. It is great.”
