Justin Wisby
A bit About Me
I was born and raised in Michigan, but ended up moving down to Miami with my partner in pursuit of higher education in 2019. Since then, a pandemic happened and has locked me inside with my books. Now that the pandemic is easing, I am glad that I no longer have to progress with my studies alone.
I am a graduate student with the department of Mathematics and Statistics at Florida Int. Uni. My long term goal is secondary education instruction and mathematics research. I am proud of all the hard work that I have put into my studies and very excited about where my studies are leading me.
Outside of my traditional educational experiences, I have spent a lot of my professional and personal time working on computer science and digital fabrication which I honed during my years in Flint while studying Mathematics and Physics at University of Michigan Flint. My coding skills later got me noticed by Illustrative Mathematics, where I worked for nearly three years before I transitioned into graduate student life at FIU.
I am also an avid programmer and if you would like to view my github showcase site, that can be found at github.jwisby.com.
Current Goal
I am working towards my Masters of Science in Mathematical Sciences at Florida International University.
In 2020, I was offered a position to study at FIU in their masters program. Most of my courses have focused on analysis and computation, both fields that I hope to use later in life. So far I have been enjoying myself and hope to graduate in Spring of 2022.


Research Highlight
Monte Carlo Markov Chain Simulations using Python.
I used a MCMC model to mimic population growth based on PNG color mappings which dictated a trinary model to modified the transition matrix to specify the intents of each collection of cells. Roughly dictating that the RGB values would change the proclivity of the cells to either increase population, increase strength, or expand. Future goals of the project would be to include Machine Learning and Voxelated figures but my efforts towards the VMLMCMCM have taken a back burner as I focus on my studies. Similarly the write up including the code has also taken the back burner.
Education
Research areas
Discrete Mathematics, Graph Theory, Combinatorics, Number Theory
Graduate Degree
Ph.D Thesis:
Masters Thesis: "Total Domination of the Cartesian Product of Complete Graphs"
GPA: 3.7
Undergraduate Degree, University of Michigan -- Flint
Bachelor's in Science in Mathematics with a minor in Physics, 2018
Math GPA: 3.4, Physics GPA: 3.1, Overall GPA: π
Capstone Thesis: Drunk Cops and Drunk Robbers: A Markov Chain Analysis
Employment
Florida Int. Uni. -- Teaching/Research/Graduate Assistant 2020-Present
Graph Theory, Calculus 2, Theory of Algorithms, Discrete Mathematics
Florida Int. Uni. -- Digital Assistant and Mathematical Programmer 2020-Present
From April 2018 to December 2020, I was brought on at Illustrative Mathematics for their High School Curriculum Development team. While I started in visual aid generation, I found myself helping out everywhere I could. I ended up finding myself picking up a role of a content reviewer as well as the sole corrections reviewer after our first release. When Illustrative Mathematics wrapped up their high school curriculum, they set their sights on Middle School and Elementary School, where I was brought over. This transition brought new challenges where I was able to produce the vast majority of the library of images and templates used in the curriculum.
My time at IM was a fantastic experience and I hope the best for the company and the family of all those that made IM so successful.
Visual Aid Development
Most of my time at Illustrative Mathematics, I was working on visual aid development. In my near three years with the company I made more than 10,000 visual aids for the curriculum. I also worked on the design and implementation of the visual aids to maximize their effectiveness.
We used TeX code, or more specifically Tikz and PGF, to make almost all of our images and even some of our illustrations. I made custom packages that would more effectively and efficiently generate visual aids with the flexibility to make curriculum wide changes with one edit. This code was hosted on our own site but we used GitHub to help distribute our repositories to help keep the rest of the team updated.
I made visual aids for all levels of primary education with image lead for the elementary projects.
University of Michigan, Flint -- Supplemental Instructor and Tutor 2014-2018
Calculus I, Calculus II, Physics with Calc I and II, Physics without Calc I and II
Tutoring (2013 - present)
Volunteer Work 2012-Present
AMRPU@FIU
DRP Mentor
Students in Graduate Mathematics Association Founder and Chair
Research
Papers
Dr. Rajib Ganguly et. al. (Justin Wisby), Spewing Black Holes III: A Theoretical Structure, Meeting of Minds Journal, Volume 18, 2016.
Dr. Rajib Ganguly et. al. (Justin Wisby), Spewing Black Holes: Outflows from the Biggest Black Holes in the Universe Meeting of Minds Journal, Volume 17, 2015.
Dr. Rajib Ganguly and Justin Wisby, Spewing Black Holes: Disentangling the Geometry of Outflows Meeting of Minds Journal, Volume 17, 2015.
Presentations
Total $k$-domination of the Cartesian Product of Complete Graphs, Joint Mathematics Meeting 2022, April 2022
Closed Formulas for Total 2-domination of the Cartesian Product of Complete Graphs, Southeastern International Conference on Combinatorics, Graph Theory & Computing, March 2022
Computational Approach to Total Domination using Adjacency Matrices in MATLAB, AMS Sectional Meeting, November 2021
Lindenmayer Systems and 3D-Printing, Michigan MAA Annual Meeting, Ferris State University, April 2017
Spewing Black Holes: Distentangling the Geometry of Outflows, Great Lakes Quasar Symposium, Western University London, OT, Canada, June 2016
Spewing Black Holes IV: From Theory to Observations, Meeting of Minds, University of Michigan – Flint, May 2016
Classifications of the Largest Nuclei, CSEP department, University of Michigan – Flint, October 2015
Spewing Black Holes: Distentangling the Geometry of Outflows, Meeting of Minds, University of Michigan – Dearborn, May 2015
Less Research but Still Academically Interesting
Undergraduate Topology using the Moore Method, University of Michigan - Flint, Winter 2016
Undergraduate Number Theory using the Moore Method, University of Michigan - Flint, Fall 2017
Coding Experiences
Very Confident with
Python, Sagemath, Mathematica, MATLAB, TeX, Tikz/pgf, Linux, AHK, Markdown
I can figure it out, but need a little more time
R, C++, Rust, HTML, CSS, Javascript
Other Cool Skills
CAD (Autodesk), Digital Fabrication (3D Printing, CNC, Laser), Wood Working, Chess Coach.
Life Long Educator
We never stop learning; so, I want to share with you the viewer of my site some insight. Here are some of the useful tips and tricks that I have learned that I would like to share with you.