Justin Wisby

I am a mathematician aiming to use my knowledge to help others.

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 still 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 Ph.D in Mathematical Sciences at Florida International University. 

In 2020, I was offered a position to study at FIU in their masters program and have since been moved up to the Ph.D 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 2024. 

Research Highlight

Total Domination of Cartesian Product of Complete Graphs

Education

Research areas

Discrete Mathematics, Graph Theory, Combinatorics, Number Theory

Graduate Degree

Ph.D Thesis: Pending

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

Research

Papers

Presentations

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

Employment

Graduate Assistant @ Florida International University (2020-Present)

I was offered funding as a masters student given my background in education and previous work as an instructor. Since then I have been a teaching assistant for entry level and upper level. I use my background in combinatorics and graph theory to help with the discrete courses. 

Digital Assistant and Mathematical Programmer @ Florida International University  (2020-Present)

Given my background with front end, I was supported by the faculty to take the role of digital TA for the department. My background allowed me to skip the training and get administrator status. Since then I was given the lead roll for all edits of the website. Over time, the department has given me more privileges and I am given the lead roll in site redesigns. I use my position to help increase accessibility and availability of department resources while we update our materials for new students.

Curriculum Developer @ Illustrative Mathematics (2019-2020)

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 Developer @ Illustrative Mathematics (2018-2021)

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. 

Supplemental Instructor and Tutor @ University of Michigan Flint (2014-2018)

Starting after my first semester of my undergraduate education, I was a Supplemental Instructor and tutor for the University of Michigan - Flint. I was brought in as a SI for Physics but branched out to mathematics early on. I was a SI every semester until I graduated 4 years later, often helping in multiple classes a semester. Some of the courses I assisted are Calculus I, Business Calc, Calculus II, Calculus III, Physics with Calc I and II, Physics without Calc I and II.

Responsibility Roles

During Graduate School

AMRPU@FIU REU 2022 - Technical Support, Programmer, General Mentor, Lecturer

AMRPU@FIU REU 2021 - Emcee, Photographer, Programmer, General Mentor, Lecturer, Technical Support

Students in Graduate Mathematics Association Founder (2021) and President (2022)

DRP Mentor

Tutoring 


Before Graduate School

Students Union of Mathematics, President (2017-2018)

Society of Physics Students,University of Michigan - Flint Chapter, Secretary (2016) and President (2016-2017)

Math Field Day, Volunteer (2015-2018)

Open House Recruitment Efforts, Math and Physics (2015-2018)

Tutoring (2013 - Present) 

Coding Experiences

Weakly ordered: 

Python, Sagemath, Mathematica, MATLAB, TeX, Tikz/pgf, Linux(debian based), AHK, Markdown, R, C++, HTML/CSS/Javascript

Other Cool Skills

CAD (Autodesk), Digital Fabrication (3D Printing, CNC, Laser), Wood Working, Chess Coach. 

Life Long Educator


Mentoring

DRP 2021-2023

I have been a DRP mentor at FIU for 3 semesters. We have read into the following topics in various projects:


REU Mentor 2021-2022

I was a research experience for undergrads mentor at FIU. Our program was sponsored by the NSF (21-22) and the NSA (22). In 

with Alejandro Aponte under Dr. Stephen Tennenbaum

with Liam Busch, Grant Silewski and Han Yin under Dr. Walter Carballosa

Education

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. More to come.