Ariella Gladstein (Burke ’07, Beloit ’11) and Rachel Braun (Math Dept) had a reunion of sorts in July, enjoying some chai (latte) and chi (statistics). Ariella took Linear Algebra at U Maryland this summer, and discovered some cool matrix connections to least-squares regression estimates that she remembered from her AP Statistics days with Rachel. Girls just want to have geek fun, of course, so they met at Starbucks to take a second look at least-squares regression techniques, now illuminated by Ariella’s more recent prowess in calculus, matrix algebra, and further studies in statistics. The applications to Ariella’s passion for genetics are extensive.
This comic strip – http://www.xkcd.com/747/ — was not helpful as the two debated whether they were geeks or nerds. They did agree that multivariate statistics — an extension of topics in AP Stat – is pretty cool, though.
