Math 450 Presents "Deriving the Fair Price"

Deriving the Fair Price: Examining the Binomial Pricing Model and the Black-Scholes Formula

Actuaries: "Part super-hero. Part fortune-teller. Part trusted advisor" (www.beanactuary.org/what). However, in order to achieve this part super-hero status, actuarial students must first pass exams published by the Society of Actuaries. Ashland University provides classes for the first two out of nine professional exams, but during my talk, I will explore some topics covered on the syllabus for the third exam, Models of Financial Economics. After reviewing some background information on financial and derivative markets, I will explain the importance of a fair option premium. Then, using the Binomial Pricing Model and the Black-Sholes formula, we will examine these different techniques used in creating and evaluating the market price for Put and Call options with stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange as the underlying asset.

Primary Sources: McDonald, Robert L. Derivatives Markets,Third Edition, Chapter 10 (sections 10.1 - 10.4) and Chapter 12 (section 12.1)

Math 450 Presents

Deriving the Fair Price

by Katie Hurley

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

1:40 p.m.

Patterson 301

Come join us! All are Welcome.

Crocheting Hyperbolic Planes

Linda Morales and Becca Stettin

Fun ways to learn math: Dr. Swanson's Modern Geometry class are crocheting hyperbolic planes in class today. Pictured are Linda Morales and Becca Stettin learning about hyperbolic planes through crocheting.

Math 450 Presents "The Pioneering Role of the Sierpinski Gasket"

We will be looking at different aspects of the Sierpinski Gasket and how it relates to the different generations of the Ulam-Warburton Automation and the Hex-Ulum-Warburton Automation as shown in the September 2015 edition of Math Horizons.

Math 450 Presents

The Pioneering Role of the Sierpinski Gasket

by Zach Brown

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

1:40 p.m.

Patterson 301

Come join us! All are Welcome.

Math 450 Presents "The Mathematics Behind Spot It!"

In the game, Spot It!, each of the 55 cards have eight pictures and any two cards have exactly one picture in common. It may be easy to spot the similarity between two given cards, but how easily is this game created? In the April 2015 edition of Math Horizons, Burkard Polster wrote "The Intersection Game" to address that question. This talk will present how to build Spot It! decks and vaiations using point-line geometry, projective planes, t- (v,k,λ) designs.

 

 

Math 450 Presents

The Mathematics Behind Spot It!

by Grace McCourt

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

1:40 p.m.

Patterson 301

 

Come join us! All are Welcome.

Math 450 Presents "The Logistic Equation"

The logistic differential equation, dP/dt = rP(1 – P), was first proposed in a slightly different form by Pierre-Francois Verhulst in 1838 to model population growth. Since then, it has found a wide array of applications – from modeling growth in economics to use as an activation function in artificial neural networks. Analytical solutions may easily be obtained for this equation, aiding in its popularity.

In an early paper dating from 1920, Raymond Pearl and Lowell Reed attempt to fit a number of potential population models to population data obtained by the United States census. I propose a more general equation, dP/dt = rP(L(t) – P), where the function L(t) is the limit of the population varying with time. After finding a general, open form solution to this equation, I propose several models for L(t), and attempt to solve the equation both analytically and numerically.

Pearl, R., & Reed, L. (1920). On the Rate of Growth of the Population of the United States Since 1790 and it's Mathematical Representation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 6(6). Retrieved October 27, 2015, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1084522/

Math 450 Presents

"The Logistic Equation"

by: Paul Pernici

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

1:40 p.m.

in Patterson 301

Come join us! All are Welcome.

2015 ACM-ICPC Annual Competition

Dr. Iyad Ajwa and two teams of undergraduate computer science students traveled to Youngstown, Ohio on October 30-31, 2015 to participate in the 2016 ACM-ICPC East Central North America Regional Programming Contest that was held at Youngstown State University. The contest draws teams from institutions across Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Western Pennsylvania, and Eastern Ontario in Canada. 

Paul Pernici, Rupesh Maharjan and Alex Gregory

Ashland University was represented by two teams: AU Purple (Alex Gregory, Rupesh Maharjan, Paul Pernici) and AU Gold (Raymond Acevedo and Erich Berger. The third student on the team was Benjamin Bushong, but he was not able to attend). The competition was for five hours and consisted of nine very challenging problems. Team AU Purple solved one problem.

Erich Berger and Raymond Acevedo

Congratulations to Team AU Purple and thank you to all five students who participated in this highly competitive contest!