Milagros Loreto

I hold a PhD in Computer Science, MS in Mathematics and a BS in Applied Mathematics. Since Fall 2014, I work as Tenure-Track Assistant Professor at UWB. I have taught several courses from basic math to optimization electives, and created several courses for the math major. Also, I mentor undergraduate students in optimization research projects. Some projects are supported with external funds such as REU grant, awarded in 2015 to UWB for 3 years.

I've been working to find ways to support students’ success on basic math courses during years. In 2014, as lecturer of CUSP (now FYYP) at UWB. Before, I was a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the Florida Memorial University (FMU), which is mainly an institution focused on teaching, where I received awards such as scholar of the year 2012 and teacher of the year 2013 for the Division of Computer Science and Mathematics.

Before FMU, I did a Postdoctoral research at Duke University mentored by Professor Anita Layton. We combined the modeling of the urine concentrating mechanism of the rat medulla kidney with the use of numerical optimization techniques, in order to assess the impact of physical variables on maximizing urine concentration.

My experience as teacher started at Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV), where I taught and researched in the area of numerical optimization for 7 years. My last position was Aggregate Exclusive Dedication Professor before deciding to move to United States of America.

Research Interest

My research interest is mainly in computational mathematics with a focus on numerical optimization. Specifically, I have worked on different kind of optimization problems, from linear, non-linear, and most recently non-smooth (non-differentiable) and free derivative. I have worked on interesting applications in physiology, in particular during my research as post-doctoral fellow at Duke University.

I designed a research plan when I joined UWB in 2014, which I have been executing. One of its pillars includes several projects for undergraduate students.

Undergraduate Research Experience (REU)

As soon as I started my position at UWB, I became a faculty mentor of the REU-program, hosted here at UWB. The REU at Bothell consists of bringing undergraduate students to UWB every year of the program for an extraordinary research experience that will encourage them to pursue graduate education.

In this program, students work closely with faculty members on projects in knot theory, tiling theory, optimization, and numerical linear algebra. I have been driving the optimization chapter of the program since then.

REU 2015

In summer 2015, three undergraduate students joined me in the research project entitled: Momentum Parameter for the Modified Spectral Projected Subgradient (MSPS), pursuing to alleviate zig-zagging problems during the convergence of the MSPS. The resulting research paper,Modified Spectral Projected Subgradient Method: Convergence Analysis and Momentum Parameter Heuristics, was published in the Special Bulletin Issue of Computational Applied Mathematics in honor of the 60th birthday of Prof. Marcos Raydan, CompAMa Journal in September 2016. This valuable undergraduate research work has been presented at several conferences.

REU 2016

In Summer 2016, three students joined me in the research project: Spectral Subgradient Method for Non-Smooth Optimization. This valuable undergraduate research work was presented at 2017 Joint Mathematics Meeting (JMM), Atlanta, Georgia, and it was awarded as an Outstanding Poster Presentation. It also has been featured at UW news.

Publications

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