Siler studies shapes, not students
TA Highlight
Andrew Chen
Issue date: 11/30/09 Section: Features
Media Credit: Andrew ChenGraduate student in mathematics Michael Siler (right) is a TA for undergraduate courses and is also tutoring in the Math Learning Center.
Although UIC prides itself on its faculty, many of whom have been recognized in research and have won teaching awards, there are also the graduate students. These are the people who assist in the award-winning research and provide help and support for students when professors cannot. The Chicago Flame had the privilege to interview Michael Siler, a math TA at UIC. Siler is also a researcher focusing on low dimensional topology, hyperbolic geometry and geometric group theory.
Flame: What Ph.D. program are you in?
Michael Siler: That's in the Math Statistics Computer Science Department and in particularly I'm in the pure math program.
Flame: What has your experience at UIC been like?
MS: It's been good. It seems like other grad schools I've been to.
Flame: You've only been here for a short time?
MS: Yeah. This is my second year here. Before here, I've been in Indiana University for two years and gained my master degree.
Flame: What brought you to UIC?
MS: So I was at IU [Indiana University] and I planned on staying there to get my Ph.D. But sometime after my second year, I got married and my wife is going to start grad school. UI wasn't very good for what she did in particular, so we applied to whole bunch of schools around the country. And we lucked out with her getting into Northwestern and me getting into here. So we can live together in the same city, which we had been doing two years before.
Flame: What inspired you to be a math major?
MS: When I started as an undergrad, I was a physics major. I always liked science and technical type things. So, I started as a physics major and then in the first couple years as an undergrad I was taking physics courses at the same time I was taking advanced math classes because I liked math as well I have to take some courses. Math class seemed to be way cooler. In physics class it seemed like everything they were doing came down to coming up with guesses that matched data and there was no way of really knowing if it's right or not, just whether or not it matched the data. Whereas in math classes, everything is concrete. Everything is certain. There's a right and wrong answer. Everything can be proven definitely and I liked that. I like that there's no guessing. What you knew, you knew for real.
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Flame: What Ph.D. program are you in?
Michael Siler: That's in the Math Statistics Computer Science Department and in particularly I'm in the pure math program.
Flame: What has your experience at UIC been like?
MS: It's been good. It seems like other grad schools I've been to.
Flame: You've only been here for a short time?
MS: Yeah. This is my second year here. Before here, I've been in Indiana University for two years and gained my master degree.
Flame: What brought you to UIC?
MS: So I was at IU [Indiana University] and I planned on staying there to get my Ph.D. But sometime after my second year, I got married and my wife is going to start grad school. UI wasn't very good for what she did in particular, so we applied to whole bunch of schools around the country. And we lucked out with her getting into Northwestern and me getting into here. So we can live together in the same city, which we had been doing two years before.
Flame: What inspired you to be a math major?
MS: When I started as an undergrad, I was a physics major. I always liked science and technical type things. So, I started as a physics major and then in the first couple years as an undergrad I was taking physics courses at the same time I was taking advanced math classes because I liked math as well I have to take some courses. Math class seemed to be way cooler. In physics class it seemed like everything they were doing came down to coming up with guesses that matched data and there was no way of really knowing if it's right or not, just whether or not it matched the data. Whereas in math classes, everything is concrete. Everything is certain. There's a right and wrong answer. Everything can be proven definitely and I liked that. I like that there's no guessing. What you knew, you knew for real.
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