Reflections Magazine Issue #78 - Spring 2013 | Page 19

Feature Article

Bjork was joined by SHU math faculty members Tim Husband and

Jeff Kallenbach and students Vijay Caplon, Terri Johnston, Taylor Radtke,

Christie Erhart, Alyssa Hoff, Cody Weiss, Kyle Peters and Heid. SHU alum

Amanda Mitchell ‘12 also made the trip, which was funded in part by

student club allocations, faculty travel grants as well as some additional

funding from donors and the University.

“Some of these people had never left the tri
county area, and for two people, it was their first
time flying,” Bjork said.

The group rented a house, which made

for a “communal” experience, Bjork said.

They had a chance to visit the

famous San Diego Zoo and also take in

some of the other sites of southern

California during the week.

The whole experience is valuable

in many different ways,” Bjork said.

“There’s a sense of knowing each other,

a sense of learning together.”

Bjork also presented the talk, “A final project

in a mathematics of games class: create your own

new game!” and Hoff, a senior, also had an abstract

accepted at the meetings.

Heid, who actually finished his senior project this spring, isn’t
finished as a presenter quite yet.
The Minitab representative attended Heid’s presentation and liked it so much, she invited
him to present at a math conference in Quebec this summer. He recently received
confirmation from the company that his presentation was accepted.
And he certainly “licked” the data collection process of his senior project.
“Originally, I wanted to try to make a mathematical model of licks and
try to find the center (of the Tootsie Roll Pop),” Heid said of the data
collecting process. “But I couldn’t find any other way to do it other
than just get people to do it.”
He and several classmates licked through dozens of lollipops,
with Heid applying and measuring several variables such as flavor,
body temperature, ph levels of saliva and the force of the lick.
So, how many licks did it take to get to the center?
“My number was 356 (licks),” Heid said. “That was the
average we were able to get from people at Siena. I felt pretty
confident about how well I did.”
Heid said several other universities such as Harvard
and Swarthmore have conducted similar research, and
called the results “all over the board” from 140 to more
than 2,300 licks.
He said his favorite flavor was pomegranate, and
called banana “terrible.”
“I would lick until my tongue was raw,” Heid said.
Bjork said Heid is an example of what impact Siena
Heights students can make if given the opportunity.
“I think our results say that our scholars are attractive
nationally,” he said. “The things we do aren’t just local.
We are relevant in the big picture.” u

Reflections Spring ’13

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