No problem: UWO midyear grad, aspiring professor, relishes complex math

Graduating senior Fatima Muñiz was a member of the Honors College and a McNair Scholar as a mathematics undergraduate student at UW-Oshkosh.

University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh graduating senior Fatima Muñiz is not afraid to ask lots of questions, especially when it comes to higher math problems, and to work hard to find the answers.  

 After graduating from UWO in the Midyear Commencement Dec. 14, Muñiz, a math major, plans to apply to graduate school with the ultimate goal to earn a doctorate in mathematics and, eventually, teach at a university or do research in industry. 
 Her questioning math mind kicked in an AP calculus course at St. Mary Catholic High School in Neenah. She wanted to know the “why and how” of the math she was learning and spent her high school years asking her teacher detailed questions.

“I wanted to know how we know that this works? Why is this working? How about in this little special case? What if this happens and this doesn’t happen?” Muñiz said with a laugh. “I had a lot of questions.”

At UWO, she quickly distinguished herself as a promising math student. Math professor David Penniston had Muñiz in his Introduction to Linear Algebra, Vector Calculus and Complex Analysis and Advanced Linear Algebra courses. He said Muñiz’s questions always led to thoughtful mathematical discussions. 

“The questions Fatima asks are almost invariably aimed at fully grasping concepts and making connections between them, and she seems to have always known that if one understands mathematics on a high level, the minor details tend to fall into line,” Penniston said. 

Raised in a family of hard workers, Muñiz is the first in her family to attend college. Muñiz’s parents, both originally from Guanajuato, Mexico, instilled in her a strong work ethic and a commitment to making the most of every opportunity. Her father, who grew up in a rural farming community, had to leave school to help support his family after his father passed away when he was 7 years old. With limited education, he worked hard, finding odd jobs. In the U.S. he worked in construction, eventually founding his own company, Muñiz Concrete in Neenah. Her mother, also with limited formal schooling, worked at a cheese factory before transitioning to cleaning houses, to support the family. 

Growing up in a household where both parents were deeply invested in providing for the family, Fatima knew early on that education was her key to unlocking a different future.

“My dad always said, ‘I want my kids to leave the nest, go out there and get the opportunities I couldn’t have,’” she said.

Despite the financial struggles, her parents prioritized her education, always encouraging her to go further than they did. 

High-achieving

Fatima’s natural academic talent became evident early on. She was an exceptional student in high school, graduating as the class valedictorian in 2021. But even then, Fatima still grappled with imposter syndrome. She remembers feeling a little inadequate in her AP calculus class in high school, surrounded by male students who seemed to have all the answers.

“They would raise their hands and give these complicated answers with a lot of high vocabulary,” she said, adding, “and I felt a little bit inadequate.” 

One day, after a particularly challenging class, Muñiz went to her teacher.

“I told her I basically felt dumb and and didn’t know if I was succeeding,” she said. “My teacher said, ‘Fatima, you have the highest grade in the class. Sometimes people just talk to talk, but you’re doing much better than the people that talk the most in class.” 

That moment was a turning point for Muñiz. It gave her the confidence to embrace her love for math and helped her realize that she had a unique gift for understanding and explaining complex concepts. She also took to heart her father’s words growing up.

“He would encourage me when I would stand up for myself and would get into arguments with my brothers,” Muñiz said. “He would say, ‘Do not let them silence your voice because you are standing up for yourself.’ I have taken this advice to heart and live by it.”

Getting a step ahead

Muñiz enrolled in the UWO Honors College and is a McNair Scholar. In the summer of 2024, Fatima took part in a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program in Washington State University, where she worked on a challenging mathematics project involving unilateral equitransitive tilings (UET). At first glance, tiling—a mathematical concept involving the arrangement of shapes like tiles to cover a surface—might sound abstract. But in pure mathematics, these kinds of patterns hold deep significance. 

Muñiz and her research team, including students from New Jersey and California, sought to create an algorithm in Python, a computer programming language, that would identify and filter UETs involving four different-sized squares. Previous research had identified a handful of valid tiling patterns, but Fatima’s team went a step further. By creating an algorithm to filter out redundant or invalid tiling configurations, they reduced the number of possibilities from 400 to just 99 valid ones. Their work not only corrected previous findings, but also introduced new insights into tiling theory that had been overlooked in earlier research.  

“Research can feel like you’re building a puzzle,” Muñiz said. “You have these rules, and you need to figure out how to make things fit. That’s the beauty of math. You’re constantly asking, ‘Why does this work? How do we know this is true?’”

While the immediate application of their research may seem distant from everyday life, Muñiz said she’s OK with the idea of doing research that could later be used to help solve problems in fields like computer science, physics and even art.

“No research is futile,” she said. “No research is not useful.” 

Math professor Penniston thought Muñiz’s summer research was deserving of a larger audience and asked her to present a colloquium this past semester. “I could not have been more impressed with her presentation,” he said. “If teaching ends up being part of Fatima’s professional future, her students will be in good hands.” 

Written by Grace Lim

Link to original story: https://www.uwosh.edu/today/125423/no-problem-uwo-midyear-grad-aspiring-professor-relishes-complex-math/