Raymond Joseph Friend Jr. | Eberly College of Science

I serve as the Graduate Chair on the Eberly College of Science Sustainability Council for the last three full academic years.
I also served as the leader for the Carbon Neutral Working Group with the Student Sustainability Advisory Council (SSAC) for two academic years. Here is a presentation of our final recommendations from Fall 2021. I was interviewed about my sustainability advocacy by Ava Klink for SPARK.
I am a member of the Penn State Logic Group headed by Jan Reimann and Linda Westrick. We meet weekly for 1.5 hours in our Logic Seminar to talk about current topics and have an internal or external speaker present.
I am a co-founding member of the Penn State Quantum Information and Computation Club.

Projects

I work with Dr. Jan Reimann and other graduate students in creating a new, open-source suite of projects to make math education at Penn State more accessible and affordable using HTML, Jupyter, and Python. Here is an example of our new MATH 110: Techniques of Calculus textbook deployed Fall 2021.
I produced the first ever Eberly College of Science Greenhouse Gas Inventory, quantifying the annual emissions related to all of Penn State's Eberly College of Science activities and operations. This was the most ambitious inventory effort performed at Penn State, and has served as a template for various other colleges and units at the university to produce their own inventories. My inventory further recommends methods for decarbonization, offset, and strategic planning to counteract our current emissions. I personally have helped produced unit-level inventories for the University Libraries and the College of Health and Human Development. Eberly College's Science Journal 2022 Issue 2 featured an exposition on this project.
I also produced the first ever Council of Commonwealth Student Governments Lifetime Greenhouse Gas Inventory, quantifying all greenhouse gas emissions produced through all operations committed by Penn State's CCSG (the student grovernment for all commonwealth campuses) in its 60+ year history. This inventory effort was the first performed for any organization at Penn State, and has inspired other student governments to produce their own as well.
My team and I were finalists in the 2021 Nittany AI Challenge with our idea Trace.
I advised and co-lead a finalist team in the 2022 Nittany AI Challenge named Stellar AI.

Volunteering

I volunteer teaching ESL in the State College area to native Spanish speakers through the Mid-State Literacy Council. This is my third semester teaching.
I am a volunteer for the non-profit Famous Fone Friends.
I also volunteer for CHILD USA. Here is a video detailing my 2019 Bike Tour de PA supporting CHILD USA.
I have served as President and Secretary of Penn State Club Cross Country, with whom I still love to run.

Resources for Students

Here is the link to a list of resources available to students dealing with housing, food, clothing, transportation, funding, or health insecurities. Feel free to distribute. The list was compiled by me and my students from MATH 33 during Fall 2021.
I aim to provide a safe space for all students of all races, abilities, sexual & romantic orientations, genders, religions, ages, nationalities, and ideologies. Please reach out to me if you believe I can help you navigate Penn State more safely or equitably.

Mathematical Experiences

I participated in the 2-week MSRI Mathematics of Machine Learning Summer School held at New York University's Courant Institute in Summer 2022. We covered Deep Learning, Statistical Learning, Online Learning, Reinforcement Learning, and Convex Optimization.
I participated in the 3-week IMS Logic Summer School held by the National University of Singapore for three weeks in Summer 2022. We covered topics in forcing, tracial von Neumann algebras, and effective Hausdorff dimension.
I participated in the sixth IMA Math-to-Industry Bootcamp in Summer 2021. We covered machine learning, statistical programming, and data science techniques, as well as performed data science projects for industry partners over 6 weeks.
I participted in the 8-week Mathematics REU held at Auburn Unviersity in Summer 2018, where we mostly covered open problems in Graph and Ramsey Theory.

Interests

I have been learning Spanish since August 2020, y he viajado a muchas países donde se habla español.
I love to travel. I have traveled to Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Denmark, and Singapore so far :)
I usually run, bike, swim, and rock climb.
I love to code, especially mathy games and visualizations. You can see some of my creations on my Khan Academy profile!
I am the proud parent of many houseplants.