Two Lewis University Students Earn Awards at National Math Conference

Lewis University students Luke and Zach Pekol brought home the 2026 Pi Mu Epsilon Student Speaker Award for their exceptional presentations at the largest gathering of mathematicians in the world.

The Pekol brothers were among four Lewis University undergraduate students who recently presented research projects at the 2026 Joint Mathematics Meeting.

Luke Pekol (Mathematics and Finance major) presented “Quantifying the Court: A Statistical Analysis of Performance Metrics in NCAA National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball.” His work was supported by the Lewis Summer Undergraduate Research Experience program.

Zach Pekol (Mathematics and Secondary Education major) presented "Quantifying the Court: Predictive Modeling for NCAA National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Rankings." His research was supported by the Noyce Scholarship.

Both students conducted their research under the mentorship of Dr. Amanda Harsy and Dr. Adam Shultze.

Tony Kochev (Data Science major, Mathematics minor) presented "Data-Driven NCAA Volleyball: Exploring Performance Metrics and Ranking Models through Linear Algebra." Mentored by Dr. Harsy and Dr. Shultze, Kochev’s research was also supported by the SURE program.

Zach Littell (Computer Science major, Mathematics minor) presented a poster titled "#86 Mathematically Modeling Disease Transmission Across Hospitals and Long-Term Care Facilities." Mentored by Dr. Brittany Stephenson, this research was funded through the SURE program.

Lewis University is a modern, enterprising, Catholic university with a growing student enrollment from GED through doctoral level programs. As part of the global Lasallian network of 65 universities, Lewis is known for preparing graduates who impact the world for the better. Visit www.lewisu.edu for further information.