“Spherical Easel: A Modern Web Application Modeling Spherical Geometry” by Will Dickinson, Ph.D., Mathematics Department, Grand Valley State University

Have you ever wondered why, when flying to Europe from New York, planes follow the East Coast of the U.S. instead of flying “straight” over the ocean? Have
you ever been curious about what a modern web application looks like under the hood? This presentation will answer both questions (and more) using the
context of spherical geometry. First, we will cover the basics of spherical geometry, which is wonderfully different from Euclidean geometry, and explore
how the area principle can be generalized to this geometry. Along the way, we will use Spherical Easel, a modern web application that models this geometry, to explore this principle on the sphere. Finally, we will peek at the source code of Easel, highlighting its object-oriented structure and a few programming/design patterns, such as the Command and Tool Strategy patterns.

BIO: Dr. Dickinson earned his Ph.D. in Mathematics and M.S.E. in Computer and Information Science from the University of Pennsylvania before joining the faculty at Grand Valley State University. At Grand Valley, he has mentored over 39 students in original mathematics research and co-directed the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program in mathematics for a decade. Throughout his career, he has collaborated closely with computer science faculty members, applying computational tools to solve complex geometric problems. Dr. Dickinson co-authored Spherical Easel (https://easelgeo.app), an application that models spherical geometry, and, since 2021, has guided 18 computer science students in developing its features.