College of Science

Patel is noted for her innovative and impactful teaching, including active learning strategies and creating a classroom that is welcoming and respectful to all students.  One student wrote, “One notable aspect of Patel’s teaching approach is her use of mastery-based grading for homework assignments. This approach, coupled with metacognitive exercises, demonstrates her dedication to teaching students not only what to learn but also how to learn.”  Another pointed out that she “cared about every student’s success,” while yet another praised her with “my goal is to become a professor like her.”

Patel’s teaching philosophy “emphasizes the creation of an active classroom, one in which students are directly involved in the learning process.”  She believes “it is important for students to individually discover how and why the mathematical methods they apply actually work,” and continually strives to “improve [her] teaching strategies to … ensure that all of [her] students can thrive as mathematicians in the classroom and beyond.”

Patel’s research lies in the fields of low-dimensional topology, hyperbolic geometry, and geometric group theory.  Geometry and topology are fields of mathematics focused on understanding the shapes of spaces.  Geometry focuses on rigid objects where there is a notion of distance, while topological objects are more fluid.  Geometric group theory is a related field of mathematics studying finitely generated groups via the connection between algebraic properties of such groups and geometric properties of spaces on which these groups act.  Her research program can be divided into three main categories:  quantitative questions in hyperbolic geometry, the combinatorics of 3-manifolds, and the symmetries of infinite-type surfaces.