Written by Kristine Yahna Todaro Monday, December 13, 2021 at 10:30 AM

In the summer of 2019, due to a little extra time, McGuire signed to help the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) develop an unusual project. She is passionate about this non-profit organization, which supports and encourages all people interested in mathematics to participate in this industry, and hopes to help them celebrate their 50th anniversary in 2021 in a meaningful way.

Over the next 22 months, as the time invested increased exponentially, McGuire and hundreds of other volunteers built a successful hand: the famous woman in math poker.

According to the gaming website, these cards are also called EvenQuads, and they can not only be used to play games-although five different games can be played, three use one side of the card and two use the other side. Each of the 64 cards in a deck of cards is also engraved with a profile of a female mathematician who has made a significant contribution to the field. 

In the process, McGuire and her project management committee chairpersons sarah-marie belcastro, Sherli Koshy-Chenthittayil, Monica Morales Hernandez, Denise A. Rangel Tracy, and Oscar Vega were named the 2022 AWM Service Award winners because of their project. They will receive the award at the Joint Mathematics Conference in Seattle in early January.

At the beginning of the project, efforts were made to compile a list of outstanding female mathematicians to display on the card. Volunteers stepped in to assist and produced a huge list of 1,400 candidates.

In the end, more than 200 volunteers participated in this work-researching the candidates, then selecting their number to 64, writing and editing biographies for each featured woman, creating unique works of art for each card, and developing games. Collect data, verify facts, etc. 

"From the very beginning, AWM has been an inclusive grassroots organization, and so is this project," McGuire said. "I really like that this is a very collaborative and completely volunteer effort."

McGuire, who founded the AWM Student Chapter of Muilenberg three years ago, said it was especially meaningful when Brittany Gelb '21, the former chair of the mathematics major and the college's AWM Student Chapter volunteered to help. Worked as a writing assistant and mentor at Muilenberg, now a PhD. Rutgers University's candidate, Gelb wrote a biographical material for one of the winners on the deck.

Although McGuire is familiar with some of the women on the deck, many of the women are strange to her. She said that it is interesting to understand their lives and achievements. 

"We include women from all walks of life who have contributed to the field in various ways," McGuire said. The committee and volunteers divided these contributions into five areas: research and development of new mathematics; contributions to mathematics education; mathematics in business, industry, and government; building, training, and maintaining mathematics communities; and increasing women and underrepresentation Participation of groups of people.

McGuire and other committee members also oversaw the launch of the Kickstarter campaign to print the decks in October 2020. The initial goal of the event was US$3,000, and in just six weeks, 414 donors had donated more than US$17,000.

McGuire said that the success of the event gave birth to the idea of ​​donating decks. Many supporters will buy one or two EvenQuads decks from the AWM store and Game Crafter, and donate one to a resource-poor school or daycare program. 

McGuire said that one aspect of the project has become clearer: a deck of cards is not enough to honor all well-deserved math heroines. The creation of the second deck is underway, and two more decks are planned in the near future. AWM volunteers have joined the project-creating new games that will eventually use two or even all four decks.