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Trains undergraduates in mathematical research through a six-week summer program at MSRI. Provides participating students opportunities to present their research at national conferences in the year following the summer program. Introduces participating students to a network of mentors through national societies known for their mentoring activities and professional support for students. Guides students in the process of applying to graduate programs and fellowships.
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: MSRI-Undergraduate Program: Origin, present form, and future
Ricardo CortezJanuary 28th, 2008
The is a comprehensive program for undergraduates that aims at increasing the number of students from underrepresented groups in mathematics graduate programs.
The program includes a summer research opportunity,; mentoring; workshops on the graduate school application process, LaTeX, giving effective presentations; travel to conferences; and follow-up support.
Funded by National Security Agency
Description
Trains undergraduates in mathematical research through a
six-week summer program at MSRI. Provides participating students opportunities to present
their research at national conferences in the year following the summer program.
Introduces participating students to a network of mentors through national societies known for their mentoring activities and professional support for students.
Guides students in the process of applying to graduate programs and fellowships.
Origin
The idea for the program came out of the MSRI workshop Raising the floor: Progress and setbacks in the struggle for quality mathematics education for all in May 2006.
David Eisenbud and Ricardo discussed the idea of running an undergraduate summer research program at MSRI and decided to get it started within one year.
Main features
Five Directors run the program but rotate as on-site Directors each year
Summer topics change every year: Computational Science (2007), Experimental Mathematics (2008)
Target students who have high potential but do not necessarily know much about mathematics graduate programs
Very intensive (15-hour days) Immersion in mathematics with exposure to information
about graduate school, funding, career options, research and professional skills.
Field trips
Directors
Ricardo Cortez 2007
Ive Rubio 2008
HerbertMedina 2009
Duane Cooper 2010
Suzy Weekes 2011
Initial year: 2007 12 students, 2 graduate assistants, 1 Juan Meza Topic: Computational Science and Math http://www.ams.org/ams/sacnas2007-mtg.html Housed in the UCB dorms, meals included Guest speakers, workshops, field trips Travel to conferences
Organization and Projects
•Density Functional Theory
•Experimental Math
•Networks
•Support Vector Machines
Presentation of Results
•Final presentations on MSRI streaming video•Final reports•SACNAS annual conference•Infinite Possibilities conference
The upcoming 2008 program
Slightly larger: 18 students, 2 graduate assistants, 1 postdoctoral assistant, 1 Victor Moll
Topic: Experimental Mathematics - ”…the students will take advantage of the computational tools that exists in symbolic languages to investigate interesting problems, most of which come from the question of evaluation of definite integrals.”
Housed in the UCB dorms, meals included Guest speakers, workshops, field trips Final presentations/report, travel to conferences in ’08-09
Vision for the future
Steady-state of 18 +/- 6 students each summer Single topic but different each year Each on-site Director stays with that student group forever Rotating on-site Directors allow new leadership to rotate in Replicate program at other institutes Track statistics and impact over 10-year period
