NSF Award
1560222
The Lafayette College REU Site will run for eight weeks in the summer and one week in the academic year for three years. Each summer, three faculty mentors, including one mentor a year from outside Lafayette, will work daily with ten students from across the US on groundbreaking research projects in mathematics, applied mathematics, and statistics. Students will develop strong research skills as well as become effective communicators, both orally and in writing. Summer activities will include renowned guest speakers and other programming on a wide variety of topics to enhance students' professional development and curiosity. The guidance provided by the faculty mentors will continue throughout the following academic year, culminating in presentations at the Joint Mathematics Meetings and the preparation of articles to submit to high-quality journals. This program will put students in very strong positions to be successful in the mathematical sciences after graduation. Further, the faculty themselves will be mentored by previous REU advisors, with a particular focus on the faculty who have limited experience in leading undergraduate research; this mentoring will run year-round. Thus, both students and faculty will grow through the REU, and they will return to their home institutions energized by the experience and ready to continue conducting research. <br/><br/>A diverse selection of research projects will be offered, appropriate for a combination of rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors each year and targeting a wide range of prior mathematical and statistical training. Students early in their mathematical education can engage in research on roughly half of the projects, including those focusing on permutation patterns and statistics, geometric network optimization, and block coloring problems. Other projects include research on symmetries in affine geometry, infinite groups and cube complexes, and the Kelly Criterion for investments. With close mentoring, the advisors will lead their students to greater independence and a strong sense of collegiality; this will provide an excellent foundation in the research process. The students will actively contribute to new knowledge in mathematics, applied mathematics, and statistics.
