UBM: Undergraduate Research at the Interface of Mathematics and Biology

智力优点：数学正在成为生物学所有领域不可或缺的一部分，推动了生态学，生物信息学，神经科学和细胞生物学等领域的发展。与此同时，生物学问题正在迅速激发新的数学发展。然而，现在在这个界面上工作的少数人通常遵循迂回的职业道路，大多数生物学家和数学家无法有效地沟通。通过培养数学和生物学方向的本科生共同研究跨学科问题，该项目为年轻科学家直接进入这一领域创造了一条道路，并且已经掌握了双语。更广泛的影响：虽然数学和生物学的界面工作被证明是非常富有成效的，但生物学和数学学生传统上受到的培训相距甚远，这为进入这一领域创造了障碍。在这个接口的未来发展需要数学家和生物学家能够有效地合作，但当这种需要变得明显的学生往往是为时已晚真正的跨学科培训。许多生物学学生在研究生院学习数学在现代生物学中的关键作用时。同样，许多数学专业的学生从来没有上过生物课。由于这些障碍，对能够从事生物数学接口工作的科学家的需求远远超过了现有的供应。通过招募、培训和指导有才华的本科生从事数学生物科学的研究生工作，这一举措在生物学理解和能力方面发挥了领导作用。（生物和数学学生的混合）通过研讨班为研究做准备，在研讨班中，他们讨论来自不同潜在研究领域的论文，听取相关人员的研究演讲，学习相关的研究技能，以研究计划的形式写学期论文。在大三的夏天，数学和生物学的学生加入四人小组，与现有的教师研究项目进行研究，并在大四继续这项研究。学生团队通过审查各种潜在的项目来了解校园数学生物学研究的范围，并采用他们在任何给定的项目年中发现最引人注目的项目。数学和生物科学的13个教师提出了各种各样的项目，这些项目竞相被学生研究团队采用。这些项目包括传染病生态学，神经尖峰序列分析和代谢建模。鼓励学生互动，不仅通过他们在实验室的时间，而且还通过共享社区工作空间，并通过每两周一次的午餐时间聚会（包括教师）讨论正在进行的工作。学生们将他们的研究结果写在期末论文中，并在公共论坛上展示这项工作。

Intellectual merit: Mathematics is becoming an integral part of all areas of biology, driving areas as diverse as ecology, bioinformatics, neuroscience, and cellular biology. At the same time, biological problems are rapidly inspiring new mathematical developments. However, the few who now work at this interface have usually followed a circuitous career path, and most biologists and mathematicians are unable to communicate effectively. By training mathematically- and biologically-oriented undergraduates to work together on interdisciplinary problems, this project is creating a path for young scientists to enter this area directly and arrive already bilingual.Broader impact: Although work at the interface of mathematics and biology is proving highly fruitful, biology and mathematics students are traditionally trained far apart, creating barriers to entering this area. Future advances at this interface require that mathematicians and biologists be able to collaborate effectively, yet by the time this need becomes apparent to students it is often too late for truly interdisciplinary training. Many biology students are in graduate school by the time they learn of the key role mathematics plays in modern biology. Similarly, many math majors never take a biology course. As a result of these obstacles, the demand for scientists who can work at the bio-math interface far outstrips the available supply. By recruiting, training and directing talented undergraduates towards graduate work in the mathematical biosciences, this initiative provides leadership in biological understanding and capability.Selected juniors (a mix of biology and math students) prepare for research through a seminar class in which they discuss papers from different potential research areas, hear research talks from those involved, learn relevant research skills, and write term papers in the form of research proposals. In the summer after their junior year, math and biology students join in teams of four to do research in connection with existing faculty research projects, continuing this research throughout their senior year. Student teams learn the scope of mathematical biology research on campus by reviewing a variety of potential projects, and adopting the one they find most compelling in any given project year. Thirteen faculty in the mathematical and biological sciences have proposed a variety of projects which compete to be adopted by student research teams. These include projects on the ecology of infectious diseases, analysis of neural spike trains, and metabolic modeling. Students are encouraged to interact not only through their time in the laboratory but also via a shared community work space and through biweekly lunchtime gatherings (that include faculty) to discuss work in progress. Students are writing up the results of their research in a final paper and presenting this work in a public forum.