UBM Institutional: Towards a Flexible and Extendable Scientific Undergraduate Experience (FEScUE): Blending Mathematics and the Life Sciences

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This project is creating a multi-departmental program that engages undergraduates and faculty in mathematics, statistics, and the life sciences in jointly mentored interdisciplinary research clusters and in structured multidisciplinary coursework. The key components of this initiative are based on the experience of the faculty participants in the NSF-IGERT graduate PRIMES program at the institution. This program is built around actively engaging students in research clusters that include four students mentored by two senior faculty members, one each from the mathematical and life sciences. Each cluster also includes a junior faculty member who is expected to lead a future research cluster. The project uses existing entry-level gateway courses and a number of advanced cross-listed fusion courses developed from prior collaborations among faculty participants. The major new instructional components are two seminar courses, a Team Research Seminar and a supporting Interdisciplinary Science Seminar. All classroom based activities serve to support the jointly mentored research experiences. To enhance long term professional development, the institution is also initiating focused career advising and GRE preparation courses. Intellectual Merit: The need for interdisciplinary research that combines the mathematical and life sciences is increasingly urgent as people's abilities to gather data outpace their ability to effectively analyze data, and as people seek to understand phenomena over ever wider ranges of scales. Initially, three research clusters are being formed (in Ecology and Evolution, Bioinformatics, and Structural Biology) representing traditional and emerging strengths in research at the institution. The inclusion of junior faculty in each cluster provides a mechanism for expanding the range of research clusters as new faculty research interests emerge. Broader Impact: Many questions facing the modern scientist span multiple traditional intellectual fields. The project is providing a template for interdisciplinary undergraduate research and the education of the next generation of scientists who must overcome entrenched disciplinary boundaries. The structure is based on existing gateway courses, two new seminars, advanced fusion courses, and focused minors that can be easily expanded through the creation of new cross-listed courses and new minors as interest in interdisciplinary research develops. The project is actively engaging high schools around the state and opening opportunities to some of the state's best and brightest students. Existing connections and programs are being used to encourage participation by populations traditionally underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. It is promoting interdisciplinary pursuits among university faculty and students by highlighting the importance of mathematics and statistics in the modern scientific endeavor and in the life sciences in particular. It is imparting the notion that the undergraduate degree is not the end of the learning process and encouraging undergraduate students to aspire to graduate school and to independent research careers.