EMSW21-VIGRE: Leveraging the Strength and Extending the Reach of an Integrated Mathematics Community

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Vertically integrated cross-disciplinary research groups (known as PFUGs, an acronym for "Postdoctoral, Faculty, Undergraduate, and Graduate Research Groups") are now proud, shared emblems of the three departments (Computational and Applied Mathematics, Statistics, and Mathematics) that partnered in the Rice VIGRE I project and will continue that partnership in VIGRE II. PFUGs have become a way of life for the departments? existing majors and graduate students and excellent avenues for engaging and recruiting a broad array of talent. Under VIGRE II the three departments will sustain, expand, and leverage these successes as Rice itself enters a phase of rapid growth. Under VIGRE II every undergraduate major in any of the three departments will experience mathematical research. VIGRE II will extend the reach of PFUGs to departments and institutions at further distance from the traditional mathematical sciences departments. In addition, while the project will maintain many of its ongoing research programs, VIGRE II will also annually pursue a single new theme that not only engages all strata of all three mathematics departments but also draws in and significantly impacts a strategic area of application, such as the life sciences, finance, or information technology. Finally, VIGRE II will exploit "Connexions" to improve radically the existing mechanisms for constructing and disseminating findings. "Connexions" is a Rice-based collection of tools to create modules that can be related to each other in multiple ways and that can be organized so as to produce books or courses or short documents or just browsed online. Students, with help from communication professionals, will learn to keep research logs that, with careful editing and design, could evolve into modules. These PFUGal variations will be folded into a narrative on "The Art of the PFUG" that will serve as a national model for vertical integration.