UBM-Group: Interdisciplinary Training for Undergraduates in Mathematics and Biology at SDSU

圣地亚哥州立大学（SDSU）数学和生物学（UMB）本科生项目将增加攻读跨学科数学生物学、健康相关领域、环境或全球变化、纳米材料和民用基础设施（例如，超灵敏传感器），并使用高性能计算，建模和最先进的定量分析工具。该项目将有五个主要组成部分，旨在为数学或生物科学的本科生做好准备（生物学，微生物学）专业的跨学科数学科学研究生院接受：（1）由生物学和数学的教师团队提供指导，包括对学业成绩和职业选择的监督和建议，（2）沉浸在跨学科研究项目中，（3）批判性思维技能和解决问题的能力培训，（4）核心课程的学术充实，以及（5）技能建设。每年，UMB将确定八名合格的申请人，他们是有才华的校友或社区大学转学生，对跨学科数学和生物学有浓厚的兴趣。学生将从现有的SDSU科学管道（生物学预科、生物学、数学预科和数学专业的学生库）中招募，并从周围社区学院转学学生，特别是通过我们的“学士学位之桥”培训的学生”计划。这个学生的复合池将在核心数学和生物学课程辅导，将参加各种研讨会，包括有效的研究问题设计，研究道德，技术写作和科学文献阅读技能。所有这些活动将吸引八名学生谁是UMB计划的核心，谁将获得他们的参与津贴。 其他（未资助）数学和生物学本科生感兴趣的具体模块的内容将欢迎参加，空间允许。UMB将作为一个本科跨学科课程的发展模式，以满足我们现有的计算科学研究生课程。发现团队模式将整合数学/计算机科学和生物学系教师之间的合作研究工作，在其新的跨学科劳动力计划中进行本科和博士前跨学科培训。这种数学-生物学伙伴关系模式可以有效地传播到全国各地的机构。该项目代表了与以往让大学生参与研究的努力的背离。生物学教师将从他们的研究项目的定量分析中受益，而数学，统计学和计算机科学教师将对他们现有的数学/计算机工具包进行更广泛的应用，以及新问题对新工具包的挑战。数学专业的动机将来自扩大范围的问题和项目选择，他们可以解决，因为他们决定自己的职业道路在应用数学;生物学专业将掌握新的技能，因为他们追求生物信息学和数学建模应用在快速增长的职业领域的联邦战略利益在生物技术，制药，生物燃料，环境和其他人类健康相关的行业。研究项目将使用定量和计算工具来研究生理学，微生物学，遗传学，生态学，生物信息学以及细胞和分子生物学中的机制。SDSU UMB计划还将通过招聘，保留，培训和毕业学生来解决少数民族在科学和数学方面的民族差异，以确保在数学生物学新兴领域接受研究生课程的竞争力。高等教育中的各种问题将SDSU列为授予少数民族学士学位数量的第10位（SDSU 28.4%的本科生来自代表性不足的群体，包括非洲裔美国人，西班牙裔，美洲原住民，太平洋岛民或残疾学生）。 参与的学生人数不多，这将使SDSU UMB项目能够采用一对一的指导，并对每个学生从项目进入到毕业的成功进行全年监测。

The San Diego State University (SDSU) Undergraduates in Mathematics and Biology (UMB) program will increase the number of undergraduates who pursue a graduate degree in interdisciplinary mathematical biology, health related fields, environment or global change, nanomaterials, and civil infrastructure (e.g., ultrasensitive sensors), and using high-performance computing, modeling, and state-of-the-art quantitative analytical tools. The project will have five major components designed to prepare undergraduates in mathematics or biological sciences (biology, microbiology) majors for interdisciplinary math-science graduate school acceptance: (1) mentoring by a team of faculty members from biology and mathematics, including monitoring and advising on academic performance and career options, (2) immersion in an interdisciplinary research project, (3) training in critical thinking skills and problem solving, (4) academic enrichment for core courses, and (5) skill set building. Each year, the UMB will identify a pool of eight qualified applicants who are talented sophomores or community college transfer students with a strong interest in interdisciplinary math and biology. Students will be recruited from the existing SDSU science pipeline - the pool of pre-biology, biology, pre-mathematics and mathematics majors, and transfer students from the surrounding community colleges, particularly those trained through our "Bridges to the Baccalaureate" program. This composite pool of students will be tutored in core mathematics and biology courses, will participate in various workshops, including effective research problem design, research ethics, and technical writing and scientific literature reading skills. All of these activities will engage the eight students who are the core of the UMB program, and who will receive a stipend for their participation. Other (unfunded) mathematics and biology undergraduate students interested in the content of specific modules will be welcome to attend, as space permits.UMB will serve as a model for development of an undergraduate interdisciplinary program to feed our existing graduate programs in Computational Science. A Discovery Team model will integrate collaborative research efforts between faculty members from Mathematics/Computer Science and the Biology Departments for both undergraduate and predoctoral interdisciplinary training in its New Interdisciplinary Workforce program. This Mathematics-Biology Partnership model can be disseminated effectively to institutions nationwide. The project represents a departure from previous efforts to involve undergraduates in research. Biology faculty will benefit from the quantitative analyses of their research projects , while faculty in math, statistics and computer sciences will have wider-ranging applications for their existing mathematical/computer toolkits, as well as the challenge of new problems for new toolkits. Motivation for mathematics majors will come from the expanded range of problem and project options they can address as they decide their career paths in applied mathematics; biology majors will master new skill sets as they pursue bioinformatics and mathematical modeling applications in fast-growing career areas of federal strategic interest in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, biofuels, environmental, and other human health-related industries. Research projects will use quantitative and computational tools to investigate mechanisms underlying processes in physiology, microbiology, genetics, ecology, bioinformatics, and cell and molecular biology. The SDSU UMB program will also address the national disparity of minorities in science and mathematics by recruiting, retaining, training and graduating its students to ensure competitiveness for graduate program acceptance in the emerging areas of mathematical biology. Diverse Issues in Higher Education ranks SDSU as No. 10 for the number of bachelor's degrees awarded to ethnic minorities (28.4% of the undergraduates at SDSU are from underrepresented groups, including African American, Hispanic, Native American, Pacific Islanders, or students with disabilities). The modest number of students involved will allow the SDSU UMB program to employ one-on-one mentoring and year-round monitoring of each student's success from program entry to graduation.