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

圣地亚哥州立大学（SDSU）数学与生物学本科生（UMB）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（如超灵敏传感器）研究生学位的本科生人数，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，旨在帮助数学或生物科学（生物学，微生物学）专业的本科生为跨学科的数学科学研究生院录取做好准备：(1)由来自生物学和数学的教师团队提供指导，包括对学习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)培养批判性思维技能和解决问题的能力；(4)充实核心课程的学术知识；(5)培养技能。每年，UMB都会选出8名合格的申请者，他们都是对跨学科数学和生物学有浓厚兴趣的有才华的大二学生或社区大学转校生。学生将从现有的SDSU科学管道中招募-生物学预科，生物学，数学预科和数学专业的学生，以及来自周围社区学院的转校生，特别是通过我们的“通往学士学位的桥梁”项目培训的学生。这些学生将接受核心数学和生物学课程的指导，并参加各种研讨会，包括有效的研究问题设计、研究伦理、技术写作和科学文献阅读技巧。所有这些活动都将吸引作为UMB项目核心的8名学生，他们将因参与而获得津贴。如果空间允许，欢迎对特定模块内容感兴趣的其他（非资助）数学和生物学本科生参加。UMB将成为发展本科跨学科课程的典范，以满足我们现有的计算科学研究生课程。探索团队模式将整合数学/计算机科学系和生物系教员之间的合作研究成果，在其新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-生物合作模式可以有效地推广到全国的院校。该项目与以往让本科生参与研究的做法有所不同。生物学教师将受益于他们的研究项目的定量分析，而数学、统计学和计算机科学教师将有更广泛的应用他们现有的数学/计算机工具包，以及新工具包的新问题的挑战。数学专业学生的动力将来自于他们在决定自己在应用数学领域的职业道路时可以解决的问题和项目选择范围的扩大；生物学专业的学生将掌握新的技能，因为他们在生物技术、制药、生物燃料、环境和其他与人类健康相关的行业的联邦战略利益的快速发展的职业领域中追求生物信息学和数学建模应用。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、细胞和分子生物学等方面的潜在过程。SDSU UMB计划还将通过招募，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国家差距，以确保在数学生物学新兴领域的研究生课程接受竞争力。在高等教育的多元化问题中，SDSU在授予少数民族学士学位的数量上排名第十（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、西班牙裔美国人、美洲原住民、太平洋岛民或残疾学生）。参与的学生人数不多，这将允许SDSU UMB项目采用一对一的指导，并全年监测每个学生从项目入学到毕业的成功情况。

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.