EMSW21-MCTP: Research Experience for Graduate Students

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AbstractBradlowThis award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).The Mathematics Department at UIUC aims to train stewards of the mathemat-ical enterprise. Our programs facilitate all stages of development from prospective undergraduate math major to senior mathematician. We propose here to enhance our REGS program and thereby impact several critical transitions at the graduate level. REGS stands for \Research Experiences for Graduate Students"; for many students REGS provides the initial contact with research. Our current program provides summer support for early graduate students to work (individually or in a group) on a research project with one or several faculty mentors. We propose here an enhanced program with four components: one for incoming Ph.D. students (REGS 0), one for 1st- and 2nd-year Ph.D. students (REGS 1), one for students who have already begun thesis research (REGS 2), and one for students about to complete their dissertations (REGS 3). The first three components are summer programs while the fourth provides a year-long fellowship. We will extend the reach of our programs by including external participants in the REGS 0 and REGS 1 components. The external participants will include students from underrepresented minority groups and also from schools which do not have mathematics Ph.D. programs.The Mathematics Department at UIUC has a distinguished record of research, scholarship, and training. Our current REGS program has provided graduate students with early research experiences. Our enhancements will stimulate their intellectual development at all stages of the program. In addition we will provide similar opportunities to some students from other programs. All students will work in research areas of current interest and many will make original contributions to them. Furthermore the mini-courses from the REGS 0 program will make the graduate curriculum more dynamic and better in tune with current mathematical research. Our programs significantly impact the quality and vitality of the national scientific workforce. Because we are a large department with broad mathematical interests, our students go on to a wide variety of careers. Those who become research mathematicians impact many different fields, and those who work in industry or as teachers replicate our commitment to mathematics in their settings as well. We have disseminated and shared information about our programs via websites and publications; our participation in the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate (CID) allowed us to share the details of our REGS program. Our ideas are easily adapted to the needs of other departments. Our enhancements include participants from other programs, and hence will encourage an early transition to research for people outside of our department. The REGS 0 component provides a way to recruit members of disadvantaged minority groups to mathematical research.