REU Site: DIMACS/DIMATIA U.S./Czech International REU Program

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This project is a domestic and international REU program run by DIMACS, the Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science, headquartered at Rutgers University, and cosponsored by DIMATIA, the Center for Discrete Mathematics, Theoretical Informatics, and Applications, at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. Students will be recruited from across the U.S. and the Czech Republic. The domestic program will continue to develop an academic-industrial and interdisciplinary co-mentoring program previously introduced as a pilot and will leverage REU funds from the Department of Homeland Security through a new Center of Excellence based at DIMACS. The international program will host Czech students and send U.S. students to Prague. The goal of this REU program is to provide participants with an exciting research experience that will help them decide on future educational and career paths. All students, including those only in the domestic program, will get a taste of the international scientific enterprise through joint programs and social events involving the Czech students and lectures on Czech research and culture. Intellectual Merit: The program will focus on common strengths of DIMACS and DIMATIA, particularly in topics of theoretical computer science and discrete mathematics such as graph theory, computational geometry, logic and complexity theory, and combinatorial optimization. The program will also leverage DIMACS position as an interdisciplinary center to offer projects whose applications cross disciplines and illustrate the power of computational thinking in many settings, such as computational bioinformatics, health data privacy, epidemiological modeling, economic aspects of e-commerce, and information management in massive data sets. This perspective will be reinforced by exposing students to current industrial research on network analysis, sensor location, and Internet auctions, and to homeland security applications through interaction with DIMACS Department of Homeland Security REU program. Broader Impacts: The program will provide an incomparable scientific and cross-cultural experience to 15 outstanding undergraduates per year. In addition to leading to scientific papers and talks, there will be networking among students - domestic and foreign - that will last far into the future. There will also be new collaborations with mentors and graduate student coordinators. The program aims to influence the choices about further education and future careers of the students involved, and give them the confidence to pursue these choices. The program will increase the number of interactions between DIMACS and DIMATIA and their widespread scientific collaborators throughout the U.S. and the Czech Republic, and aims to have a "trickle down" effect that extends beyond the specific students supported. The program also aims to raise the awareness of a larger scientific community to the importance of and opportunities in international collaboration and cross-fertilization. This international collaborative model will be publicized to colleagues at other institutions.