EMSW21-MCTP: eCIR: The expanded Center for Interdisciplinary Research

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The expanded Center for Interdisciplinary Research (eCIR) will enable undergraduate students in statistics, applied mathematics, and computational mathematics - working in teams with faculty researchers across the disciplines - to experience the excitement of interdisciplinary research. This work extends the St. Olaf College Center for Interdisciplinary Research (CIR) supported under previous NSF grant. Students learn from the center how statistics serves as an interface with researchers in other disciplines, especially biology, psychology, and the social sciences. Applied and computational mathematics also provide a natural interface with other disciplines in the natural and social sciences. Two post-doctoral associates in applied or computational mathematics will be mentored under the auspices of eCIR. This project targets three transitions points: From early undergraduate student to undergraduate researcher; From undergraduate researcher to graduate student; From graduate school to teaching.An explicit goal of the eCIR project is to substantially increase the number of students from traditionally underrepresented groups who participate in interdisciplinary undergraduate research and who then go on to graduate school in the mathematical sciences. In the natural sciences, undergraduate research is well-established; in the mathematical sciences, it is growing but still limited by a variety of factors such as faculty expertise and the identification of research problems accessible to undergraduates. The key components of this project are transferable to other institutions and plans for the project include intentional dissemination. We expect that what we learn from careful assessment and evaluation can make important contributions to the national conversation on the efficacy of undergraduate research.