UBM Group: Biomathematics Research and Training for Undergraduates at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

该项目为本科生提供生物学和数学接口的早期研究经验，并开发生物数学培训计划，以持续超过该补助金资助的期限。该计划每年招收10名学生，并具有四个主要组成部分：i）秋季学期的项目为基础的课程，学生在一些不同的小组项目工作，并获得一套共同的技能; ii）原创研究项目-从春季开始，持续到夏季-由数学和生物学生组成的混合小组在生物和数学教师的共同指导下进行研究; iii）研究研讨会，学生和教师定期报告他们正在进行的研究项目;以及iv）旨在确定不同计划组成部分和指导活动的有效性的计划评估活动，整体计划对学生教育的影响，以及该计划在伊利诺伊大学和其他大学的制度化程度。该项目的智力价值在于跨学科研究项目的方式是基于学生在核心项目类中的经验，他们遇到了一系列反映现代研究方法的主题，这些方法超出了两个学科的正常“覆盖范围”。学生们还阅读和讨论数学生物学中的经典论文，这反过来又有助于他们为随后的研究研讨会做好准备。该项目的更广泛的影响是通过本科生研究人员作为主持人在每年的伊利诺伊州科学奥林匹克的参与，他们互动，并作为潜在的数百名中学生与会者的榜样。该项目还进行了一项全面评估，其结果有望帮助其他有兴趣开发和维持类似密集本科研究机会的机构了解情况。

This project is providing undergraduate students with early research experiences at the interface of biology and mathematics and developing a biomathematics training program to persist beyond the duration of this grant funding. The program is recruiting annual cohorts of ten students and features four major components: i) a fall-term project-based course in which students work on a number of different group projects and acquire a common set of skills; ii) original research projects - starting in the spring and continuing through the summer - in which mixed teams of mathematics and biology students do research under the joint mentorship of biology and mathematics faculty; iii) a research seminar where students and faculty report regularly on their ongoing research projects; and iv) program assessment activities designed to determine the effectiveness of the different program components and mentoring activities, the impact of the overall program on student education and the extent to which the program can be institutionalized at the University of Illinois and other universities. The intellectual merit of the project lies in the way the interdisciplinary research projects are grounded in the students' experiences in the core project-based class where they encounter a range of topics that reflect modern research approaches that lie outside the normal "coverage" in either discipline. The students also read and discuss classic papers in mathematical biology, which in turn helps prepare them for the subsequent research seminar. The broader impacts of the project are felt through the participation of the undergraduate researchers as presenters in the annual Illinois Science Olympiad where they interact with and serve as role models for potentially hundreds of secondary school student attendees. The project is also carrying out a comprehensive assessment whose findings hold promise to help inform other institutions that are interested in developing and sustaining similar intense undergraduate research opportunities.