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交界处的早期研究经验，并开发一个生物数学培训计划，以持续到这笔赠款资金的期限之后。该项目每年招收10名学生，有四个主要组成部分：i)秋季学期项目课程，学生们在其中进行一些不同的小组项目，并获得一套共同的技能；ii)原创研究项目--从春季开始，一直持续到夏季--数学和生物学生的混合团队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)计划评估活动，旨在确定不同计划组成部分和指导活动的有效性、整个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可以制度化的程度。该项目的智力价值在于，跨学科研究项目以学生在以项目为基础的核心课程中的经验为基础，在核心项目课程中，他们遇到的一系列主题反映了现代研究方法，这些方法超出了这两个学科的正常“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准备。通过本科生研究人员作为主持人参加一年一度的伊利诺伊州科学奥林匹克竞赛，可以感受到该项目的更广泛影响，在那里，他们与潜在的数百名中学生与会者互动，并成为他们的榜样。该项目还在进行一项全面的评估，其结果有望帮助其他有兴趣开发和维持类似紧张的本科生研究机会的机构提供信息。

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.