Research Experiences for Undergraduate Faculty (REUF)

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The American Institute of Mathematics (AIM) will conduct a series of three annual Research Experiences for Undergraduate Faculty (REUF) workshops during the summers of 2013, 2014, and 2015, and additional activities for participants afterwards to support continuation of research engagement sparked by the workshop. At each REUF workshop four senior mathematicians (leaders) who have experience doing research with undergraduate students will present problems in a variety of areas, after which the participants and leaders will divide into groups and work on the problems; the workshop will conclude with group presentations of each project. Most of the time will be spent doing mathematics, but there will also be whole group discussions about topics such as best practices in undergraduate research led by the organizers. Since numerical experiments and computational investigations are crucial to much of the research done with undergraduates, the workshop will also include instruction in using the free open-source mathematics software Sage. AIM directors will facilitate the management of the workshop, and participants will receive full funding. The REUF workshop and ongoing activities will provide faculty participants whose undergraduate institutions have limited research activity with a research experience investigating open questions in the mathematical sciences and equip them to engage in research with undergraduate students at their home institutions. In addition, some participants will become involved in long-term research collaborations with other faculty at the workshop. The recruitment efforts for REUF will particularly focus on faculty at minority-serving institutions as well as underrepresented minority faculty at undergraduate colleges. The REUF project will lead to more and better undergraduate research experiences for students of the faculty participants, and greater engagement in mathematical research by the faculty participants, thus expanding and diversifying the mathematical workforce.