REU Site: Georgia Institute of Technology Mathematics Research Experiences for Undergraduates

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The primary aims of this REU program in mathematics are to: (i) provide high-quality research experiences, together with professional development activities, for diverse cohorts of undergraduates; (ii) motivate talented undergraduates to pursue, and succeed in, graduate study; (iii) recruit a diverse cohort of undergraduates; (iv) attract students from institutions that have limited research activities; and (v) continue engagement of the participants beyond the summer program when they return to their home institutions. Participants will work individually or in teams with individual faculty members who guide them through a research experience. Weekly team-building and professional development activities take place, including an extensive guide to graduate school, and culminating in a poster session for all participants. The participants leave the program prepared to present their work at conferences nationwide and with a firm grasp of the benefits of graduate school as well as a timeline for applications to graduate school.Undergraduates will participate in a diverse array of projects in mathematics, ranging from explorations in mapping class groups to topics in modern data science. All topics reflect important current trends in mathematics research. Many are strongly motivated by applications, ranging from architecture, to mixing of fluids, to modern signal analysis. For example, mapping class groups are built from the collection of all deformations of a surface. The object itself has additional structure, inherited from the surface, but expressed in an entirely different language. Those properties in turn yield insights into, for instance, how to most efficiently mix two types of very stiff fluids. Other examples come from data science, a very broad subject with an ever-increasing set of applications, including automatic detection of patterns, from hand written digits to community structures.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.