Research Experiences for Undergraduates- Environmental Mathematics

今年夏天REU（本科生研究经验）项目将于2000年在华盛顿州立大学举行。主题是环境数学。参加者将研究地下水污染/修复和生物圈碳循环等环境问题。他们将以描述这些环境问题的耦合常/偏微分方程的形式分析各种数学模型。在他们的分析中，将使用本科水平的数学概念，如等斜线分析、相平面分析、拉普拉斯变换、伪逆、分离变量法和奇异摄动法。此外，还将使用MATHEMATICA和MATLAB等软件进行分析。对于某些问题，将利用LU分解技术和有限差分方法进行计算机模拟。前两周将致力于教授参与者必要的数学概念，并使他们熟悉现场计算机资源。通过让本科生参与者接触有趣而重要的“现实世界”问题，我们打算让他们学习和欣赏数学在现实生活中的力量和有用性。我们的希望是提供一种研究经验，使学生对应用数学感到兴奋，并吸引他们从事数学研究生研究。

This summer REU (Research Experience for Undergraduate) program will be held inthe year 2000 at Washington State University. The theme will be environmental mathematics. The participants will work on research problems that deal with environmental issues such as groundwater contamination/remediation and carbon cycle in the biosphere. they will analyze various mathematical models in the form of coupled ordinary/partial differential equations that describe these environmental problems. In their analyses, undergraduate-level mathematical concepts such as, isocline analysis, phase plane analysis, Laplace transforms, pseudo-inverses, method of separation of variables and singular perturbation methods will be used. Also, software such as MATHEMATICA and MATLAB will be employed in carrying out the analyses. For some problems, computer simulations will be performed making use of LU decomposition techniques and finite-difference methods. The first two weeks will be devoted to teaching the participants the necessary mathematical concepts and familiarizing them with the on site computer resources. By exposing the undergraduate participants to interesting and important "real world" problems, we intend to make them learn and appreciate the power and usefulness of mathematics in real life. Our hope is to provide a research experience that will get the students excited about applied mathematics and will attract them into doing graduate research in mathematics.