REU Site: Valparaiso Experience in Research by Undergraduate Mathematicians

瓦尔帕莱索大学数学计算机科学系将举办夏季REU网站，瓦尔帕莱索经验研究本科数学家（VERUM）。VERUM每年招收9名本科生。这些学生将以三人一组的方式工作九周，解决组合学，生物数学或统计学中的开放问题。每个小组将与不同的项目主任谁将提供指导和反馈给学生的日常工作。在每个项目中，参与者将调查更大的数学社区感兴趣的开放问题，从而产生潜在的可验证的结果。 大多数参与者将是来自本科院校的学生，他们还没有决定研究生院的职业道路。因此，我们将针对本科生进行数学方面的第一次研究经验。 该项目还将特别注意从STEM领域代表性不足的群体中招募参与者，包括第一代大学生，因为他们也将比同龄人接触到更少的学术价值观和过程。通过模拟数学家的研究经验，该项目将培养参与并准备加入数学界的学生。该计划将强调学生的专业发展，同时鼓励他们追求数学相关的职业和研究生学习，从而增加传统上代表性不足的群体在STEM学科的参与。学生将成为一个小型专业团体的一部分，该团体将在他们的本科生涯及以后提供支持。作为该计划的一部分，一名研究生还将担任参与者的导师，学生们将参观研究生院，了解不同类型机构中研究生的生活。学生们还将通过跟踪每个研究小组的进展，以及听取每周访问该计划的人的意见并与他们互动，来接触不同的数学领域。VERUM参与者将通过每周小组报告、在地方和国家会议上的报告以及撰写最终项目报告来提高他们的沟通和演讲技能。

The Department of Mathematics & Computer Science at Valparaiso University will host the summer REU site, Valparaiso Experience in Research by Undergraduate Mathematicians (VERUM). VERUM will recruit nine undergraduate students each year. These students will work in teams of three for nine weeks on solving open problems in combinatorics, biomathematics, or statistics. Each group will work with a different project director who will provide guidance and feedback to the students on a daily basis. In each project, the participants will investigate open questions of interest to the larger mathematical community, and therefore yield potentially publishable results. Most of the participants will be students from primarily undergraduate institutions who have not yet decided on a graduate school career path. Therefore we will target undergraduates for a first research experience in mathematics. Additional attention will be given to recruiting participants from groups under-represented in STEM, including first-generation college students since they also will have had less exposure to academic values and processes than their peers.By modeling the research experience of a mathematician, the program will produce students engaged with, and prepared to join, the mathematical community. The program will emphasize the professional development of the students while encouraging them to pursue mathematics related careers and graduate studies thus increasing the participation of traditionally underrepresented groups in STEM disciplines. Students will become part of a small professional group that will provide support during their undergraduate careers and beyond. As part of the program a graduate student will also act as a mentor for the participants and the students will visit graduate schools to learn about the lives of graduate students in different types of institutions. The students will also be exposed to different areas of mathematics by following the progress of each research group and by listening to and interacting with weekly visitors to the program. VERUM participants will increase their communication and presentation skills through weekly group presentations, presentations at local and national conferences and through writing a final project report.