ASU, Oregon State among Pac-12 schools with NSF summer research programs

Editor's Note: Arizona State University baseball will take on Oregon State University in three games April 5-7 in Tempe. Women’s softball will play Oregon State in three games April 10-1 in Corvallis, Ore. Read more about ASU's collaborations with Pac-12 schools.

Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs) are competitive summer research programs for undergraduates sponsored by the National Science Foundation. They are hosted in various universities and are among the most prestigious summer programs that an undergraduate can participate in.

Arizona State University, Oregon State University, the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Washington are the only Pac-12 schools selected by NSF to host these elite programs in mathematical sciences. There is a competitive selection process, and students normally attend an REU site at a university different from where they are enrolled.

At ASU the intensive eight-week summer research experience will be held June 12-Aug. 1, through the Mathematical and Theoretical Biology Institute. It will prepare promising young scientists interested in working at the interface of mathematics, statistics and the sciences for the rigors of graduate school.

In a collaborative research environment with fellow participants, graduate and postdoctoral students and visiting scholars, students will work in groups on research problems of their own choosing, assisted by mentors. They receive intensive instruction in dynamical systems, stochastic processes, computational methods and modeling, delivered by top scientists and special guest lecturers and colloquia speakers.

By the end of the program, students will have completed a technical report and poster and oral presentation to peers and scientists. In addition to room and board, students receive a stipend.

Similarly, the Oregon State University REU will give motivated and talented students the chance to learn the process of doing mathematical research and to learn more about math as a discipline and profession. Dates for the summer institute are June 25-Aug. 17.

At Washington State, participants will be introduced to research problems related to the problem of finding the resistors in a network from boundary measurements. Students will investigate and formulate discrete problems involving planar and non-planar networks and their relation to continuous inverse problems. Their REU schedule is June 18-Aug. 10.

The program at Berkeley’s Mathematical Sciences Research Institute will be held June 16-July 29. During the first two weeks, students will be introduced to several topics in enumerative combinatorics. During the remainder of the program, the students will work in teams on research projects.