The REU Program In Mathematics
Undergraduate student participants must be citizens or permanent residents of the United States or its possessions.
Overview of Program
Imagine spending a summer in a beautiful, quiet, rural setting in which the days are mild, it stays light until well after 10 p.m., and where you are 15 minutes from a major metropolitan center (Grand Rapids, MI) and also only 20 minutes from gorgeous Lake Michigan beaches. Now imagine that, in this fantastic place, you get to spend your time engaged in honest mathematical research. This is the environment in which students have been active in recent years in the GVSU REU program.
Each summer the Mathematics Department at GVSU invites eight students from across the country to participate in our REU program. Students from as far west as California, as far east as Maine, as far south as Georgia, and as far north as Minnesota have participated in our program. We typically receive over 100 highly qualified applicants, so the process is quite competitive. Past REU participants have gone on to graduate programs in mathematics at Virginia, Southern California, Nebraska, Oregon, and elsewhere. One of our graduates took a position at the Federal Reserve (she was asked about wavelets at her interview). Our REU group joins a large contingent of summer student researchers at GVSU. Summer programs have occurred in 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008, with promised funding through 2009.
A Typical Week
We begin each Monday with breakfast provided by the faculty, and then it is time to get back to work. Teams of students meet every weekday with their faculty mentors, and then work on their projects. Every other week, each team gives a 20-to-30 minute presentations about their research. In the middle of the week, there is "Group Fun", which can be miniature golf, a movie, a minor league baseball game, a trip to the beach, or something else, depending on the students' interests. At the end of the week, a guest faculty speaker gives a seminar talk on his or her research interests.
Communication Is Important
An important component of any professional work is the dissemination of that work. Students in the program give several talks about their work during the program, including at MathFest. Students also write weekly reports on their accomplishments. These reports lead to a final paper in which they describe, in detail, the work they did in our program. The final paper can serve as a starting point for creating a manuscript to be submitted to a journal.
Presentations of results continue past the conclusion of the eight-week REU program. The REU faculty at Grand Valley maintain communication with our REU students and coordinate with faculty at their home institutions to encourage our students to give talks on their work at departmental seminars and at regional and national meetings.
Travel and Speaking Plans
During the program, there will be a trip to a graduate program (possibly the University of Michigan) to meet graduate students and faculty. All participants will speak at the Michigan Summer REU Conference, which takes place in July at Hope College. At the end of the 2009 program, most of the students and faculty will travel to MathFest in Portland, OR, where participants will give a talk. (See the News, Notes, Awards page for a description of past GVSU REU participants who have been honored for their talks at MathFest.)
2006: Success at the Jeopardy competion at MathFest.
Acknowledgement
This REU program is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), and GVSU. To learn more about NSF's role in REU programs: NSF REU home page. For a list of NSF-sponsored REU programs: NSF-sponsored math REU programs.
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