For eight weeks of the summer of 2022, eight students and four GVSU mathematics faculty members engaged in joint research projects.  Michael Perez-Palapa and Kai Williams studied spherical and hyperbolic geometry in collaboration with Professor William Dickinson; Samuel Webb and Anika Homan investigated fault-free tilings and were  mentored by Professor Lauren Keough; Maya Bocanegra and James Kessinger worked on data-driven modeling and optimal control of the wolf and moose populations in Isle Royale, Michigan, along with Professor Norma Ortiz-Robinson; and Camille Kennedy and Cicely Henderson’s topic was packing edge-colorings as they worked with Professor Michael Santana.

After working diligently all summer, in early August 2022, each team of two students presented a poster at Mathfest, the summer meeting of the Mathematical Association of America, and every group won an “outstanding poster” award (a first in GVSU REU history!).  To top off the sweep at Mathfest, the REU group also won the student “Estimathon”, a 30-minute competition in which teams of students work on 13 questions such as

• How heavy is the Eiffel Tower?
• How many prime numbers have distinct digits?
• How many calories would you be eating if you had "one of everything" at the Cheesecake Factory?

While the results at Mathfest are outstanding, winning prizes and competitions is not the main goal of the program.  Indeed, the GVSU REU exists to provide students with an authentic research experience and to help them grow as mathematicians and see if a career in research is a path they want to pursue.  All of the students had a superb experience in the summer of 2022.  In their anonymous feedback of the program, students wrote such comments as

• My favorite aspect of the program was the community that we had. The people were always friendly and supportive, and they desired to see me succeed. 
• I found this summer to be incredible and thoughtfully enacted. I think that there was a really good balance of independence and cohesion. Also, all of the faculty were ridiculously easy to talk to.
• Before this program, I knew I wanted to go to grad school because I wanted to teach math at the college level. Therefore, I knew I’d have to do math research to get a PhD. I was surprised by how much I loved not only learning the math behind our project but also the process of research. It’s made me reevaluate my goals for grad school. Now I’m excited for both the teaching and research components of the job.

In addition, when asked if they would recommend this program to other students at their home institution, all 8 expressed that they would. In fact, one student emailed Dr. Santana in October and said “I’m at the Graduate Research Opportunities for Women Conference this weekend, and I’ve heard some REU horror stories. Happy to report I have been hyping the GVSU team up to everybody!”
You can learn more about the fantastic achievements of students who’ve attended the GVSU REU over the past twenty years at https://www.gvsu.edu/mathreu/.