Student Opportunities
Research
Conducting independent research under the supervision of a faculty member
is a unique and valuable opportunity for students. Participation in the honors program is one way to do this. Opportunities are also available to first-year students through First Year Research Groups.
Diving Into Research: First Year Research Groups
The creative work of mathematicians and computer scientists is everywhere around us. Whether it is designing new more efficient cars or faster planes, sending people into space or predicting the weather, developing new medication or new treatment for patients, preserving the environment or understanding our economy and the financial markets, mathematicians and computer scientists are working hand in hand with engineers, scientists, economists to improve our live and our society.
Mathematics Research
Below is a description of the First Year Research Groups in Mathematics. You can enter one of these groups next Fall, and start doing real research. We invite you to participate which gives you an opportunity to actively do research side by side with a faculty member. There will be no more than 4 students in one research group.
Research Group 1: Mathematics behind Plasmas
Plasma televisions, plasma lights, the heat around the space shuttle caused by plasma, laser treatments in medicine, production of microchips for computers are just a few applications of plasmas that became a big part of our life. To learn about plasmas and how they are obtained, students will first visit the industrial laboratory of a leading plasma physicist, who is the winner of the Maxwell Prize in Physics. They will then develop and study mathematical models that explain the experiments and help to obtain plasmas with certain properties.
(Instructor: N.Sternberg)
Research Group 2: Number Theory and its Applications
Humans have been studying the integers ever since they discovered they had fingers and could count. In the past, the study of number theory has been motivated by commerce, astronomy, religion, and amusement. Today it has important applications in many branches of mathematics, physics, and engineering, and it is a source of some of the deepest problems in modern pure mathematics. In particular, it plays a key role in security issues. In this group, we will discuss some of the historical and cultural aspects of number theory, and then move on towards its more modern applications.
(Instructor: L. Morris)
Research Group 3: Knots and Mathematics
Physicists tie knots in cooked spaghetti to study how materials break down when subjected to stress. Chemists synthesize knotted polymers. To decipher the details of cellular reproduction, biologists watch long strands of DNA tie and untie themselves. All these applications of knots to the sciences - and more - depend on mathematics. Knot theory started to develop in the early 20th century and is now one of the most vibrant areas of on-going mathematical research. Using computers, students will draw and manipulate mathematical knots, study the geometry and algebra of knots, and learn how knots are being applied by scientists.
(Instructor: L. Rudolph)
Computer Science Research
Below is a description of the First Year Research Groups in Computer Science. You can enter one of these groups next Fall, and start doing real research. We invite you to participate which gives you an opportunity to actively do research side by side with a faculty member. There will be no more than 4 students in one research group.
Research Group 1: Motion Planning
Have you ever wondered how to move a large sofa up a set of stair without scratching the sofa or the stairs? How to make a rescue robot move efficiently in an accident site to locate survivors promptly? How to design digital actors in video games and computer animation that can move without running into obstacles or each other? How to use computers to minimize surgical incisions and speed up patient recovery? How to design better medication by estimating motion of bio- molecules? All of these are just a few examples of motion planning that has been an active research area of computer science. In this group, we will study various motion planning problems and design efficient algorithms for solving them.
(Instructor: L. Han)
Research Group 2: Trading Agents
A trading agent is a computer program that acts on online markets on behalf of one or more clients, trying to satisfy their preferences. The emergence of such agents will have tremendous impact on the way business is conducted in the future. They can book your travel plans, manage your portfolio, handle your online bids/auctions, and even do everyday shopping for you. In the heart of these agents are softwares that apply artificial intelligence techniques to economics and decision making problems. The students in this group will work cooperatively to build their trading agent, design their trading strategies, perform studies in simulated markets and prepare for the official Trading Agent Competition.
(Instructor: P. Xuan)
Research Group 3: Worms, Viruses, and other Nastiness
Viruses are probably the best known and publicized means of attack on computers, but there are many other ways to make the internet an unfriendly place. We will explore the various methods of attacks on computers and networks. We will investigate the technical as well as the sociological and human aspects of this topic.
(Instructor: J. Breecher)
Research Group 4: Artificial Life
The laws that govern physical reality are very simple. And yet very complex phenomena such as galaxies, the weather, red and blue states, and life itself arise out of these simple laws. Where does all that complexity come from? Part of the answer may come from computers, which also (at the most fundamental level) follow simple rules. We can write very simple computer programs that display vast complexity. Can we write programs that go so far as to simulate life? Each student will investigate, implement, and report on specific models of artificial life or similar complex systems.
(Instructor: F. Green)
Bioinformatics Research
Below is a description of the First Year Research Group in Bioinformatics. You can enter this group next Fall, and start doing real research. We invite you to participate which gives you an opportunity to actively do research side by side with a faculty member. There will be no more than 4 students in one research group.
Research Group 1: Bioinformatics
The recent success of the Human Genome Project has demonstrated the importance of Bioinformatics, which is the study and design of computer algorithms to model and to solve biological and medical problems. "Intelligent" algorithms search for disease genes, while efficient pattern recognition algorithms detect and classify antibody responses to segments of cancer or HIV gene sequences. The explosion of biological data due to storage of genome sequences has posed new challenges to computer scientists: the design of Very Large Data Base systems and of efficient data mining strategies. You are welcome to join our efforts and explore this new emerging field.
(Instructor: A. Chou)
Internships and Work Experience in the Department
Internships give students the opportunity to gain insight and experience through work with local companies in areas such as finance, actuarial science, statistics, bio-informatics, software design, networks.
Work experience as tutors and computer laboratory administrators in our department is an opportunity to develop valuable communication and leadership skills.
Competition in Mathematics The Putnam competition gives students the opportunity to compete with the brightest college students in the nation.
Traina Scholarships
These scholarships go to students in the sciences and mathematics who have truly distinguished secondary school records and personal achievements. The Traina Scholarship is a $64,000 four-year award ($16,000 per year), provided year-to-year continuation requirements are met. The award also provides a $3,000 summer stipend and housing for students in the sciences who wish to do research on campus following their junior year. For further information click here.
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