The REU Program In Mathematics

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The appplication for the 2012 program is now posted. (If you are interested, you may download the flyer for the 2012 program by clicking here.)

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 at Yale, Michigan State, Cornell, Nebraska, Iowa, Vanderbilt, Oregon, and elsewhere. Other alumni have accepted jobs in government and industry, including positions at the National Security Agency, General Mills, and the Federal Reserve. The first summer program took place in 2000. Since then, programs have occurred every summer from 2002 to 2011.

A Typical Week

We begin each Monday with breakfast provided by the faculty. Throughout the week, teams of students work on their projects, meeting every weekday with their faculty mentors. Approximately every other week, each team gives a 20 to 30 minute presentation about their research. In the middle of the week, there is "Group Fun" activity, which can be miniature golf, a movie, a minor league baseball game, 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.

Ice Cream

2004: Group fun - a giant trough of ice cream

Bob Connely

2010: A talk by Bob Connelly of Cornell University

Communication Is Important

An important component of any professional work is the dissemination of that work. During the program, students give several talks on their research, including talks at a statewide REU conference and at MathFest (the summer meetings of the Mathematical Association of America). Students also write weekly reports on their accomplishments, which are eventually combined to create a final technical report. This final report 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 students to give talks on their work at departmental seminars and at regional and national meetings.

Travel and Speaking Plans

During the program, program participants travel to visit a department that houses a graduate program in mathematics (such as the University of Michigan), where they have the opportunity to interact with graduate students and faculty. All participants speak at the Michigan Summer REU Conference, which in 2012 will take place at at a near-by univerisity or college in West Michigan. At the end of the summer, students and faculty will have the opportunity to travel together Mathfest (in Madison, WI for 2012). At Mathfest, each research group gives a talk on their research to an audience of students and faculty from programs throughout the country. Past REU students have been honored with a number of awards for their talks at Mathfest. (See the News, Notes, Awards page for more details.)

Lunch at U-M

2010: Lunch with graduate students at the University of Michigan

2009: Math Jeopardy success 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.