The VIGRE REU Program Description
Thank you to everyone who submitted an application for the 2009 REU!
June 8 -- July 31, 2009
The NSF VIGRE-Heartland REU is designed for highly motivated students who have completed their first two years of college. Younger or more advanced students will be considered. While preference is given to students attending a Heartland Partnership School, any undergraduate student who is a U.S. Citizen or permanent resident may apply.
All aspects of our program will be run in close cooperation with the NSF Alliance program (link in side bar). Heartland students will have the opportunity to share mathematics and share community with ethnically diverse students from around the country.
Academics
Each student will participate in one of three introductory Workshops during the first part of the summer, and then move on to work in a small research group with one of the UI professors. Professors may be in contact with their students even before the summer. In the application process, students will be invited to rank several possible Research Projects, and we will place each student into a project based on a combination of the student's preferences and background. The student’s background and Research Project will determine the placement in a Workshop.
The Workshops and Research Projects will be coordinated so that Workshops provide additional background to prepare students for their Projects.
Stipend
For their participation in the REU, students will receive a stipend of $3,200 (which includes a stipend for breakfast and lunch), as well as room and a dinner contract on campus. All reasonable travel expenses to and from Iowa City for the program will also be reimbursed. Students will be advised how to obtain air tickets, reimbursements for auto mileage, or other expenses.
Activities
We expect to have a variety of recreational, social and cultural activities. In addition, we expect to provide professional development activities such as hands-on introductions to mathematical writing in LaTeX, use of computer systems such as Maple, Mathematica or MatLab, as well as talks or panels dealing with subsequent REU opportunities, graduate school (picking a school, application process, GRE exams), and career opportunities. There will also be a series of talks centered on diversity and social/cultural aspects of graduate school. We will schedule mathematical colloquia, one-hour talks on various mathematics topics independent of the particular REU studies and projects.
Students will also have the opportunity to attend any VIGRE research conferences at the University of Iowa during the summer REU. These conferences will bring prominent mathematics researchers to campus, and include special talks designed for undergraduates.
Housing
Students will live on the University of Iowa campus in the Mayflower Residence Hall. Rooms will be shared with the NSF Alliance program students.