In the GT-MCTP program, we will use two new programs to recruit well prepared High School students into a strong program for training undergraduate Mathematics Majors. The fist program, the only one of its type that we know, High School students take Georgia Tech Calculus 2 and 3 using real-time video-conferencing technology. These students are physically located in their High Schools, while interacting in real-time with a Professor, and his Calculus class, on the Georgia Tech campus. In the second year of this course, 73 students participated in the program at nine different High Schools, and 41 of these chose to matriculate at Georgia Tech. This program is one that can attract a large number of talented Mathematics Majors. The second program is a High School Mathematics Competition, which in its third year drew 300 students from across Georgia, Alabama, and as far away as Virginia. These students compete in a variety of competitions for Scholarships to attend Georgia Tech. This is also an outstanding program to attract talented Mathematics majors. The School of Mathematics at Georgia Tech has a very strong Undergraduate education program at Georgia Tech. In 2007, 30 Bachelor of Sciences were awarded; 12, that is 40%, of these graduates were placed in Group 1 Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics graduate programs across the country. 2007 also marked the doubling of the Mathematics Majors since 1999. To get the majors to this level of accomplishment, the School of Mathematics has a broad commitment to the educational goals of the School; a diverse, and deep, set of course offerings; and important mentoring programs at different points of the curriculum: REUs incorporated into the degree programs; an award-winning Teaching Development Seminar; and active mentoring of the graduate school application process. This proposal calls for the creation of Scholarships to supplement those already being awarded, targeted to the top 5% of the Mathematics Majors, and an REU. The awarding of this grant will acknowledge the high quality of the program at the School of Mathematics, making it easier to build upon the momentum that is already established for this program.
The undergraduates involved in this project will be trained in Mathematics at Georgia Tech, which has a diverse course offering, taught at the highest levels from the Calculus to senior level offerings. The REU students will be engaged in research topics that range from Differential Geometry, to modeling fish populations with sophisticated dynamical models. Training the nation's next generation's scientific workforce is a leading mission of Georgia Tech, and the primary focus of this proposal. This proposal will enhance an already very strong program, and train sophisticated students who will continue their studies at the best graduate programs in Science and Engineering across the country.
on the grant DMS-0739343, which had the goal of increasing the number of high-quality mathematics majors pursuing their Bachelor of Science degree at the Georgia Institute of Technology. This funding supported activities such as: Scholarships for high performing majors. A Research Experience for Undergraduates. A Mathematics Competition for High School Majors. A distance learning program to teach Calculus 2 and 3 in High Schools. 2. Scholarships Scholarships supported about 12 students a semester, for 10 semesters. The students funded by these scholarships were among the very best of the mathematics majors. These students have gone onto careers, or graduate study, in STEM disciplines. About 60 majors, almost all supported by scholarships, have gone onto graduate study; among them 10 have received nationally significant fellowships. They are pursing studies at Princeton, MIT, UT-Austin, UCLA, Berkeley, and other leading graduate programs. 3. Research Experience for Undergraduates A Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) introduces the majors to the open-ended inquiry of research, in which they learn skills of acquiring and assimilating relevant knowledge, and to combine it in novel ways, to develop new scientific information. The REU program supported about 12 students in a research experience for undergraduates, in each of five semesters. Notable outcomes of these REUs include single author papers in leading mathematics journals. The REU experience is an increasingly vital and essential aspect of the undergraduate education. The students are focused on it, and the REU is also broadly supported by the faculty, and integrated into their training and development efforts for undergraduates. 4. High School Mathematics Competition This annual one-day mathematics competition draws 300 participants from around the Southeast, to compete for scholarships for study at Georgia Tech. Thousands of dollars are awarded. And the high school students have great fun preparing for and participating in the event. 5. High School Distance Learning Calculus This program is an innovative method to teach the Calculus to high-performing High School Students. These students are high-performing students in their high school who have already taken AP-Calculus and apply to be in the program, as High School Seniors. They take Georgia Tech Calculus 2 in the Fall term, and Calculus 3 in the Spring. The course is taught with live video-conferencing technology, from the GT campus, streaming to their High Schools. The course is enrolling 326 students. The average admitted student has a 4.17 weighted GPA, 2196 SAT (out of 2400), and a 5 on their AP Calculus exam. The program includes high schools across the state of Georgia, giving those students a high level of mathematics instruction that their individual school districts cannot provide. These students then enter university with a very solid mathematics background, as well as introduction to the higher levels of performance expected from leading universities.
