The project features a year-long, combined educational and research experience for a cohort of 9 to 12 students during each of the five project years. Participants are recruited from the institutions of the Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities (ACTC) and perform their coursework and research under the mentorship of faculty at the University of St. Thomas (UST) in St. Paul, MN and faculty at other ACTC institutions. Participants benefit from a course developed to support the learning and use of computationally intensive methods in mathematics and statistics. The cohort participates in a variety of workshops, seminars, conferences, and field trips. In small groups, cohort students contribute to research projects requiring the computational skills acquired in the course and share their progress with fellow students and project faculty. Students periodically present their results in the larger professional community. The intellectual merit of the project is the result of the following achievements. Students become proficient using computational methods and learn to apply this knowledge to perform research on problems whose solutions require the use of these methods. Through interaction with local academicians and industrialists, students see how their computation research methods are used in other areas of research and in real-world problems. The broader impact of the project is felt at four levels. At UST, students learn how to perform research using computational methods and faculty gain experience teaching a new course that emphasizes computational methods. On a larger level, these same impacts are realized by students and faculty at other ACTC institutions. Local industries that utilize computational methods benefit from graduates of ACTC schools who enjoy a high level of proficiency in scientific computation. Finally, student presentations and sponsored conferences promote to a national audience the innovative curricular elements developed and research advancements made by cohort members.
Computing power continues to grow at an incredible rate. As a result, scientists can use the computer to create highly sophisticated models for use in solving complicated mathematical problems. In addition, computational methods developed decades ago that were once intractable in practice due to the lack of computing facilities can now be employed to model and solve problems. It is imperative that undergraduate mathematics students at universities in the United States receive the training they need in order to make the utmost advantage of the world's ever-increasing computing resources and remain technologically competitive with scientists on a global level. Towards this end, mathematics and engineering faculty from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN and mathematics faculty from other institutions in the Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities engage undergraduate students in research groups under the auspices of the National Science Foundation's Computational Science Training for Undergraduates in the Mathematical Sciences program. For each of the next five years, a group of 9 to 12 mathematics majors forms a cohort and participates in a year-long program to learn about computational methods used in mathematical research and put the knowledge they have accrued to work as they join with faculty mentors to perform research on problems with applications to areas such as cancer treatment, image compression and analysis, tornadic storm detection, the behavior of thin films, and directed cell movement. Students visit local industries in the Twin Cities to further learn how scientific computing is used to solve real-world problems and present results of their work at national conferences. Students leave the program armed with both the tools required and experience necessary to continue work at a high level either in industry or graduate school on problems requiring an expertise in scientific computation. The project is supported by the MPS Division of Mathematical Sciences, the MPS Office of Multidisciplinary Activities, and the EHR Division of Undergraduate Education.
