The Department of Mathematics at Lafayette College will host an eight week summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program during the summers of 2012, 2013, and 2014. Approximately eight students per year will be selected from a national pool to explore three research topics under the guidance of faculty mentors. Three Lafayette students will also participate. Research projects, which will vary from summer to summer, will be drawn from the following areas: combinatorics, differential geometry, financial mathematics, finite geometry and games, geometric group theory, mathematical computation, number theory, mathematical biology, and recreational mathematics. The research program will be supplemented by student presentations, guest speakers, informal gatherings, along with possible workshops/conferences. These experiences will give the student participants the opportunity to share ideas, learn more mathematics and become part of a research community. Students will be encouraged to present their results at conferences such as the Joint Mathematics Meetings and, when appropriate, mentors and their groups will write up their results for publication.
All projects will involve the investigation of open research problems under the direction of a faculty mentor. The faculty mentors come from a pool of successful researchers with extensive experience in working and publishing with undergraduates--students from past Lafayette College REUs have regularly presented at national conferences and have published in high-quality journals. By working in an exciting mathematical environment surrounded by talented peers, student participants in the REU will gain an in-depth, meaningful experience to supplement their undergraduate mathematical education. The program will also provide motivation for students considering graduate studies in mathematics-intensive fields.
