This REU Site award to the Florida Institute of Technology, located in Melbourne, FL will support the training of 10 students for 10 weeks during the summers of 2015-2017. The REU program is open to all undergraduate students who are citizens, nationals or permanent residents of the United States. Students trained in the program will gain skills in lab research, develop their critical thinking and problem-solving skills, understand the process of science, and be able to communicate their research results to their peers and the general public. Students will have an opportunity to present their results at a national conference. The REU program provides an experience to students that is typically not available to them at their home institutions. Students from schools with limited opportunities for research and from underrepresented groups are encouraged to apply.
This REU Site program will recruit students interested in integrating biology and mathematics research. There is a need to greatly improve the quantitative and computational skills of students in biology as well as capture the interest of mathematicians and computer scientists in addressing emerging problems in biology. There will be a strong emphasis on problem solving and the direct application of modern mathematical and computational methods to current problems in the biological sciences ranging from cell and molecular biology to ecology. Students will work in teams on a specific research problem with significant support from faculty.
A common web-based assessment tool used by all REU programs funded by the Division of Biological Infrastructure (Directorate for Biological Sciences) will be used to determine the effectiveness of the training program. Students are required to be tracked after the program and must respond to an automatic email sent via the NSF reporting system. More information is available by visiting http://research.fit.edu/reu/biomath/biomath.php, or by contacting the PI (Dr. David Carroll at dcarroll@fit.edu) or the co-PI (Dr. Munevver Subasi at msubasi@fit.edu).
