The Trends in Undergraduate Research in Mathematical Sciences conference to be held in October 2012 in Chicago, Illinois will invite faculty and graduate students to address several issues pertinent to undergraduate research in the mathematical sciences. They will explore the following topics: (1) student demand for undergraduate research that is not being met; (2) strategies for creating undergraduate research opportunities for all mathematics majors; (3) opportunities for undergraduate research during the academic year; (4) competition between disciplines for funding to support undergraduate research in mathematics; and (5) the role of undergraduate research in tenure and promotion decisions at different institutions - an issue that is essential to getting junior faculty involved.
This award supports the participation of 30 junior faculty and graduate students in the conference, who will benefit from networking with more experienced faculty. We will hold a session for junior faculty that provides advice when applying for an REU grant. The conference program will include a panel session for graduate students on how they can best serve as mentors to undergraduate researchers. Some REU programs have graduate student mentors, and we will present best practices from these programs.
A conference webpage (e.g., www.maa.org/turms) will be developed where conference details and announcements can be found. After the conference, summaries of outcomes of panel and break-out sessions will be posted. In addition the website will include an electronic copy of the conference proceedings, which will be published as a special issue of the journal Involve, and will be available to everyone free of charge.
The Conference on Trends in Undergraduate Research in the Mathematical Sciences was held in Chicago IL in October 2012. The conference was co-sponsored by the National Security Agency. This NSF grant supported the travel of 30 participants that were junior faculty, post-docs, or graduate students. These groups were identified as being critical in building a future group of undergraduate research mentors. The conference brought faculty and graduate students together to discuss key issues in undergraduate research, such identifying the demand from students that is not being met by the current group of mathematics NSF-REU programs, other sources of funding, roles of graduate student mentors in REU programs, and encouraging the participation of students from underrepresented groups. The intellectual merit of the project was strengthened by a team of experienced organziers and presenters. The conference had a large impact as it was attended by nearly 100 participants. In addition the proceedings of the conference were published as a special issue of the mathematics journal, Involve. To maximize the impact the proceedings were also published in electronic form which is available to everyone, free and forever. The project resulted in six refereed publications that were co-authored by the participants supported by the travel funds from this grant.
