The proposed EXTREEMS-QED program at the College of William and Mary is an integrated program for the training, research and education of mathematics majors to enhance their ability to deal with new challenges in computational and data-enabled science and engineering (CDS&E). Data-driven and data-intensive teaching modules and material will be embedded into courses in linear algebra, statistics, probability and data analysis. New courses in complex networks, graphical models, matrix and graph theory techniques in statistics, quantum graphs, topological techniques and data analysis, bioinformatics and self-organization in biology and marine science will be developed. Some of these courses will eventually be integrated into the regular curriculum. Student research will focus on two areas:(i) the intersection of graph theory, statistics, matrix theory, operations research, and newly emerged networks science; and (ii) spatiotemporal pattern formation, detection and recognition requiring a blending of differential equations, statistics, dynamical systems, and computational topology. New theoretical results will be formulated and connected to large data sets collected from research in medical science, ecology, and marine science.
The proposed program includes an eight-week summer research component in which undergraduate students and faculty advisers form interdisciplinary research teams to work on projects on various theoretical and applied scientific problems. Seminar series and study groups for faculty members from different disciplines will reinvigorate their CDS&E knowledge, and student seminars, colloquium series and short courses will open up new horizons of CDS&E research to the students and the general public. The planned activities are centered in the Department of Mathematics at William & Mary, but also involve collaborators in the departments of Applied Science, Biology, Physics and Virginia Institute of Marine Science. We will use the expertise and experience of the faculty involved to train students through research in CDS&E to prepare them for graduate study in the sciences and mathematics, or for professions which require computational and data analysis skills in industry or the national laboratories. The training and educational programs will equip a large number of undergraduate mathematics majors with knowledge necessary for future career challenges in computational and data-enabled science and engineering. Students will be exposed to the theoretical and practical aspects of data-driven computational problems, which will attract and prepare them to pursue graduate study and related careers. The new results and techniques discovered will be presented and published in conferences/journals of various disciplines to have sustained and wider impact in the science community, and the analysis of data sets from medical science, ecology, molecular biology and marine science will lead to new advances in these research frontiers. Proposed seminars, lectures, and courses will be open to the general public so they can keep track of new scientific progress in big data analysis. A partnership with several southeast Virginia historically black colleges and universities including Virginia State University, Hampton University, and Norfolk State University will bring minority students and faculty advisers from these institutions to William & Mary for the proposed activities and joint summer research program, which will help to achieve the goal of President Obama's 2010 Executive Order on Promoting Excellence, Innovation, and Sustainability at Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
