This REU site award provides support for six undergraduate researchers working with faculty advisors. Research projects will be chosen from five areas. Five faculty will contribute to the project. They will focus on topics such as hyperbolic geometry of surfaces and geometric group theory with special interest in circle packings of surfaces and how the combinatorial structure of surfaces restricts their geometry. Also considered will be studies of fundamental groups and covering spaces with an eye to constructing all covering spaces of spaces with given monodromy groups. Work will also be done on polynomial factorization such as the computation of Galois groups as permutation groups. This research involves computer algebras systems such as Mathematica. Other students will focus on large- scale numerical modeling of geophysical flow, the application of optimization methods to the retrieval of the earth's structure and of groundwater aquifer. Florida State University traditionally conducts several undergraduate research activities each year. Additionally, there is an Alliance for Minority Participation program on campus to add to the opportunities for students to meet and take advantage of seminars, visiting speakers etc. Two major campus institutes, one in geophysical fluid dynamics and one in supercomuting also add to the intellectual life and experience of the students.
