REU Site: MathILy-EST (MathILy Early Scholarly Training)

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). This award will renew and expand support for the MathILy-EST (MathILy Early Scholarly Training) Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Site. The MathILy-EST REU will increase the depth of the mathematical workforce by providing training opportunities to students early in their mathematical careers, especially those who do not have other research opportunities and who are deeply but informally prepared to engage in significant mathematical work.

Past sessions have trained diverse cohorts, with significant participation by students belonging to groups underrepresented in mathematics; such students are especially encouraged to apply. The eight-week summer research program will train 9 early undergraduates in mathematics research each year and train one graduate student in research supervision each year.

The program targets exceptional first-year college students, with second-year and entering college students also considered for participation. In particular, the MathILy-EST REU will give participants early experience in active acquisition and creation of mathematical knowledge, which will in turn enable them to succeed in traditional mathematics classes.

Training in software use, CV construction, presentation skills, and writing will give participants the informal knowledge and career skills needed to be competitive in the STEM workforce. All participants will therefore be well prepared to excel in the mathematical sciences throughout college and beyond. MathILy-EST will be run on the same campus as MathILy (serious Mathematics Infused with Levity), a 5-week very selective program of inquiry-based educational experiences for highly talented high-school students.

The two programs will hold regular joint activities. There will be significant cross-pollination between MathILy-EST and MathILy, and specifically will provide MathILy-EST students with additional role models and mentors from the MathILy staff, will result in MathILy-EST participants acting as research role models to MathILy students, and will expand the near-peer networks of both groups.

This creation of community will increase both MathILy-EST and MathILy participant persistence in acquiring further mathematical education and research experience.

MathILy-EST REU participants will work together to produce original research, present their results at conferences, and submit their work to undergraduate or research journals. They will attend presentations by visiting and staff mathematicians on mathematics topics, on mathematical career paths, and on choosing graduate schools. They will learn to read mathematics papers and texts.

The mathematical focus of MathILy-EST will change each year. The projects will be drawn from the following topics according to mentor availability: combinatorial representation theory, arrangements of subspaces over finite fields, discrete and computational geometry of folding, and diagrammatic structure of the Thompson group. MathILy-EST REU students will present their research progress to each other on a regular basis, with feedback provided on their research methods and presentation skills.

Students will be asked to record work in writing (in LaTeX) weekly, to provide practice in writing formally and fodder for paper drafts once research has progressed to the point of publication. At the end of the MathILy-EST REU program, the director will make plans with students, including sub-goals and timelines, for dissemination of their research results.

This will include discussing potential local (MAA) and national (JMM) conference presentations and paper submissions. More details are available at http://www.mathily.org/mathilyest/index.html

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.