Iowa State University
Math REU program

The REU program at Iowa State runs (roughly) every other year and has been running for about twenty years. Participants spend eight weeks working on research projects coming from a variety of mathematical areas, such as graph theory, numerical analysis, linear algebra, mathematical biology, probability, computational mathematics, logic, and dynamical systems. The topics for any individual summer are determined by the research mentors which primarily come from the Department of Mathematics at Iowa State University (ISU).

Students will work in collaborative teams with about three undergraduate members as part of active research groups during the summer. There is no coursework or workshop associated with the REU; the individual groups will provide relevant backgrounds to their group members as needed at the beginning of the REU, with the bulk of the REU consisting of students engaged in research with regular meeting with their mentors. Note that project mentors select their team.

In addition to the research program there will be regular professional development which includes topics such as how to use LaTeX, basics of SAGE, how to give presentations, preparing for graduate school, careers outside of academia, dealing with collaborators, mental health, diversity issues in mathematics, and more.

At the end of the summer program, each group will produce a writeup of their results, a poster, and a presentation. Many projects subsequently submit papers for publication and present the results of their research at conferences.

This is a diverse REU and some activities are multicultural. We particularly welcome applications from members of under-represented groups.