NSF awards $1.5 million to math department

The National Science Foundation has awarded the University’s math department a grant of $1,495,369 to develop a program that will recruit students to math early in their college careers and mentor them until they are prepared for graduate study.

The program is administered by Richmond but also will include faculty at Central Michigan University, Coppin State University and Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering. Over four years, the grant will involve 28 faculty and 80 undergraduates. All 11 members of Richmond’s math department will serve as mentors at least once during the project. 

The project, called Long-term Undergraduate Research Experience (LURE), “builds upon the success of the apprentice model often used in the physical and life sciences, where scientists routinely engage first- and second-year undergraduates in research and then continue to mentor them until they are prepared to pursue graduate degrees,” said Jim Davis, professor of mathematics, who will direct the overall program.

Under LURE, faculty will recruit students and pair them with faculty who will serve as mentors throughout a two-year research experience. “Through closely supervised research and independent study activities spanning two summers and two academic years, students will experience all steps in a research project, from background reading to the professional presentation of results,” explained Davis.

LURE “is expected to increase interest in the mathematical sciences and increase the number of undergraduates who pursue graduate degrees and, ultimately, careers in the mathematical sciences,” said Kathy Hoke, associate professor of math and associate dean of the School of Arts and Sciences. Hoke will direct the Richmond portion of LURE.

Davis said the broader impact of LURE lies in applying a successful science apprentice model to mathematics and providing support and training for faculty. He said the diversity of the collaboration—a comprehensive university, a historically black university, a gender-balanced engineering college, a selective liberal arts college and an all-women’s college—increases the transferability of the model and findings to a wide range of institutions. One collaborator, Sarah Spence Adams from Olin, is a 1997 graduate of the University.

A yearly LURE conference will showcase the results of the teams from all participating institutions and provide an opportunity for assessment, reflection and program improvements.

“The intellectual merit of LURE lies in the early recruitment of undergraduates to math research and their involvement in more sophisticated research than is possible with traditional single-summer projects,” said Hoke. She said that students will gain experience in self-directed learning, tackling unsolved problems and communicating technical results. LURE will “change the culture of undergraduate mathematics by emphasizing the role of discovery and increasing the visibility of mathematics research,” she said.