REU Site: Math REU at Kent State

The goal of the Kent State REU program is to provide undergraduate students with a research experience in the nurturing atmosphere of the Kent State Mathematics Department. All of the REU projects will involve unsolved research problems arising naturally in the faculty members' research. Many of the projects are expected to lead to publications in refereed journals. The program emphasizes group work under the close supervision of a project advisor. This REU experience will help participants understand what graduate school is like and supports them in choosing a career path. Motivation for the research projects comes from a variety of fields, including group theory, lattice point geometry, convex geometry, functional analysis, applied mathematics, and statistics. Communication between students involved in the different projects will be strongly encouraged. One of the emphases of the program is teaching students how to present research. Each week, all of the groups will present their progress in a student seminar. These presentations will begin as short and informal reports and as the summer progresses will develop into formal research presentations. This provides students with regular opportunities to improve their skills in presenting mathematics. In the final week of the program, students will participate in a mini-conference at which they present their REU results to faculty and graduate students. 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.