Undergraduate Research Opportunity!

I just got a solicitation for a great summer program in research for undergraduates. Click on the flier to see the details. It is the Research in Industrial Projects for Students (RIPS) program at the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IPAM) at UCLA. Top-notch, IPAM is, and I am sure the opportunity is quite competitive. But the program is a good one, and will make for a great credential (not to mention the experience!). Check it out and let me know if you plan to apply: The deadline is February 10. Plenty of time to get your act together, no?

Summer Internship Oppo!

Hey, just got word from the Mathematics Research Group over at the National Security Agency (NSA: You know those guys, right?). The Director's Summer Program is a research-based 12 weeks in the summer where one works on issues involving pure mathematics, cryptology and communications technology. It is a paid position, prestigious, and of course highly competitive. It would also be a great career booster, even if you really have no intention of working at the NSA in the future.

The application process is all online, and the deadline is October 15. Give it a look.

Get Funded for Studying....

Hey all,

Thought I would send along a note about upcoming scholarship and fellowship opportunities open to Math and science majors: Two of note are:

1. The SMART Scholarship: A scholarship-for-service opportunity for U.S. graduate and undergraduate students. The acronym stands for Science, Mathematics, And Research for Transformation, and fully funds either undergraduate or graduate studies in most of the natural sciences, engineering, and mathematics. Fully funded means tuition, health care, a stipend, etc. The term scholarship-for-service means that you will be required to work summers as an intern (tough gig, no?) at a government agency. See here for details. (Incidentally, the self-launching web-ad on this site rocks, IMHO..., at least the first time you see it. But it cycles through, which can get annoying.) The deadline in in December.
   
2. For senior intending to study mathematics in graduate school and first year graduate students in mathematics, the National Science Foundation offers the Graduate Research Fellowship Program, a 40K a year fellowship with few strings attached, as long as you study. Here is the brochure (as a PDF). The deadline for this is mid-November
   

We will be strongly encouraging our majors to apply for these, and think we have good chances. We will also hold a meeting to discuss how to apply and help you through the process. Look for the details to come soon.

Summer Research Op....

This just came in across my desk.

A summer research opportunity for math majors, called the The Research in Industrial Projects (RIPS) Program, a venture of the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IPAM) at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). The RIPS Program "provides an opportunity for exceptional students in math and related disciplines to work in teams on real world research projects by a sponsor from [either] industry or a national lab." From the website:

Projects are selected to have a major mathematical component and to be something that will pose an interesting challenge to talented undergraduates. Recent projects have included how to do a physics-based animation of a lava lamp, how to stitch together two images, how to analyze cancer data using microarrays, statistical data assimilation methods for weather data, modeling particle transport phenomena in reactors, and designing missions to the moons of Jupiter.

Recent projects have included organizations like Pixar, Microsoft, Symantec, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, among others.

Details can be found at www.ipam.ucla.edu/rips, and the deadline for applying in February 15, 2010. Happy op hunting!

Research Opportunity

Here is an interesting internship that may run for a while: Acting as a resident Math Expert for a series on fairly low-level mathematics-based puzzles set to air on public television here in Maryland. Can you think of a better way to enter an interesting career path as an Expert right out of the box?

I am filing this as a research opportunity, although I think it is more of a fun thing to do and a good resume builder, especially for those of you who want to fill out your resume with serious activities of a more unusual flavor.

The only less-than-ideal thing about this internship is that it is unpaid. But I believe the bragging rights and networking (please excuse the pun) possibilities make a strong alternative form of payment. I will stay in contact with the person over there who sent me this. I definitely think this is quite interesting and wonder what else we could do for Maryland Public Television.... Ideas?

Summer Research Opportunities

The Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics at UCLA anounces their Research in Industrial Projects (RIPS) Program for 2008. Click on the flyer to see the details (or follow the links above), but programs like this run throughout the nation and provide excellent research opportunities at the undergraduate level for math majors and students of other majors interested in research involving applications of pure and applied mathematics.

Applications can be submitted online, the deadline is in February, and many FAQS are noted here....

Feel free to contact me with any questions you may have concerning this and/or other opportunities. I will post any other calls for applications of this type under the same tag.