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Undergraduate RIMMES (RESEARCH INITIATIONS IN MATHEMATICS, MATHEMATICS EDUCATION AND STATISTICS) at Georgia State University


The Department of Mathematics and Statistics announces the second edition of the program Undergraduate Research Initiations in Mathematics, Mathematics Education and Statistics (for short, RIMMES), open to undergraduate students at Georgia State University.

The program goal is to introduce undergraduate students to research in mathematics, mathematics education and statistics. The program will teach the students how to recognize interesting research problems, develop new ideas, compare them to old ones, and present their findings in papers or posters. The students will benefit from close interaction with faculty members and their peers.

Duration of the program: about five months starting with October 1, 2007 .

Structure: the students accepted to this program will each be paired with a faculty mentor and they will decide together on a research project and how to organize their meetings. The faculty mentor will supervise the student and make sure that appropriate progress is made. The student will prepare a final project report in March 2008.

Conclusion of the program:

In April, the Department will organize a Mathematics Conference Day where the best research projects/posters will be presented by their authors.

Why Join?

- have a first research experience in these disciplines and benefit from close mentoring by enthusiastic faculty members;

- learn how to write and present a project report;

- a chance of strengthening your record, if you plan a career in a math-related field;

- the best projects, if suitable, will be submitted for publication in undergraduate mathematics journals, such as Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Undergraduate Mathematics Journal, STATS or Chance.

- there are many research summer schools for undergraduate across the country and most require previous research experience from the students. Our program RIMMES offers you the chance to get some of the required experience as well as letters of reference necessary to go to such programs, if appropriate, see http://www.maa.org/students/reustuff/pages/REU.html

-those already enrolled in Math 4982 will be particularly encouraged to also join the RIMMES to continue their projects in more depth and participate in the above mentioned conference.

- the program is free, but selective.


Application process:

Application letter, Application form (see below), Letter of Recommendation.

Each student will send an application letter outlining, in less than 200 words, the reasons why they would like to be part of the program.
Application form (pdf file) , Application form (doc file) .
Each applicant will indicate on the application form their preference for a mentor from the list below (up to three choices) and solicit a letter of reference to be sent on their behalf from a faculty member of our department or from outside faculty. Also, successful applicants must have a B average in their mathematics and statistics classes.


Please send the application materials to
Florian Enescu (RIMMES)
Department of Mathematics and Statistics,
Georgia State University,
30 Pryor Street, College of Education,
Atlanta, GA, 30303.



Deadline: September 21, 2007.


For questions regarding the program, please contact Florian Enescu (e-mail address: fenescu at mathstat.gsu.edu).

The following faculty members have volunteered and can be chosen as mentors:

-Marina Arav:

Dr. Arav received B.S. from the Simferopol State University, Ukraine, and M.S. and Ph.D. from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Israel. Her research interests include Matrix Theory, Linear Algebra, Numerical Linear Algebra, Mathematical Programming and their applications.


-Igor Belykh:
Dr. Belykh’s research lies in nonlinear dynamics and computational neuroscience. A significant part of his research is devoted to the important question of how an enormous network of interacting systems – be they computer clocks, neurons or lasers - will behave collectively given their individual dynamics and network topology. Undergraduate students will study the link between structure and dynamics of complex networks, using ideas from stability theory and nonlinear dynamics.


-Guantao Chen:

Dr. Chen's research lies in graph theory and its applications to computer science and bioinformatics which includes Cycles and Paths in Graph Theory, Graphic Ramsey Theory, Extremal Graph Theory, Algorithms, Networks, Calcium structure and binding sites, Conformation changes.


-George Davis:

Dr. Davis received a PhD in Mathematics from the University of New Mexico. His research interests are in numerical linear algebra, including eigenvalues and conditioning, and in graph theory, including the algebraic properties of the adjacency matrix.


-Florian Enescu:

Dr. Enescu has graduated from the University of Bucharest, Romania and received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His mathematical interests are in algebra, especially in studying solutions of polynomial equations, and its connections to number theory and algebraic geometry. He has mentored students in research in the past at both undergraduate and graduate level, including two students during the most recent edition of RIMMES.


-Frank Hall:

Dr. Hall obtained his B.A. from St. Mary's University in Texas, his M.Sc. from the University of Houston, and his Ph.D. from North Carolina State University. His research interests include Linear Algebra, Matrix Theory, and Combinatorial Matrix Analysis. Dr. Hall has directed masters thesis students and has published with some of our graduate students.


-Johannes Hattingh:

Dr. Johannes Hattingh's area of expertise is domination in graphs, but he has published papers on graph coloring, graphical Ramsey theory and algebraic graph theory. Dr. Hattingh has over 60 publications in refereed journals. His teaching interests include Discrete Mathematics, Combinatorics, Graph Theory, Number Theory and Abstract Algebra.


-Yu-Sheng Hsu:

Dr. Hsu obtained his M. Sc. degree from University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee and Ph. D. in Statistics from Purdue University. His research interests are Biostatistics (disease diagnosis and classifications) and Business Statistics.


-Zhongshan Li:

Dr. Li obtained his B. Sc. from Lanzhou University, China, his M. Sc. from Beijing Normal University, China, and his Ph.D. from North Carolina State University. His main research interests include combinatorial matrix theory and algebraic graph theory. Dr. Li has extensive experience mentoring students. He directed four masters theses and several graduate student research papers, some of which were published in refereed research journals.


- Vallerie Miller:

Dr. Miller received her B.Sc. from Randolph-Macon College and her Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina. Her primary research areas include mathematical visualization and computer graphics, numerical analysis, and more recently, improving student learning and teacher effectiveness in K-16.


-Mariana Montiel:

Dr. Montiel received her undergraduate and masters degrees from the National University of Mexico (UNAM) in pure mathematics, and her Ph.D. in mathematics education from the University of New Hampshire. She has done research in Topos Theory (an area of Category Theory) and has applied abstract algebra and Topos Theory to develop aspects of Mathematical Music Theory. She is interested mathematical fluency, especially how it develops and can be enhanced in advanced mathematical thinking and learning, with particular research emphasis on multivariate calculus, linear algebra, abstract algebra and topology.


-Imre Patyi:

Dr. Patyi graduated from Eotvos University, Budapest, Hungary and got his Ph.D. degree from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. He studies real and complex analysis, and has an interest in geometry and algebra as well, along with a graphical passion for inequalities.


-Jeff Qin:


-Alexandra Smirnova:

Dr. Smirnova has received her Ph.D from Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas. She is a specialist in computational mathematics in the area of ill-posed and inverse problems, in particular, inverse problems in medical imaging and geophysics.


-Michael Stewart:

Dr. Stewart received B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His research interests are matrix theory, numerical analysis, and their applications to computational problems in signal processing and control theory.


-Yichuan Zhao:

Dr. Zhao graduated from Peking University, P.R. China with B. S. and M. S. He also obtained M.S. from University of Utrecht, the Netherlands and Ph. D. in Statistics from Florida State University. His recent research interests include Nonparametric Statistics, Survival Analysis, Empirical Likelihood Method, Statistical Computing, Bioinformatics, and Statistical Modeling to Fuzzy System.


-Draga Vidakovic:

Dr. Vidakovic has graduated from University of Belgrade, Serbia and received her M.S. and Ph.D. from Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN. Her research interest is in teaching and learning of mathematics at the college level. In particular, she is interested in studying how students learn from the cognitive point of view and what are the best ways to help students develop the understanding of various mathematical concepts.


-Yongwei Yao:

Dr. Yao received his B.S. and M.S. at Northeast Normal University, P.R. China and obtained his Ph. D. from University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. His research interests primarily lie in Algebra. He is particularly interested in studying commutative rings, including the polynomial rings over fields and over the ring of the integers.