Student Research

All mathematics majors are encouraged to complete a research project or summer internship.

About Student Research

Our students are encouraged to consider options for study outside of traditional courses through independent studies and undergraduate research projects. This work can complement courses you've taken, can be in an area not covered by courses offered in the department, can be research in a faculty member's area of specialization or connect to a project for one of the Center certificate programs (Toor Cummings Center for International Studies and the Liberal Arts, the Holleran Center Program in Community Action (PICA) program, the Ammerman Center for Arts and Technology or the Goodwin-Niering Center for the Environment.)

These experiences provide opportunities to delve more deeply into a particular topic and experience the joy and intensity of research. They can last for a semester, a summer, the academic year or a full year.

• Keck Undergraduate Research Program: This College program supports year-long student research projects in the sciences. Under the guidance of a faculty member, students who apply for the program write a project proposal. Those who are accepted into the Keck Program receive funding to do research with faculty members during the summer and follow that research with a year-long independent study or honors study. Keck students are required to write a paper on their project and present their results at a conference outside the department.
  
• Summer Research at Connecticut College: Students may also participate in a summer research project with a math faculty member. These projects may be funded by the College's CELS (Career Enhancing Life Skills) internship program, through faculty grants or departmental funds. Each spring semester the department publishes a listing of potential topics for summer research by our faculty and students. Currently, on-campus summer housing is provided free of charge for students doing a summer research project with a Connecticut College faculty member.
  
• Summer Research Programs at Other Colleges: The department regularly receives announcements about summer research experiences for undergraduates (REUs) at other colleges and universities. Typically, these programs provide a stipend, housing and travel expenses. Application deadlines are usually sometime between February 1st and the middle of March. Check out Fanning 313 and the bulletin boards on the 3rd floor of Fanning for information about these programs. More complete listings of REUs can be found at the American Mathematical Society and National Science Foundation Web sites.
  
• Honors Theses and Individual Studies: Students may also engage in research projects and receive course credit during the academic year as an individual study or an honors thesis.
  
• Recent Student Research Projects - Students in the department have completed projects that dealt with topics in the visualization of higher dimensions in mathematics, enumeration of trees, symmetry destruction in trees and Bayesian statistics. Some student research projects include:
  
  
  • Summer 2007
    Statistics: Regression level set estimation - Ben Eischen '09 (advisor - Professor Chandler)
  • Summer 2005
    Graph Theory: F-regular and F-irregular graphs for bipartite graphs F - Neerja Gupta '08 (advisor - Professor McKeon)
    Linear Algebra: Operator-theoretic properties of linear transformations - Elizabeth Parillo '07 (advisor - Professor Hammond)
  • Summer 2004
    Graph Theory: Sum-saturating Labelings of trees -BJ Oduor '06 (Keck Project 04-05), Luca DiGregorio '05 (advisor - Professor McKeon)
    Cornell University REU program: Differential Equations and Geometry - Peter Luthy '05
    
• Summer Internships: Summer is also a good time to do an internship. The department also receives information about summer internships. Announcements are posted in Fanning 313 and on the bulletin boards on the third floor. Of course, CELS has information about internships. Alumni can be good resources for internships also if you have a particular field in mind, so talk to faculty in the department as we might be able to put you in contact with an alum who works in that field. Typically, early in the fall semester, we hold an internship panel where students discuss their summer internship experiences, including the process of finding an internship. In recent years, math majors have interned with finance and investment banking companies, actuary firms and the Connecticut and New York City departments of education.