MCTP: PI4: Program for Interdisciplinary and Industrial Internships at Illinois

University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL

Investigators

Abstract

The Program for Interdisciplinary and Industrial Internships at Illinois is a multi-year mathematics graduate training program designed to bring students through three critical transition points: the transition from undergraduate to graduate studies; the transition from working on ``canned'' problems to tackling open-ended problems and even formulating the problems themselves; and the transition from pure ``problem solving'' to doing research on a real-world mathematical, scientific or engineering challenge. The program consists of summer mini-courses; graduate level research seminars; group problem sessions; mini-workshops; networking events that include other scientific departments, government research laboratories, and local technology industry partners; and internships in industry or in academic research laboratories. Research topics include the foundations of information processing in the brain, geometric underpinnings of big data algorithms, and the differential geometry of nonlinear control. The entities that will partner with the Department of Mathematics in this activity include the University of Illinois Institute of Genomic Biology, School of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Coordinated Sciences Laboratory, Beckman Institute, the AXIS Research Center, Sandia National Laboratories, and Wolfram Research. Long-term systemic trends in the mathematical sciences include a steady increase in numbers of PhDs produced concurrent with a steady decrease in academic tenure-track openings. These trends demand bold steps. The project aims at creating alternative educational models for graduate students in mathematical sciences that can address these broad systemic changes in our discipline. This project will impact over 125 U.S. graduate students in the mathematical sciences over a 5-year period.