REU Site: Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research in Discrete Mathematical and Computational Biology

Cuny Hunter College, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

The Lehman College REU program on interdisciplinary undergraduate research in discrete mathematical and computational biology is an academic year research experience for undergraduate students early in their college experiences. The program will be run at Lehman College of the City University of New York, a designated Minority Serving and Hispanic Serving Institution located in the Bronx, New York. Students will be drawn from the greater New York metropolitan area, which has a population of 18.9 million and has over a million college students. At least half of the student participants will be recruited from academic institutions where research opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are limited, including two-year colleges. Large numbers of students enter college planning to study science but exit with degrees in other fields. Many factors have been cited for the attrition, including the larger workloads for science majors and the pull of grade inflation of the non-sciences. Involvement in scientific research early in the undergraduate experience has been suggested as a way to increase retention, especially for groups historically underrepresented in the sciences. We aim to reach students early in their college career -- at a critical transition point where many choose non-scientific majors -- and provide a supportive environment to make progress on challenging, open research problems. While traditionally REU programs have focused on upper division students the summer before their final year of college, our program will recruit ten students at earlier stages in their college career and run during the academic year. The goals of this program are to involve students early in a dynamic research program, show how research can be integrated into their lives, and encourage the students to pursue future research opportunities. The program is designed to complement the academic schedules of the local community and four-year colleges with all-day on-site meetings on Fridays during the fall semester and an intensive program during the January intersession. The intellectual focus of this undergraduate research program is on a simple, but extremely powerful, model: a "tree" or acyclic graph. Mathematical tree structures are ubiquitous in biology and computer science, used in such diverse fields as evolutionary biology to computer science. The simplicity of the structure yields many open problems at the intersection of biology, computing, and mathematics that are approachable by strong students. The program is structured to build students' competence and independence in research and problem solving activities. The cohort of students will consist mostly of second year students: many will have little experience of working on open research projects, collaborating with others, and communicating scientific ideas. As such, the program assumes no past experience (other than success in early STEM courses that emphasize problem solving skills) and builds a framework that moves students towards independence. The program structure offers a mix of instruction in technical skills (such as the use of LaTeX, technical writing, and poster design) and academic topics (that will provide additional tools for tackling the open research challenges) as well as a framework to encourage the development of interpersonal skills (such as the responsible conduct of research, collegial interactions, and successful collaborative skills). 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.