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Four Lafayette students are conducting mathematics research with peers at other top undergraduate institutions from around the country in the National Science Foundation’s Research Experience for Undergraduates program on campus this summer.
Mentored by Lafayette mathematics professors, just 12 students among more than 120 applicants are participating in the program. Besides Lafayette, the students hail from the Johns Hopkins, Princeton, Shaw, St. Joseph’s, California-Long Beach, North Carolina State, and Boston universities.
The Lafayette students and their faculty mentors are electrical & computer engineering and mathematics-economics double major Ekaterina Jager ’05 (Tashkent, Uzbekistan) with Derek Smith, assistant professor of mathematics; computer science and mathematics double major Rob McEwen ’05 (Morgantown, Pa.) with Cliff Reiter, professor of mathematics; biochemistry major Myat Lin ’04 (Yangon, Myanmar) with Rob Root, associate professor of mathematics; and mathematics major Blerta Shtylla ’05 (Tirana, Albania) with Louis Zulli, assistant professor of mathematics.
All of the students are conducting complex mathematics research. Lin, for example, is using the Mathematica and Java software programs to accomplish image processing of high-speed video of swimming fish, determining their edges, outlines, and midlines. The project involves the intersection of engineering, biology, and mathematics.
Lin is one of several Lafayette students to work with Root on the project, including electrical and computer engineering major Pujitha Weerakoon ’04 (Kandy, Sri Lanka) and Marquis Scholar Bruce Adcock ’01, who went on to graduate magna cum laude with honors in mathematics. Root, Adcock, and another researcher coauthored a paper on their work that was published last year in the journal Comparative Biochemistry & Physiology. Through National Science Foundation support and other funding, the paper also was presented last year at a conference held by the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology.
Shtylla presented the results of her REU research on knot theory at the Summer Undergraduate Research Conference in Mathematics at Ohio State University (see related story).
“Her talk was openly praised by both students and faculty, and several of my fellow topologists privately confided how impressive she was,” says Zulli, “and expressed surprise when I told them that she was not yet a junior.”
“Overall, I learned a great deal this summer, not only about mathematics, but also how to think as a researcher — knowledge that will be inevitably useful in the future, and best of all, I got paid to do this too!” says Shtylla.
McEwen also participated in Research Experience for Undergraduates last year, teaming up with fellow mathematics and computer science double major Prince Chidwagyai (Marondera, Zimbabwe) and Gary Gordon, professor of mathematics, to tackle a mathematical puzzle known as the Carpenter’s Rule Problem. They used a number of software programs — including Cinderella, a powerful drawing program for discrete and computational geometry — in their research, which has practical uses in protein folding techniques in biology and in designing robotic arm movements (see related story).
The students presented their findings at mathematics conferences in Philadelphia and Baltimore, Md.
Nearly 100 students have participated in Research Experience for Undergraduates at Lafayette since 1992, according to Gordon, who coordinates the program. Most have published papers in professional journals and/or presented talks on their summer research at national mathematics conferences.
The National Science Foundation funding for the Lafayette students is supplemented by the College’s EXCEL Scholars program, which funds student-faculty collaborative research.
“Active research experience is considered one of the most effective ways to attract talented undergraduates to and retain them in careers in science and engineering, including careers in teaching,” says the National Science Foundation. “REU projects feature high quality interaction of students with faculty and/or other research mentors and access to appropriate facilities and professional development opportunities.”