VIGRE in the Department of Mathematics at Texas A&M University

The Texas A&M Mathematics Department was awarded a VIGRE grant for the period 2000-2003, which has now been renewed through 2005. The major financial features of this infrastructure grant are as follows:

• 12 postdoctoral, 3-year fellowships with a reduced (1-1) teaching load together with half-time summer support and liberal travel allowance.
• 8 graduate fellowship stipends (at 18K) per year plus tuition and fees. Another 8 matching fellowships per year are provided by the university.
• Ten undergraduate summer stipends ($3600 each) per year.

One of the stated goals of the NSF for the VIGRE program is to encourage more US students to pursue careers in the mathematical sciences and, in particular, to increase students' exposure to mathematical research. The novel feature of our VIGRE program is the introduction of "VIGRE seminars" to complement the long-standing research seminars run by the department. A VIGRE seminar is usually organized by a senior faculty member with the participation of postdoctorates, graduate and undergraduate students. The goal of the seminar is to introduce the participants to the process of research at a level which is appropriate to their background. The organizer(s) of a seminar will do some initial lecturing to provide background material and to introduce some of the major types of problems (or examples) to be researched. Then, the participants perform the research, either on their own or in small groups with mentoring provided both by the senior faculty and the postdoctoral participants (and sometimes the graduate students). An ideal topic for such a seminar is one that has research problems (with perhaps key test cases or examples) at multiple levels of difficulty which can be pursued by participants whose backgrounds and preparation may vary. Here are some recent examples of VIGRE seminars.

• Matrix Analysis and Wavelet Theory - participants investigated either applications of wavelets (data compression, filtering) or some of the theoretical aspects of frames and refineability.
• Modeling Complex Ecosystems - participants analyzed various Hastings models of animal migration, and incorporated certain novel effects, such as altitude and landscape features.
• Computational Algebraic Geometry - participants investigated computer algorithms for solving systems of polynomial equations.

A more complete list and description of our VIGRE seminars is available from our VIGRE seminar listing

VIGRE seminars during the summer also involve the participation by REU students from other schools across the nation.

VIGRE seminar topics often have some relation or connection to the higher level research seminars which have been run by the department for some time. The hope is that VIGRE seminar participants would be encouraged to later take part in the more advanced research seminars, although in practice, this usually only occurs for graduate students, postdoctorates and faculty. This system of VIGRE and high level research seminars is somewhat modeled on the European system (especially German) where a stratified system of seminars, involving participation by students at all levels, is common.