The
VIGRE program at the University of Texas is a partnership between the
Department of Mathematics and the Institute for Computational Engineering and
Sciences (ICES), which is an interdisciplinary institute formerly known as the
Texas Institute for Computational and Applied Mathematics (TICAM) that houses
UT’s Computational and Applied Mathematics (CAM) Ph.D. program. Thus the UT
VIGRE program has a pronounced interdisciplinary flavor to it. We cannot lay
claim to any strikingly original, bells-and-whistles-galore program features.
Instead, in the process of formulating our VIGRE proposal we did a “best
practices” survey of existing VIGRE programs and adapted what looked like
effective models at other places to the local culture at UT. For instance, we
borrowed from the Colorado VIGRE program and tailored to fit UT parameters the
idea of tetrahedral working groups: our (academic year) REU projects, of which
we fund between five and ten per semester, are carried out in small, vertically
integrated teams (typically including the undergraduate(s), one or two graduate
students, a postdoc or junior faculty member, and a tenured faculty
supervisor—whenever possible, the graduate students and postdocs are VIGRE
graduate trainees and VIGRE instructors, respectively). Also, similar to what
happens at several other VIGRE sites, VIGRE supported undergraduates are
required to participate actively in one of four (vertically integrated,
naturally) “junior” research seminars (algebra/number theory, analysis/applied
mathematics, topology, and global analysis/differential geometry). The funded
REU projects, ranging from computational biology to seismology and from
pharmacology to meteorology, have been remarkably interdisciplinary in
character, in many cases involving support for mathematically inclined students
from other majors. Our summer VIGRE REU program also stresses interdisciplinary
themes: in Summer 2002, wavelets and signal processing; this summer, financial
mathematics; next year, mathematical biology. (One unique aspect of the summer
program is that we have reached out to the other schools in the UT-System and
invited them to send participants. Otherwise participation is restricted to
UT-Austin students.)
In
addition to the activities mentioned above, in all of which VIGRE graduate
trainees are very much engaged, there are two other noteworthy VIGRE activities
that primarily target graduate students. The first of these is a professional
development seminar (“Introduction to Mathematical Research at UT-Austin”) in
which faculty, postdocs, and advanced graduate students from the mathematics
department, ICES, or outside agencies give expository talks to an audience
composed of first- and second-year graduate students and advanced
undergraduates. The second is the financial mathematics component of the UT
VIGRE program. This component is supervised by Thaleia Zariphopoulou. It
includes an incredibly popular lecture series featuring stars of the
mathematical finance community from around the country, as well as organized
research projects in computational finance in which graduate students,
undergraduates, and postdocs interact.
We
have not designed any special activities for VIGRE postdocs, although these
individuals play a pivotal role in the aforementioned program elements. We do,
however, pay close attention to VIGRE instructors’ teaching assignments,
ensuring that they are able to sample a rich array of teaching experiences.