Undergraduate Educational and Research Opportunities

2007 Undergraduate Researchers

Ammar Hussein (Physics)
Undergraduate Researcher for Professor Bill Dorland
Working with research team to develop physics modules for simulations on graphics processors

Elizabeth Terry (Physics and Astronomy)
Undergraduate Researcher for Professor Bill Dorland
Simulating Multiple Gravitationally-Interacting Bodies on a Graphics Processor

Research Projects

New International Master Program: "MathMods - Mathematical Modeling in Engineering: Theory, Numerics, Applications" (see the web site http://www.mathmods.eu).

MathMods has recently been approved for funding by the European Union through the Erasmus Mundus program. Starting in 2008/09 non-European students may receive grants from the EU to attend the course.
The European partner universities hosting the MSc courses of MathMods are in the cities of L'Aquila (Italy), Nice (France), Barcelona (Catalonia/Spain), Hamburg (Germany) and Gdansk (Poland).

Deadline for non-European candidates: January 31, 2008.

Turbulence in Thermonuclear Conditions
Bill Dorland

This project is concerned with the calculation of the properties of turbulence in matter which has been heated or compressed to the point that thermonuclear interactions readily occur. The systems of specific interest are from astrophysics (for example, the properties of matter in the neighborhood of a large black hole) and from the magnetic confinement fusion program.
Required: Students must know or be willing to learn one of the following: Fortran 95, Java, Python, or Perl. Familiarity with calculus (up to and including ordinary differential equations) required.
Recommended: Familiarity with Maxwell's equations, experience with applications of Fourier transforms, OR extensive experience with maintaining web-based services recommended.
Students successfully working on this project for more than one semester will likely be co-authors of refereed scientific publications.

Iterative Solution of Nonlinear Equations
Eitan Tadmor,
This project is concerned with the development of a fast algorithm for computing approximate zeroes of nonlinear equations, offering a robust alternative to the Newton-Raphson method for a large class of nonlinear functions.
Required: Students must be familiar with programming, and be 'fluent' with Calculus and Numerical Analysis.
Students successfully working on this project will likely be co-authors of refereed scientific publications.

VIGRE at Maryland

VIGRE --Vertical Integration of Research and Education in the Mathematical Sciences is a National Science Foundation grant awarded to the Mathematics Department of the University of Maryland to help stimulate and implement permanent positive changes in training mathematical scientists. Read more about VIGRE at Maryland here. Undergraduates experience higher mathematics early through various parts of the VIGRE project:

·         In Research Interaction Teams , undergraduates work with graduate students, postdocs, and faculty in active research areas;

·         Portals to Research courses prepare students to join RITs;

·         Undergraduate Research Opportunities Day (UGRO Day) showcases the RITs and other opportunities for research experiences;

·         Summer research experiences are offered in numerical analysis ;

·   In the Experimental Geometry Lab, students explore geometric structures using state-of-the-art visualization tools.

 

A New AMSC Undergraduate Certificate in Scientific Computation

A new Undergraduate Certificate in Scientific Computation. is now being offered by the Applied Mathematics or in Scientific Computation (AMSC) Program. This certificate is offered to UMCP students as an addition to their undergraduate degree. The five core requirements, electives and research opportunities within the honors program are described here.

A New Undergraduate Course in Scientific Computation: AMSC 462

AMSC/CMSC 462 is a survey of the computer science base of scientific computing. Topics include computer organization, language and software issues, networking, and parallel computing.

This course is designed for any undergraduate who is interested in scientific computation. It is part of the curriculum for the new AMSC undergraduate certificate in scientific computation offered to students enrolled in CMPS undergraduate programs. It also will be part of the forth coming undergraduate computational physics option. This course cannot be taken for credit by CMSC majors. Students who take CMSC311 or CMSC330 will not be given credit for this course. Also this course cannot be used toward the upper-level math requirement for MATH-STAT majors. This course will be offered every spring, starting Spring 2005.