SURF GUIDELINES |
Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURFS) are available in the summer to students who are prepared to pursue independent projects. Students should know that the program works somewhat differently in mathematics than it does in many other disciplines. Mathematicians will rarely need "help" with their own research work or efforts, and few have funds to support undergraduates; they do not, as a rule, publicly announce opportunities or solicit SURF students. But there are always some faculty members who will be on campus most of the summer and are willing and happy to work with students whose proposals are funded by the SURF program. If you are interested in doing a SURF, you must find a problem or project, find an advisor/mentor, and write a proposal. These are not independent; a potential advisor may help you find a project and offer advice on the proposal. You will need to approach a potential advisor and ask about the possibility of doing a SURF with him or her. The best project or problem to propose to work on is one that you are already interested in and are anxious to follow up. It should be something of current or at least recent interest, that people are working on now. A SURF is not a reading course; most textbooks contain mathematics done maybe 50 or 100 years ago, but a SURF student should be trying to read current journal articles (this is not easy!) or research monographs, or otherwise trying to find out who is working in the area and what is going on. SURF students in mathematics will usually meet with their advisors once or twice a week to report on what they have done or read and to decide what to do next. Occasionally a student will be able to make a contribution to the area and a few SURF students have continued their summer work and published articles over the years. But this is relatively rare. The goal of the SURF is rather to learn something about how research in mathematics is done, and what is being done in some field. The proposal submitted to the SURF Office should contain a statement of the proposed subject of investigation and some indication that the student already has some knowledge of or familiarity with the area, and is thus prepared to begin the project. A short list of references will help towards that end. It is always best if the proposal describes what the student will begin with, e.g., an attempt to read part of a certain journal article, perhaps a survey article. |