Rochester Institute of Technology leads universities in New York with seven federally funded summer research programs for undergraduate students, according to the National Science Foundation.
"Undergraduate research is a strategic goal for RIT, and the high number of REUs reflects well on our faculty," said Sophia Maggelakis, dean of RIT's College of Science. "Our faculty take seriously the responsibility to mentor and train undergraduates to make new discoveries and to pursue careers in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields."
This year, nearly 150 students applied for positions in the competitive mathematics/graph theory and imaging science programs. The Extremal Graph Theory and Dynamical Systems REU program, led by Darren Narayan, professor in the School of Mathematical Sciences, was RIT's first award for Research Experience for Undergraduates in 2006 and has been renewed twice.
"The REUs help put RIT on the map," Maggelakis said. "We are doing research that is of interest to students from other universities who come to RIT to work with our faculty."
The undergraduates are not the only ones who gain from the experience, she noted.
"When you work with very bright students, you are not just the teacher, you are also learning from them."
Cutting edge astrophysics for undergraduates
This summer, RIT's College of Science launched the first Research Experience for Undergraduates in multimessenger astrophysics. The new field combines information gathered from gravitational waves and data from the electromagnetic spectrum to make insights previously unavailable to science. The program introduces students to research in gravitational wave detection and data analysis, observational astronomy and astrophysics and theoretical and numerical modeling.
This REU is offered through RIT's signature research program, the Frontiers in Gravitational Wave Astrophysics, which is led by Manuela Campanelli, director of the Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation . RIT researchers made significant contributions to the first direct detection of gravitational waves in 2015 and are dedicated to advancing the new discipline.
"A key step in moving this new field forward will be training students who will form the next generation of scientific leaders," said Josh Faber, associate professor in RIT's School of Mathematical Sciences and lead scientist on the REU grant.
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REUs at RIT
The NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates sites at RIT are:
Participants in the Research Experience for Undergraduate programs will present their work at RIT's Undergraduate Research Symposium on Aug. 4.