Undergraduate: Resources

Undergraduate Research

The Department of Mathematics and Statistics encourages undergraduate students to further their mathematical education beyond the basic curriculum through several opportunities, including a limited number of undergraduate research awards. Students that are interested in pursuing any of these options should contact the Director of Undergraduate Research, Thomas Weighill.

How to get involved in undergraduate research

Course-Based Research Experiences at UNCG

Some courses offered by the department may include an active research component that will motivate the course content. As part of their assignments for the course, students will engage in activities (literature reading, hypothesizing, programming, theoretical work, writing) that contribute to our understanding of open research questions. The courses that include these research experiences and the motivating research question will vary by semester.

Independent Research Experience

The capstone experience for many undergraduate students is an independent research project on a novel mathematical or statistical question. The research will often be a part of a faculty member’s ongoing research portfolio, although students may propose projects of their own design. Written and oral presentations of findings at the end of the project are expected. Although it is not a strict requirement, students are encouraged to undertake research projects that are potentially worthy of publication in student or professional research journals.

Finding an Advisor

If you are interested in doing undergraduate research at UNCG, you’ll need to identify a faculty member willing to mentor you. They might have projects ready to go, and may also have some funding depending on the circumstances. You can find the research interests of faculty members on the faculty homepages, and contact Thomas Weighill for information on possible mentors.

Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU)

REUs are one of the best ways to get experience doing research as an undergraduate. REUs are multi-week summer programs hosted at various universities and colleges. Students who are accepted into an REU receive funding and are mentored by experience researchers as they take on a research project and gain some skills along the way. Students are encouraged to apply to REUs at UNCG and other institutions. You can find NSF funded REU sites here or look up programs on mathprograms.org.

 

Current Opportunities

NSF REU at UNCG in Computational Statistics

UNC Greensboro, one of the campuses of the University of North Carolina System, will offer a 10-week REU program from May 28–July 31, 2024, for 10 nationally recruited undergraduate students from mathematical sciences. The program will be funded by NSF grant DMS-2244160. For more information, see the program web site. You may also contact Program Director Dr. Sat Gupta by email at sngupta@uncg.edu, or the Mathematics and Statistics Department at mathstats@uncg.edu.

Carolyn and Norwood Thomas Undergraduate Research and Creativity Expo

The URSCO hosts UNCG’s annual celebration of undergraduate student scholarship on April 6, 2023. Planned presentation formats include Posters, Oral, Scholarly Performance/Film, Music or Video Productions, and Exhibit/Display. Deadline for submission is February 28th, 2024. More info.

Research Experience in Statistics for UNCG Undergraduates

The Research Experience in Statistics for UNCG Undergraduates (RESU) Program is designed to provide high performing students the opportunity to get involved in quantitative research. The program is open to all students irrespective of their major. However, interested students must have completed a course on statistical methodology equivalent to UNCG course STA 271 or higher. More info.

UNCG Undergraduate Research and Creativity Award
The UNCG Undergraduate Research and Creativity Award (URCA) is designed to help faculty and students partner in meaningful projects that result in advances in understanding within their discipline. Support can be used to help defray the cost of material expenses and/or related travel, or can be used to provide a stipend for the students. There are rounds of funding for Spring, Summer and Fall each year with associated deadlines. More info.

URSCO Student Travel Grants

The URSCO Travel/Virtual Presentation Fund is designed to provide students with supplemental travel support to present results of their research, scholarship and/or creative activity at professional conferences in their field. Support for virtual conferences is also available. More info.

Undergraduate Research Award in Mathematics and Statistics

Each semester, the department awards one undergraduate student who has done research under the supervision of a Mathematics and Statistics faculty member with an Undergraduate Research Award in Mathematics and Statistics. Students are nominated by their faculty mentors and must have presented their work at least once to qualify. Contact the Director of Undergraduate Research, Thomas Weighill for details.

NSF supported Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs)
A Research Experience for Undergraduates is a roughly ten-week Summer program where you collaborate with other undergraduate students and faculty on a research project. Take look at the list at REU Sites: Mathematical Sciences. Students at all undergraduate levels who have at least one year remaining before graduation are encouraged to apply. In addition to the benefit of going through a research experience, these programs typically carry a stipend and provide housing for participants.

Past Programs


We list undergraduate research programs (co)organized by faculty from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at UNCG.

REU Computational Statistics 2020 to 2022

In Summer 2020, 2021 and 2022, UNC Greensboro ran a 10-week online REU program for 8-10 nationally recruited undergraduate students from mathematical sciences. The program was funded by an NSF grant DMS-1950549. The focus of the program was on Complex Data Analysis using Statistical and Machine Learning Tools. Each year, the undergraduate students were divided into 4-5 research teams of up to 2 students, each headed by a team of faculty Mentors. Students chose from a wide range of projects covering topics such as high dimensional data analysis, topological data analysis, subdata selection, machine learning, robust data analysis, and data confidentiality. In addition to focused research on these topics, the program offered participants a broad professional development training.

Math Biology Program 2005 to 2013

Math-Biology at UNCG

The major push for undergraduate research in the Department started in 2005 with the establishment of a math-biology research group by Rychtář, Chhetri, and Gupta from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Rueppell and Remington from the Department of Biology, and Crowe from the Office of Undergraduate Research. The group has been funded by two major NSF grants; 0634182 (2006-2010) and 0926288 (2009-2013). Over the years, this research has involved 16 faculty and over 45 undergraduate students. The students and faculty received 33 awards and recognitions, gave over 250 presentations, and published over 40 research articles in major international journals.

REU Mathematical Biology 2014 to 2016

Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program

National Science Foundation funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program (REU site for 2014-2016): This NSF-REU is an opportunity for students to engage in research in the summer. During the 10 weeks students get the opportunity to actively participate in all activities, including regular group research meetings to discuss related articles, brainstorm, discuss problems; propose solutions and work toward moving the research forward; write a paper about their research; present (both in written and oral form) to the group about their research project, and present their research at regional/national meeting(s). See the article
All Fun and Game Theory.

National Research Experience for Undergraduates at Bennett College 2013-2015

A National Research Experience for Undergraduates Program at Bennett College was funded by MAA (2013-2015). I This NREUP supports the participation of mathematics undergraduates from underrepresented groups in focused and challenging research experiences to increase their interest in advanced degrees and careers in mathematics.

REU Local Fields and Galois Groups at Elon University 2018

In the local ring \(\mathbb{Z}_5\):

  1. \(\frac{1}{2}\in \mathbb{Z}_5\)
  2. \(\mathbb{Z}_5\) contains only one prime
  3. \(\mathbb{Z}_5\) is complete (with respect to \(|\cdot|_5\))
  4. the multiplicative group \(\mathbb{Z}_5^\times\) is generated by \(\sqrt{-1}\) and \(1+5\)
  5. \(|a|_5\le 1\) for all \(a\in \mathbb{Z}_5\)
Local rings are more fun than the integers.

This NSA supported REU took place at Elon University in North Carolina from June 4 to July 27, 2018. The topic of Local Fields and Galois Groups is an area of pure mathematics that is well suited for undergraduate research. The explicit presentation of local fields make them accessible to undergraduate students, and their applications in number theory and other areas of mathematics make results of the undergraduate research applicable in the research of others. For details see the REU website