Click here to apply to PI4 for Summer 2019.

The program has four components. Students early in the graduate program usually do the Linear Algebra Working Group, Computational Bootcamp, and Prepare/Train Group. Students later in the graduate program usually do the Computational Bootcamp and an Internship.

1. Linear Algebra Working Group

May 15-17 (239 Altgeld Hall), led by Elliot Kaplan.

2. Computational Mathematics Bootcamp

Part I: May 20-31 (239 Altgeld Hall), led by Uma Ravat focusing on Data Science with R and Python.

3. Prepare and Train Group – Sociophysics: Bias and homophily in professional hierarchies, and Models of social group competition
Dates: June 3-July 15 (with holiday on July 4)
Location: 159 Altgeld Hall has been booked 9am-1pm each day
Instructor: Prof. Sara Clifton

The program is a “Research Experience for Graduate Students” style endeavor: after a series of introductory lectures, the students form small groups (2-5 people) to work on open-ended, interconnected problems. Students will work during the first three weeks on models for “Bias and homophily in professional hierarchies” (building on this paper). Then the groups will change around for the second three weeks, tackling problems on “Models of social group competition” (where references include this and this).

Overview. The goal is to guide students through the transition from working on “canned” problems to tackling open-ended problems and formulating the problems themselves. We expect the group work to involve a mixture of computational experiments (to generate conjectures) and theory (to prove them).

Professional Development Sessions. New to the program this year are four professional development sessions, on Wednesday afternoons during June. Participation is expected of all students in the Prepare/Train program.

  • •Exploring Broad Careers in Mathematics (Derek Attig, Director of Career Development, Graduate College), Wednesday June 5, 3:30-5:00pm in 308 Coble Hall
  • •Managing Large and Complex Projects (Mike Firmand, Assistant Director for Employer Outreach, Graduate College), Wednesday June 12, 3:30-5:00pm in 308 Coble Hall
  • •Data presentation/visualization (Megan Ozeran, Data Analytics & Visualization Librarian, University Library), Wednesday June 19, 3:30-5:00pm in 308 Coble Hall
  • •Talking about Your Research (Emily Wuchner, Thesis Coordinator, Graduate College), Wednesday June 26, 3:30-5:00pm in 308 Coble Hall

Refreshments provided.

4. Internships

Various dates. Hosts to be arranged. Interns funded through PI4 are strongly encouraged to participate in the professional development events listed above, provided their employer grants permission to make up the hours at another time during the week.