| NSF Org: |
DMS Division Of Mathematical Sciences |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | September 21, 2010 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | December 8, 2010 |
| Award Number: | 1029482 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Mary Ann Horn
DMS Division Of Mathematical Sciences MPS Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences |
| Start Date: | October 1, 2010 |
| End Date: | September 30, 2016 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $200,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $200,000.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
240 FRENCH ADMINISTRATION BLDG PULLMAN WA US 99164-0001 (509)335-9661 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
240 FRENCH ADMINISTRATION BLDG PULLMAN WA US 99164-0001 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): |
INTERDISC TRNG IN BIO & MATH, UBM |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.049 |
ABSTRACT
The University of Idaho (UI) and Washington State University (WSU) collaborative undergraduate Bio-Math project expands interdisciplinary training opportunities for undergraduates in mathematics and biology. Undergraduate biology and mathematics education at the partner institutions provides immersion for students in an interdisciplinary culture. Through this program undergraduate students are encouraged to pursue graduate studies and science careers at the intersection of mathematics and biology. Students are trained and mentored in undergraduate teams on cutting-edge interdisciplinary research that builds on collaborations between faculty at UI and WSU. The interwoven, cooperative undergraduate curriculum in mathematical biology leverages expertise at both institutions and capitalizes on extensive collaborations between mathematics and biology faculty at both institutions, providing undergraduates an educational and training experience which includes access to research projects, laboratory facilities, and computing resources well beyond what would be possible at either institution alone. Principal investigators and participating faculty include biologists, biochemists, ecologists, evolutionary biologists, mathematicians, statisticians, and computer scientists who are involved in projects that demonstrate great scientific diversity, interdisciplinary collaboration, and team-based research opportunities for UBM students. Research topics range from molecular to organismal scales, cover population and evolutionary dynamics, and combine empirical and theoretical research.
The University of Idaho (UI) and Washington State University (WSU), two institutions which are just seven miles apart, will create an integrated and collaborative undergraduate training program in mathematical biology. The program will build upon the extensive collaborations between mathematicians and biologists at both institutions. Students will be immersed in an interdisciplinary culture in mathematical biology, and be provided with genuine research opportunities supervised by faculty from both disciplines who will train the next generation of scientists capable of addressing critical scientific questions at the interface of math and biology. Opportunities for the students include: participation in a diverse set of a cooperatively-taught core interdisciplinary courses, new degree options, and certificates that recognize transdisciplinary training in mathematics and biology. These components are available to all interested students, not just those supported by the UBM project. The project team strives to recruit underrepresented groups, such as Native Americans, Hispanics, and first-generation college students from rural Idaho and Eastern Washington. Both institutions have several organizations and programs (Multicultural Affairs, Native American Center, Student Disabilities Services, Women's Centers, etc) from which the faculty recruit the students.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The University of Idaho (UI) and Washington State University (WSU) have established a collaborative program offering interdisciplinary training opportunities for undergraduates in mathematics and biology. The two universities are just seven miles apart and have complementary strengths. The NSF joint UI-WSU grant has facilitated the growth of interdisciplinary collaborations between faculty in mathematics and biology at both institutions and development of research opportunities for undergraduates well beyond what would be possible at either institution alone. This collaborative interdisciplinary undergraduate research program encourages and enables undergraduates to pursue graduate studies and science careers at the intersection of mathematics and biology by provides training and mentoring to undergraduate teams in cutting-edge interdisciplinary research, and has helped creates an interwoven, cooperative undergraduate curriculum in mathematical biology that leverages expertise at both institutions. During the grant period, participation by WSU faculty has included more than 20 faculty member and postdoctoral associates as mentors for 25 undergraduate researchers. We recruited many undergraduates in their freshman or sophomore years so that students could continue their research programs beyond the summer throughout the following academic year or beyond. Thus ten students participated for two more years usually with the same mentors. In some cases the mentoring teams or undergraduate research teams involved participants from both WSU and UI. Our undergraduate participants presented many posters describing their research accomplishments. Many presented at WSU's annual undergraduate research forum (SURCA) (see attached photos) but some presented at venues such as the Annual West Coast Biological Sciences Undergraduate Research Conference, American Chemical Society and the NW Anthropology Conference. In addition, our WSU UBM students were coauthors on more than a fifteen refereed journal articles. The program facilitated the creation of a new undergraduate as well as a graduate level interdisciplinary mathematical biology courses as well as an undergraduate certificate in mathematical biology and a major revision of the introductory calculus course for life science majors. Moreover, we have also developed a joint UI-WSU undergraduate seminar for mathematical biology. In the future, we plan to continue strong collaborative research between life sciences and quantitative groups as well as undergraduate research collaborations with faculty at both institutions and hope to expand this to include additional students and faculty at regional WSU campuses including WSU-Vancouver and the new WSU Medical School.
Last Modified: 12/29/2016
Modified by: Robert H Dillon
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