The DIMACS Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) program prepares students to become the next generation of computer scientists and mathematical scientists—the most successful of whom will have the capacity to look both within and beyond the confines of computer science (CS) or the mathematical sciences (MS) for inspiration. Our program nurtures this capacity by exposing REU students to a broad range of CS topics, applied in contexts that range from bioinformatics to big data, but also cognizant of the need for foundational and potentially transformative theory. A particular emphasis of our program is on crossing boundaries—between disciplines, between theory and practice, between academia and industry, and between nations—to solve problems. We achieve this goal by involving mentors from different areas of CS and MS and even different disciplines, by integrating activities with nearby industry partners, by involving graduate students as assistant mentors, and by combining with other REU programs that add cultural diversity and an international element.

The broader impact of our Research Experiences for Undergraduates program is to inform the students about their future education and career choices and give them the confidence and grounding to pursue and succeed in these choices. Our program enriches students by exposing them to the varied perspectives offered by different cultures, different fields, by theory and application, and by industry and academia. DIMACS is a well-established research center with many scientific activities (seminars, workshops, etc.), open to REU students, and with long-standing relationships with industrial partners. Each year of the program, students visit DIMACS industry partners to gain a broadened view of career possibilities.

The intellectual merit of the DIMACS REU program stems from the research projects introduced to students by their mentors. Students were invited to participate in other activities at DIMACS, which included workshops, seminars, and research meetings that are part of the broader intellectual life at DIMACS. We had 125 US undergraduate students in our REU program between 2013 and 2016. Since 2013, project research has led to at least 18 publications co-authored by students and their mentors and at least 24 presentations at regional, national, and international conferences. Students were mentored on research topics as varied as network science and security, game theory and machine learning, algorithmic applications in biology and medicine, and discrete mathematics and theoretical computer science.

The scientific output of the students work can be seen in the numerous publications of their original research in scientific journals or conference proceedings. For example, Asa Goodwillie (REU2015, Amherst) with his mentor Eric Allender (CS, Rutgers) published a technical report on the complexity of arithmetic circuit classes. Eric Brugel (REU2014, Rutgers) worked with Alexander Schliep (CS, Rutgers) to develop an open-source software that bridges computing and biology via new computational methods for the analysis of the human genome. This work resulted in a paper which was published in PLOS Computational Biology and was also accepted at the RECOMB 2016. James Abello (DIMACS) mentored David  Desimone (REU2014, Rutgers) and Mika Sumida (REU2013, Yale) on a network science project, where the students implemented a novel and useful way for observing graph streams. The work was published as the first chapter in the book “Big Data for Complex Networks”, CRC Press (2016).

Our program also includes an international component, where 5-6 Czech students participate in the REU program at Rutgers and 5-6 US students work in Prague for the last two weeks of the program. The response of the participating students is overwhelmingly positive, and they all praise the experience of conducting research in another country, where they are mentored by local faculty and they have the chance to attend a research workshop. 

For most student participants in our program, this was their first introduction to a research environment in which they worked on open-ended problems that did not have a clear pathway to a predetermined solution. Most of our participants have gone on to, or are planning on going on to, graduate school. Many of them cited their DIMACS REU experience as a determining factor in their decision and in their later success. An evaluation by the Center for Evaluating the Research Pipeline (CERP) that surveyed the computer science majors and minors in our 2015 program showed that “participants of the DIMACS REU program report satisfaction with their experience in the program, particularly regarding their research mentor and feeling a sense of belonging in the research community. Participants also indicated a great deal of involvement with research projects, and felt their REU experience influenced the likelihood of pursuing a PhD and getting a job related to discrete mathematics and theoretical computer science. These findings indicate that the DIMACS REU program is running smoothly and is successful at creating an environment conducive to inspiring research among undergraduate students.”

Last Modified: 07/24/2017
Modified by: Rebecca N Wright