Student Research

Undergraduate students may work with mathematics faculty to conduct research in several different ways:

Independent Study

An independent study project is designed by a student and approved by a faculty adviser with whom the student will work closely during the semester. It includes directed readings; conferences with a supervising instructor; and papers, reports and/or exams. Some recent independent study projects:

• Logic and set theory
• Introduction to hypergraphs 

Departmental Honors Paper

The Departmental Honors Paper is a yearlong program designed for seniors who wish to pursue intensive research or special projects in close coordination with faculty advisers.  Recent honors papers:

• Common Envelope Evolution of Toy Stars using Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics
• Sliding Block Puzzles
• Ramsey Theory and the Generalized Schur Numbers of the Form S (3, k, l)
• Conditional Colorings of Graphs

Summer Research Institute

Teams of faculty and students may apply for competitive summer research grants from the College. Students spend eight weeks on campus and work with Hood faculty on a project; they receive a stipend and free lodging for the period. Recent SRI Projects:

• Continuing Fractions and Intersection Algebras
• Buchberger Graphs of Monomial Ideals
• Using Computational Linear Algebra to Analyze Large Networks
• Gerbert: The Mathematician who Sold his Soul to the Devil
• Computer Models for Historic Approximations to Pi
• Women and Mathematics in the Time of Euler