DRUMS: Directed Research for Undergraduates in Math and Statistics

The National Science Foundation has just funded a 3-year joint Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) of the NCSU Departments of Mathematics and Statistics. The DRUMS program, under the joint direction of PIs Mette Olufsen (Mathematics) and Brian Reich (Statistics), engages undergrads for 9 summer weeks and the fall semester, in interdisciplinary research projects. The projects’ applications include disease modeling (COVID-19), physiology, imaging, and extreme weather events; using tools from linear algebra, partial differential equations, probability, sensitivity analysis, parameter inference, optimization, and machine learning. Students will also gain professional skills such as mathematical programming and technical/scientific writing.