2024 IDEAL Get Ready for Research Workshop

Friday – Sunday, October 11-13, 2024

 

Synopsis

IDEAL will be hosting a 3-day “Get Ready for Research” workshop for undergraduate students from around the country. This workshop, aimed at 2nd year undergraduates, will introduce students to the practicalities of research, current research areas in mathematics, computer science, electrical engineering, and statistics, and help prepare them to apply for and thrive in future research experiences, including Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU).  

 

The focus of this year’s workshop will be on High-Dimensional Probability and Statistical Inference. Topics include community detection, matching nodes between networks, ranking problems, Markov chains, and random matrices.

At the workshop participants will learn the following:

  • What does current research in High Dimensional Probability and Statistical Inference look like?
  • How do researchers choose problems to work on?
  • What does the daily schedule of a researcher look like?
  • How do undergraduates get involved in research?
  • What is an REU, how can one apply, and how can one thrive in an REU?
  • What kind of research do PhD students in these fields do?

There will be introductory lectures by researchers in the area of High Dimensional Probability and Statistical Inference.  There will be roundtable discussions with faculty, postdocs, and graduate students, and there will be informal discussions and breaks in which participants can meet their peers and researchers in these fields. The workshop will also feature a poster session showcasing the work of local undergraduate students working on topics related to the IDEAL Institute.

No particular background is assumed, beyond having taken 1st year classes in one of the fields represented (math, CS, stats, EE, or related areas).  Students attending from outside the Chicago area will have complementary double-occupancy hotel accommodation and will have up to $300 of their additional travel expenses (airfare, ground transportation, meals in transit) reimbursed.

 

Logistics

 

  • Date: Friday – Sunday, October 11-13, 2024
  • Location: UIC Academic & Residential Complex (ARC) Room 242, 940 W Harrison St, Chicago, IL 60607
  • The workshop is open to undergraduates at universities and colleges in the United States. The workshop is designed to be most useful to students beginning their second year of college, and preference will be given to those students, but all undergraduates are welcome to apply.
  • Registration: To submit an application, please fill out this form here: https://forms.gle/KiuLp2TMff7G3KKSA
  • For full consideration, please submit an application by September 4, 2024.  Applications received after that will be considered as space permits.
  • Please indicate on the application form if you plan to travel to the workshop from outside the Chicago area.

    • Contact: please email IDEALGetReady@gmail.com with any questions about the workshop

    Schedule

    Friday
    5:00 Poster session/reception with pizza
    5:45 Opening remarks: Samir Khuller
    6:00-6:30 Research talk: Vishesh Jain on Markov chains
    6:30-7:00 Research talk: Cong Ma on ranking
     
    Saturday
    9:00 Breakfast
    9:30 Research talk: Julia Gaudio on community detection
    10:00 Research talk: Yuepeng Yang on matrix completion
    10:30 Break
    10:45 Research talk: Zhiyuan Li on stochastic gradient descent
    11:15 Research talk: Miklos Racz on graph matching
    11:45 Lunch
    1:00 Problem solving session I
    • Markov chains
    • Ranking + matrix completion
    • Community detection
    • Stochastic gradient descent
    • Graph matching
    2:30 Panel: Graduate Students Reflect on Research Experiences
    3:15 Break
    3:30-5:00 Problem solving session II
    • Markov chains
    • Ranking + matrix completion
    • Community detection
    • Stochastic gradient descent
    • Graph matching
    Dinner on your own
     
    Sunday
    9:00 Breakfast
    9:30 Panel: Impact of Undergraduate Research on Your Career
    – Jingling Li (UMD PhD)
    – Frederic Koehler (MIT PhD)
    – Pascal Sturmfels (U. Washington PhD)
    – Riley Murray (CalTech PhD)
     
    10:30 Break
    10:45 Practical guidelines for applying to REUs and other research opportunities (Matt Walter)
    11:45 Lunch
     

     

     

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