The 2017 Summer@ICERM program is designed for a select group of 16-20 undergraduate scholars. The program will give undergraduates an opportunity for exposure and research in the methods of “Applied Topology” in the study of complex data sets.

The program will offer mini-courses for students at the beginning of the program:

• Persistent Homology from the Computational Viewpoint;
• Distances Between Metric Spaces and Applications; and
• Topological Time Series Analysis.

The faculty advisors will then present several research projects that are highly interdisciplinary and represent areas where topological data analysis stands to have a deep and meaningful impact:

1. Shape Classification;
2. Action Recognition;
3. Feature Recognition from Persistent Diagrams;
4. Local Persistence Diagrams;
5. Configuration Spaces;
6. Künneth Formula for Persistent Homology;
7. Classification of Music Data Streams: Music Information Retrieval; and
8. Analysis of Hippocampal Networks.

Downloadable PDF of project descriptions coming soon!

Tackling these projects will require a combination of analytical and computational approaches, and students will be expected to gain intuition into some of these problems via analysis, computer experimentation, and visualization.

Throughout the eight-week program, students will work on their assigned projects in groups of two to four, supervised by faculty advisors and aided by teaching assistants. Students will meet daily, attend mini-courses, learn how to write reports in LaTeX, give weekly team talks about their findings, attend professional development seminars, and write up their research into a poster and/or paper by the end of the program.

ICERM provides an excellent research environment, and the students and their faculty and TA mentors will have access to shared offices and collaborative space throughout the institute. They also will have access to ICERM’s computer facilities and specialized software. ICERM staff will provide logistical support for students and will help build community through fun activities and events.

PLEASE NOTE:

• Applicants must be matriculating undergraduate students at the time of the start of Summer@ICERM 2017;
• Non-Brown University students must apply via MathPrograms.org. Search under “Brown University”;
• Students from Brown University must apply via the I-Team UTRA process (not via MathPrograms.org). Look for Jeff Brock’s “Topological Data Analysis” project on Brown’s I-Team UTRA page; and
• Funding is available for a very small number of students who are not US citizens or permanent residents.

Non-Brown University students must apply via MathPrograms.org by February 17, 2017 to receive full consideration. Applications submitted between February 17 and March 1, 2017 may still be considered in a second round of acceptances. ICERM will begin making offers to non-Brown University students between late February and early March 2017.

Brown University students must apply for Jeff Brock’s I-Team UTRA by January 15, 2017.

ICERM encourages women and members of underrepresented minorities to apply.

The Data Science Initiative, a hub at Brown University for research and education in the foundational methodologies, domain applications, and societal impacts of data science, is pleased to support this Summer@ICERM program through faculty and postdoctoral mentorship, and undergraduate support.

Official Link: https://icerm.brown.edu/summerug/2017/

Deadline: February 17, 2017