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About SURIM

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What is SURIM?

SURIM is a paid, full-time, 10-week summer research program at Stanford University introducing Stanford undergraduate students to research in mathematics. SURIM 2024 is in-person.

Program Dates:

SURIM 2024 will be held from Monday June 24 - Friday August 30.

Program Goals 

At SURIM, students will be exposed to questions that are of interest in current mathematics, as well as the research and exploration aspects that accompany such questions. With their mentor’s assistance, students will study the prerequisite materials to understand their program’s topic and will then participate in exploration of their questions about the subject. The emphasis will be on self-discovery of examples and properties. In addition to learning new mathematics and gaining experience in mathematical research, students will practice presenting research in a seminar environment, learn to typeset mathematical research results using LaTeX, use various software packages to explore mathematics, and have valuable interactions with mathematics faculty and graduate students.

Program Format

Most students will be divided into groups depending on their mathematical interest and background. Each of these groups will work closely with graduate student mentors. The group project topics will be determined by the SURIM graduate student mentors, and the participants will choose which project(s) they prefer in the first week of the program.

Other students may want to work one-on-one with a faculty member, and should have some idea of their project at the time they apply. Students applying for individual project should also obtain the approval of the professor with whom they are planning to do research. Typically individual projects are mentored by a Math faculty member; however in some cases it may be appropriate to have a faculty mentor from outside the Math department. Please email surim_program@stanford.edu for approval of an outside faculty mentor before applying.

Typical Week

There will be a couple of formal meetings with mentors each week. At the start, the mentors will lay out the beginning of the project, and the groups will decide how best to begin. Much of the usual week will be spent working individually and in groups, and in informal discussions with mentors. There will be roughly two additional events per week. Some will be introductions to research tools (from writing with LaTeX to the use of various software packages). Others will be lectures from researchers in academia and industry on what research is actually about—how it is done, how to do it, and what it is like. The SURIM group will also have access to various classrooms during the summer. To get a better idea of SURIM’s week-to-week structure, and for examples of faculty talks, please see the SURIM 2023 page.

Eligibility:

Below are the criteria you must meet in order to qualify for SURIM:

  • Availability and Time Commitment: SURIM is a full-time opportunity. Full-time means devoting 35+ hours/week for 10 consecutive weeks, i.e., it is the student's primary activity that quarter.
  • Students with a full time grant through a Departmental or Faculty Grant cannot receive an additional VPUE part-time grant within the same quarter.
  • Full-time VPUE Faculty/Department Grant student recipients are not permitted to engage in another full-time internship, job, or volunteer opportunity (whether funded by Stanford or otherwise), unless their faculty mentors or program mentors have approved these arrangements.
    • As a reminder, VPUE grant recipients who are planning on concurrently participating in another Stanford program should also abide by the funding and program policies of the sponsoring unit.

See full student eligibility at this link.

Prior experience with proofs

Since proof-writing is an essential part of SURIM, students should have experience in writing mathematics proofs before applying to SURIM. There are several mathematics courses at Stanford that teach proof-writing: MATH 56, MATH 61 (CM or DM), MATH 110, MATH 113, MATH 115.

Stipend:

Full-time stipends will be $7,500 + up to $1,500 need-based supplement (if student qualifies).