Program Structure

Students, supervised by a leading mathematician/researcher, form a research group and work with other students on an original research project.

Students receive a daily meal allowance and, depending on where they are travelling from, transportation, housing, travel support, and medical coverage.

Faculty/researchers from outside the Greater Toronto Area may apply for reimbursement of travel expenses.

The Fields Directorate reviews and evaluates all applications/project submissions. Potential supervisors are welcome to submit multiple projects to increase their chances of being matched with a student.

Assignment of students to supervisors is determined by various factors, such as student project rankings, strength of matches, and availability of funds.

Fields will strive to equitably distribute students among eligible projects, but cannot guarantee the number of students or that all eligible projects will proceed to the student-project matching phase. Fields cannot accommodate requests for a specific student or for students from a particular country.

Fields strives to match students with appropriate projects. Supervisors receive their assigned students’ CVs for review after student selections. 

If a supervisor’s project is not selected for the year for which it is submitted, with the agreement of the supervisor, it will be kept on file for consideration in subsequent years. 

Supervisor Application

The form includes a supervisor and a project profile. Applicants may save and return to their application at a later time and include more than one project to their submission. When an application is submitted, the system sends an email confirmation to the email address on file with a copy of the proposal.

Supervisor Eligibility

Individuals wishing to supervise students must be faculty from Fields Principal Sponsoring or Affiliate Universities, visiting scientists, or researchers in industry.

Supervisor Expectations

During the Program, the supervisor will

• Supervise a group of two to five students for nine weeks.
• Interact/meet with students at least once a week (preferably more). In the event of an absence, the supervisor may appoint another faculty member/researcher, postdoctoral fellow, or graduate student to supervise or to meet with the undergraduates.
• Guide and inspire students to reach their scholarly potential.
• Ensure conditions conducive to student research and intellectual growth.
• Provide guidance to drive the progress of the research.
• Participate in and attend the Program’s Introductory Session and Mini-Conference on July 4 and August 28, 2017, respectively.
• Provide students a weekly research plan with goals, objectives, and milestones.
• Ensure students observe a 35-hour work week.

 Students may collaborate for longer periods of time with their supervisor. Fields is not responsible (financially or otherwise) for the student outside of the confirmed nine weeks.

Project Eligibility

Project submissions should:

• Describe a research-based mathematical problem in 400 words (approximately half a page), including:
• the project rationale and objective,
• key tasks associated with the project and timeline,
• existing data or needed data collection efforts,
• student responsibilities, and
• expected outcomes by the conclusion of the program
• Run for the full period of July 4 to August 31, 2017 (nine weeks).
• Adhere to Fields Policy on Research Integrity.

During the application, students rank research projects, which allows for a student-project matching process. Undergraduates will likely have limited experience with methodological tools and the research process—learning that process is one key goal of the Program—so project descriptions should be accessible to such an audience. 

Outcomes from the first few years of the Program showed that students thrive when research projects have well-defined goals and associated tasks, as well as supervisors that are accustomed to employing the methods required to examine the research question. Students working in such scenarios were much more confident in conducting research at the university-level and are very likely to continue with research throughout their undergraduate career.

Attracting Prospective Students

Fields will post eligible research projects online for student consideration, including:

• First and last name of supervisor, as well as his/her host institution, department, and applicable website.
• Title, brief description, and keywords of research project.

Acknowledgement

It is only with the support of faculty at Principal Sponsoring/Affiliate Universities and mathematicians/researchers that the FUSRP is possible. We thank you very much for your time and support.

Questions?

Please contact the Manager of Scientific Programs, Esther Berzunza, at 416-348-9710, Ext. 2014.