The toughest weekend for everyone has now arrived. We all said our final goodbyes as we moved out of King House one-by-one. It has been quite the soul searching adventure for me, both physically and mentally. After one more walk up the steep hill leading to Brown, is was time to get back on the bus to the airport and begin my 12-hour return to Monterey. I still can’t believe how fast the eight weeks zipped by; it still feels like I arrived in Providence one week ago!
I have just finished packing up all of my stuff from my room in King House
RIPTA line 1 to T.F. Green Airport
Arrived at T.F. Green Airport
When I first entered the ICERM building, I had no idea what I was going to be working on. It was a difficult task just to establish a territory in a project that I wanted to investigate, mainly because I did not have the prerequisite skills for the other projects. This narrowed my options down to a project that involved systems of differential equations and mathematical modeling. I narrowed it down to two choices, but I had to make a sacrifice if I were to choose a project. It was either do zebrafish stripe modeling to bridge a gap between mathematics and marine science, or propagation of lead to bridge a gap between mathematics and toxicokinetics. I made my decision to model lead after a tough deliberation, so I don’t have any regrets.
This program made me question my own mathematical ability several times throughout the eight weeks. Nevertheless, I still tried my hardest to prevail through the tough points in the research process. There was a large period of time in which I did not have the necessary software on my own computer. Thankfully, the rest of my research team helped alleviate that issue, allowing us to work at full speed before the Brown Research Symposium last week. Melissa, my research partner, motivated me to power through new ideas when they arose and didn’t see any reason to quit even when times got tough. Dr. Kapitula, our research advisor, was the one who came up with the idea for our project, and taught us new mathematical techniques that my school doesn’t offer. He had the inspiration to investigate our project on modeling lead propagation, which allowed this project to take off. Veronica, our advisor’s research assistant, kept the entire team on topic when we were about to go off on multiple tangents throughout the program. She has done such an amazing job and I really appreciate all the hard work she has done for us.
On the last day of the program, each of the groups prepared a summary of their work, which will be posted on the ICERM website soon. We also had a last get-together for lunch at Flatbread Company, which is, to me, the most sustainable pizza restaurant in Providence. This is how the entire group met on the first day, so we all thought this should be the way that our daily meetings end. However, the work is still not over for most of us. Teams will be working on their research papers during the fall semester in hopes of submitting to a variety of mathematics journals. I’ve heard that a couple research projects completed at ICERM this year are being submitted to graduate level journals, so as an undergraduate, it would be an astounding accomplishment to have an article published in these kinds of journals. To me, just getting something published is a large enough accomplishment, but it doesn’t hurt to go above and beyond the expectations of the program.
Thankfully, my research experience here at ICERM was not all work and no play. I have been to several different attractions around Rhode Island and Massachusetts, which I posted in my “New England Adventure” blog page. Traveling to Boston from Providence is somewhat simple and fairly priced–about $23 for a round trip ticket between Boston and Providence. However, each time I go it’s for a different purpose, whether it’s visiting a museum, another campus, or just to capture some captivating photos–not Pokémon–while walking next to the street. This experience also forced me to learn what it’s like to be in a large metropolitan city by myself, so I consider seeing these attractions as a reward for surviving.
In addition to my travels over the summer, there is one memorable first-timer in which I participated. Before the last week of the program, I signed up for this game called the escape room. The one-sentence summary I came up with for playing this game is as follows: You are locked in a room with up to nine other strangers where the only way to unlock the exit is to look for clues in the room and solve puzzles that require teamwork in order for everyone to escape within 60 minutes. Sounds easy right? According to one of the game’s website, the highest success rate out of every room offered is 24%. I attempted two different escape rooms while I was at Providence. My first attempt had a total of 4 people in the library. However, we were unable to escape within the time limit. On my second attempt, I signed up for a room named Ex Machina, which had a success rate of 14%, the lowest rate at that particular escape room building. Moreover, every group that attempted the room this month was unable to finish in time. I was part of a full group of 6 players, so theoretically the chance of success should boost slightly. In the end, we escaped with 3:27 left on the clock, making us the first team in the month of August to complete Ex Machina in time. Those who escape their rooms in time can come up with a team name, to commemorate their victory. In my case, the team name we created for completing Ex Machina was titled “Still Mockingya”. As I said before, you are locked in a room with other strangers, so expect to make some new friends if you chose to let someone lock all of you up in a room for at least $25 per person.
Now that I have completed my second REU as an undergraduate, it is now time to start thinking more about what graduate schools have programs that catch my eye and make me want to explore them more. A program that involves modeling dynamical systems is at the top of my list, so I will need to refine my potential list of graduate schools. I mentioned last year that I wanted to pursue mathematical modeling. This REU put my skills to the test in order to show that I am on the right academic path. Despite several obstacles impeding progress, I had prevailed without giving up along the way. ICERM did more than just challenge what my mathematical interests were, it solidified them for the future that I plan to create for myself.
The winning t-shirt design for the summer (great job Francesca 🙂 ). An REU is expected to be stressful in the beginning, but it’s how you adapt to the scenario over the course of the program in which you will be tested.
Jordan Collignon 