Department of Mathematics

Directed Reading Program

Directed Reading Program

The Directed Reading Program (DRP) pairs undergraduate students with graduate student mentors to pursue an independent reading project throughout the semester.

Typically, an undergraduate student follows a textbook or a paper and the graduate student plays the role of a mentor. It is up to each pair to decide how frequently to meet and discuss the content, but once a week is usual. At the end of the semester, each student is encouraged to give a presentation (or write a report) about the project in order to solidify their own understanding and to pass it on to others.

The first DRPs took place at the University of Chicago over a decade ago. These programs have had great success and have spread to many other math departments. The DRP at Brown began in Spring 2017.

Directed Reading Program Goals

  • To further interactions between undergraduate and graduate students, strengthening our math community.
  • To provide a fun and low-stress way for both mentee and mentor to learn or further familiarize themselves with topics of interest.
  • To give another, less intimidating avenue for interested undergraduate students of varying backgrounds to get more involved in math and even to pursue relatively advanced topics.
  • To give graduate students the opportunity to act as mentors and to gain a different type of teaching experience.

Any undergraduate who has taken at least one course with mathematical proofs is eligible to apply for the DRP. We encourage anyone who is interested in learning more about math - whether it’s a specific topic or just wanting to know how mathematicians think - to apply to the DRP. We do not care if you are going to pursue math in the future or not. We do want you to be committed to the program for the whole semester. Since a typical student spends around 4 hours a week on the DRP, if you are taking a heavy course load, please ask yourself before applying if you have the time and energy for an extra project.

Applications are open at the beginning of the Fall and Spring semesters. Before applying please read over the expectation sheet carefully. In the application form, you will be asked to fill out which courses you have taken (we do not care about grades). This will help us know if you are prepared for the DRP and to match you effectively with a project. One of the most important aspects of the application is the statement of interest, so please take some time to consider what you will say. Previous participants of the DRP are encouraged to apply again; however, applicants who have never participated will be given preference.

We are always looking for graduate student mentors to participate in the DRP. We do not encourage first year graduate students to be mentors unless they are placing out of a couple courses - we prefer you focus on your course work and become a mentor later. If you are interested in becoming a mentor please contact the DRP organizers. Also, look out for an e-mail from us. A few weeks before each semester we will be sending out an e-mail asking for mentor participants. At this time you are asked to come up with a project - this includes a subject for a project plus a book or paper to follow plus a brief description for any undergraduate students applying.  If you are having trouble coming up with a project you may look at the past projects or go to Kassar House where the DRP library is and browse the books we own for inspiration.

DRP Library

The DRP has a small library of books that have been used in the past (or books we know will be good) for projects. Please contact us if you need any of the books.

  • Mostly Surface by Schwartz (1)
  • Project Origami by Hull (1)
  • Spectra of Graphs by Brower and Haemers (1)
  • An Introduction to Sieve Methods and their Applications by Cojocaru and Murty (1)
  • Three Dimensional Geometry and Topology by Thurston (1)
  • Enumerative Geometry and String Theory by Katz (2)
  • An Introduction to Stochastic Differential Equations by Evans (2)
  • Differential Topology by Guillemin and Pollack (1)
  • Computing the Continuous Discretely by Beck and Robins (1)
  • Proofs from the Book by Aigner and Ziegler (1)
  • Introduction to Knot Theory by Lickorish (1)
  • The Knot Book by Adams (1)
  • Category Theory in Context by Riehl (2)
  • Introduction to Graph Theory by Trudeau (2)
  • Fourier Analysis by Stein and Shakarchi (1)
  • Geometry and Billiards by Tabachnikov (1)
  • Undergraduate Commutative Algebra by Reid (1)
  • Introduction to Smooth Manifolds by Lee (2)
  • The Four Pillars of Geometry by Stillwell (2)
  • An Invitation to Algebraic Geometry by Smith et al. (2)

A list of past projects

Contact

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions!

DRP Organizers