This year 16 undergraduate students from around Australia were awarded AMSI Research Vacation Scholarships to complete a supervised a six-week research project during the summer holiday. At the end of the summer students come together with CSIRO vacation scholars and present their work at CSIRO sponsored Big Day In.
Research scholarships are funded by DEEWR under the Collaborative and Structural Reform grant.
Dr Louise Ryan, Head of CMIS, CSIRO said: “As a Vacation Scholar myself, many years ago, I think the thing I learnt most was the value of throwing yourself enthusiastically into the opportunities that come along, learning to follow your passion and really just networking to meet as many people as you can.”
The scheme provides students with professional experience unavailable in the undergraduate degree program. Student supervisor, Dr Leonardo Lopes, Monash University, said: “Before the scholarship, our student was great academically. Now we feel he is also a better professional outside the classroom. He understands deadlines, feedback, and supervision in a way he would simply not be able to in the classroom.”
AMSI Director, Prof. Geoff Prince said: “AMSI Vacation Research Scholarships give undergraduate students an invaluable opportunity to experience academic research.”
The Cambridge University Press book prize for best student talk was awarded to Vincent Schlegel, University of Adelaide, who eloquently explained his research on quantum structures of Yang-Mills fields.
Projects range from the applied – modelling cellular immunology of tuberculosis and Stochastic Integer programming models for asset and liability management – to the pure – expansions of Zeta and Ehrenfecuht-Fraisse games in finite algebras.
Students said: “The AMSI Vacation Research Scholarship gave me a unique insight into the academic research environment and allowed me to pursue some of my own mathematical interests. In all, it was a great experience.”
“The AMSI Vacation Scholarship program was an excellent opportunity for me to learn about mathematics and about the research process. The Big Day In was a valuable experience, both in that it gave me many networking opportunities and it gave me practice in making my research understandable to other scientists and students.”
Contacts:
Geoff Prince, AMSI Director (03) 8344 1779
Simi Henderson, AMSI Project Officer (03) 8344 1772
