Welcome to the UBM Student Information Site

Designed by UBM students at ASU for all students who may be interested in learning more about the program for

Undergraduate Research In Biological and Mathematical Science

Sponsored by the National Science Foundation

The UBM program is an NSF-funded undergraduate research program conducted at several universities. ASU's program is directed by Dr. Yang Kuang of the math department, and co-directed by a diverse interdisciplinary team.  Students spend time during the semester working on projects, reporting progress and getting help from advisors from the math and biology departments.  Summer funding is also available for part time or full time work.  Descriptions of student research projects can by seen by clicking on the links to the left of this page.

The following description of ASU's program can be also be found on Dr. Kuang's Website: http://mathpost.asu.edu/~tridane/webgroup/events.html

UBM: Interdisciplinary Training for Undergraduates in Biological and Mathematical Sciences at ASU

An interdisciplinary team of investigators carry out an undergraduate training initiative at Arizona State University. The training plan intimately combines new cross-disciplinary courses and summer research programs. The former are constructed to allow maximal participation among undergraduate cadres, and facilitate life science majors to achieve a minor in mathematics, and, likewise, mathematics majors to enrich their education with a minor in bioscience. The summer research program is a competitive enterprise involving at least eight ASU faculty members from life sciences, mathematics, and biophysics. Research projects span modeling of ecological and evolutionary processes through the new lens of stoichiometric constraints, bio-economics, chemostat theory, and modeling of visual perception. This project has potential to make broad impact in both local and global education environs. Regarding the former, the ASU UBM team is truly interdisciplinary, with members in mathematics, biology and biophysics, exceptionally well suited for interdisciplinary training for undergraduates in biological and mathematical sciences. Its collaborative efforts can provide undergraduate and graduate students of diverse ethnic/racial backgrounds with first-hand educational experience in cross-disciplinary communication and exploration. As for global impact, the proposed holistic approach (involving mathematical biology courses at various levels and summer research projects) in mathematical biology training can vertically integrate all the components in the ASU education system. It is therefore expected that this proposed program may yield many invaluable lessons to serve mathematical bioscience education and research nationwide, enriching the experience for the next generation of students in this integrative and interdisciplinary scientific endeavor.