Department of Mathematics provides students with several opportunities to involve them in research while still an undergraduate at Bilkent. MATH 291 and MATH 391 are two project-oriented courses in the curricula offered only summer terms. Students who successfully complete the course earn 3 course credits.
1.1 Objectives for the Student
Summer projects are opportunities for students to learn a new topic which is not typically covered in other regular courses, read research literature, gain independent study experience, and improve mathematical writing abilities. Every registered student must submit a written report and make an oral presentation on the project's topic to complete the course.
1.2 Student Eligibility.
Math 291 and 391 are open to students who have completed at least 2 semesters in the Department. The lack of sufficient coursework may lead to disqualification for the registration to the course.
2.1 Before the Semester: topic selection and application.
During the Spring semester, interested students are expected to contact faculty members to discuss possible topics and availability of them to be the supervisor of the project. Students must submit an application form to the course coordinator before the end of the Spring semester for approval. Applications will be evaluated by the coordinating committee, enrollment in a summer project course is subject to its approval.
Application forms.
MATH 291 Libre Office Form Acrobat Reader Form
MATH 391 Libre Office Form Acrobat Reader Form
2.2 During the Semester: regular meetings and project presentation.
The student is expected to meet with the project advisor for two hours each week. During the fifth week of the semester, all students enrolled in a summer project course will meet with a representative of the coordinating committee and present the first draft of the project's report. The students might be required to give a 25-minutes presentation indicating the progress at that point, and the coordinators will confer the student and the advisor on the possible problem which affect the completion of the project.
2.3 Concluding the Semester: written report and final presentation.
Students must present a written report and make an oral presentation to successfully complete the course. At least three days prior to the student's presentation, the advisor must be given three copies of the written report for approval, signature, and distribution to the jury. Reports must be written in English and in standard mathematical typesetting programs. For templates and documentation for these programs, see below. Each student must make 25-minutes oral presentation based on the project. All students are required to attend all other students' presentations.
3.1 Grading Scheme.
Advisor's evaluation: 50%. The advisor is the faculty member who will have worked most closely with the student over the semester, and accordingly the advisor's sense of the student's performance weighs most heavily. The following factors should be considered:
The student's understanding and mastery of the material.
The student's progress and increased mathematical maturity.
The student's originality in proving results and drawing novel connections.
The student's regular attendance in weekly meetings. (Failure to make at least 75% of the weekly meetings will result in an FX grade).
Coordinator's evaluation: 20%. Each student will be evaluated by a member of the organizing committee who is not the student's advisor. This coordinator will grade the student's midterm status update, final written report, and (in the case of MATH 492) poster. The following factors should be considered:
Mathematical quality. The student should clearly state and prove all lemmas, propositions, and theorems, as well as provide an over-arching narrative. The student must explain the motivation for the project, develop any necessary background, and suggest future directions of inquiry.
Professionalism of writing. Both the report and poster should be clearly written in good, grammatically correct English. The report should follow the standards of a research paper, including having an abstract, bibliography, and clean separation of topics into sections. Literature citations should be precise, referring to the exact page or result number within a cited article from where a result is taken. Moreover, the student should demonstrate a mastery of TeX typesetting with no major errors.
Oral presentation: 30%. A panel of three faculty members, ideally distinct from both the student's advisor and coordinator-evaluator, will judge the final oral presentation. The following factors should be considered:
The student should clearly state the problem being considered and provide necessary motivation and background.
The student should clearly present the main results of the semester's work, as well as outlining the ideas behind major proofs.
The student should demonstrate mastery of the subject matter by being able to answer questions posed by the jury. Examples include: giving more detail on a particular point, drawing connections with other mathematical fields, or speculation about how to attack open problems.
The student should give a good, professional presentation. This includes whiteboard technique (clear handwriting and top-to-bottom, left-to-right flow instead of just randomly scribbling words on whatever bit of the board is closest at the moment, etc.) or good design of the slideshow (an absorbable amount of information on each slide, a reasonable number of slides, giving enough time for the audience to read each slide and follow along with the talk, not excessively referring to "this" as a point on the slide that the student should state directly, etc.), timing, and language skills. The student is strongly advised to hold a practice talk with the advisor before the formal presentation.
The Letter Grade. The overall grade for the semester is determined by the following rubric:
|
A |
[90,100] |
C |
[55,60) |
|
A- |
[80,90) |
C- |
[50,55) |
|
B+ |
[75,80) |
D+ |
[45,50) |
|
B |
[70,75) |
D |
[40,45) |
|
B- |
[65,70) |
F |
[0,40) |
|
C+ |
[60,65) |
|
|
3.2. Mathematical Editing.
Modern mathematical editing uses TeX, a programming
media designed by Donald Knuth during the 1980's, to produce high
printing quality of articles and books of mathematics. The TeX
evolved to very sophisticated versions: AMS-TeX, LaTeX, LaTeX2e, and
AMS-LaTeX. We recommend the usage of AMS-LaTeX that has the most
capabilities and high flexibility. The students should study
independently and be able to write their project using one of these
versions. There are different textbooks available for this, among
which we recommend Guide to LaTeX. 4th
edition, by H. Kopka, P.W. Daly, Addison-Wesley 2004 that
can be found in the bookshop.
You can use on any computer from
the BCC the MikTeX environment by using the
path:
Programs>Applications>TeXnicCenter>TeXnicCenter
and
then a window will open. After a short configuration you will be able
to type your LaTeX file. Please note that there are at least three
stages before producing your written pages:
Editing your file (that with extension .tex).
Compiling (building out) to produce your .dvi file that can be previewed.
Printing, that is, producing your .pdf or .ps files that can be printed.
If you have a personal computer or a laptop, other distributions of the TeX are available: MikTeX is freely available from the Internet to be downloaded and installed under Windows operating system, teTeX is part of any Linux operating system, TeXShop is freely available for MacIntosh operating systems, etc. Here you can download an Example file in AMS-LaTeX, and the corredsponding Example file in PDF.
3.3 Plagiarism. Plagiarism is the uncredited reproduction of another's work or text being passed off as one's own. Examples of plagiarism include:
Direct copying from a source without citation.
Rewording a passage from a source without citation.
Claiming, either implicitly or explicitly, that an idea due to another is one???s own.
Any instance of plagiarism on the part of the student will result in an automatic final grade of F for the semester. Written reports will be tested by computer software for evidence of plagiarism.
3.4. Semester Schedule.
The following is a rough timeline for when the major milestones of a senior project should be met:
Before the start of the semester: The student meets with a prospective advisor. Together, they fill out the details of a course application.
Week 1: All enrolled students meet together with one of the course coordinators to review the rules and give brief introductions of their projects to their peers.
Week 4: All enrolled students have a mid-semester joint meeting with one of the course coordinators to indicate their progress. Students will give a short oral presentation of where they stand at this point.
Week 8: Any presentation must have the final draft of the written report submitted a couple of days before, most likely Week 15. Final corrections are then to be made and submitted a couple of days later. Week 8 or Finals Week 1: Presentations are given together with PDF submissions of the final report (and poster, if applicable).
The student is expected to meet regularly with the advisor every
week throughout the semester, on top of the above main events.
Project Courses Commitee: Aurelian Gheondea, Özgün Ünlü, Gökhan Yıldırım.
Page maintained by
Aurelian Gheondea. Last update June 14th,
2020.