REU Opportunities for CS and Science Mayors

The SECANT (Science Education in Computational Thinking) project has funded research opportunities for undergraduates with a background in Python programming and an interest in using computation for scientific discovery. Students will collaborate with CS and science faculty as well as CS graduate students on identifying interesting scientific phenomena and principles that can be modeled in a computational setting.

The work includes Python programming, exploring the use and limitations of existing software and visualization tools, and setting up computational experiments. Projects will extend those described at http://secant.cs.purdue.edu/cs190c:projects and develop new ones including

• developing sensor and motion based projects using  Scribbler robots  (http://www.parallax.com/tabid/455/Default.aspx)  
• exploring the Google App Engine framework (www.appengine.google.com ) to build environments for solving scientific problems
• creating a virtual world using the Python-based Blender 3d system (www.blender.org)
• using Monte Carlo methods for simulating and understanding graph properties related to web behavior and the spread of a disease
• using simulated annealing to generate solutions for Lennard-Jones clusters and using VPython for interactive visualization

The prerequisite for CS majors is knowledge of Python and CS 251. The prerequisite for non-CS science majors is programming experience equivalent to one college level course. Interested students having taken CS 190C in spring 2008 are encouraged to apply. For more information about the SECANT project see http://secant.cs.purdue.edu/.

We are looking for two students working approximately 10 hours per week/semester (pay range is $8-10/hour, depending on experience and background). For questions, please contact Prof. S. Hambrusch (seh@cs.purdue.edu).

If interested, please send copy of your résumé and the list of CS courses taken to seh@cs.purdue.edu. For full consideration for the fall semester please apply by  January 5, 2009.