The Oklahoma REU
The main problem with the REU program at the University of Oklahoma is
that everyone breaks into song when you tell them where you're going. The
program is a lot of fun; we were able to occupy ourselves, and the
professors were willing to arrange activiti es for the weekends. Some
students went horseback riding, we took a trip into Oklahoma City for a
Native American festival, and we generally managed to keep busy. The staff
was very friendly, and the professors managed to assemble a good group of
students , all of whom got to know each other really well. (There were 10
students in 1992, 5 men and 5 women, but the program was larger in
previous years.) While the Harvard students were the best prepared, the
others were all very good as well.
The students were divided into three groups, each working with one
professor and two graduate students. For the first three weeks, each
professor gave a week of talks we all attended, so we would all know the
basics of the three areas (differential geomet ry, combinatorial topology,
and something with Lie groups (ask Michael--I wasn't paying attention)).
We then split up and, for five more weeks, worked with the professors,
spending some time in lecture and a lot doing actual research. All the
students cam e away with publishable papers (with 1-3 names on each), and
over half of us will be attending the AMS conference in April and
presenting our work.
--Sandy Kutin