Clay Mathematics Institute / PROMYS
2008 Research Projects

The PROMYS/CMI mentors in 2008 were the following research mathematicians: Ben Brubaker (MIT), Keith Conrad (University of Connecticut), Aaron Silberstein (Harvard University), Cameron Freer (Harvard University), and Paul Gunnells (UMass Amherst). Each submitted research problems for advanced students to work on. The materials presented by the mentors included problem statements, hints for getting started and references to the pertinent literature.

Mobius Functions, Legendre Symbols, and Discriminants
Proposed by Keith Conrad
Students: Zev Chonoles, Erick Knight, Tim Kunisky
Counselor: Lucas Culler

Tropical Algebraic Geometry
Proposed by Paul Gunnells
Students: Gabby Ehrlich, Sam Lite, Yehna Chang
Counselor: Jason Ferguson

Q-Calculus
Proposed by Ben Brubaker
Student: Tony Feng, Kevin Koh, Anirudh Sankar
Counselor: Dave Hansen

Ehrenfeucht-Fraïssé Games
Proposed by Cameron Freer
Students: Vladmir Sotirov, William Steadman, Watson Ladd
Counselor: Phil Engel

Monads of Finite Groups
Proposed by Paul Gunnells
Students: Ethan Cecchetti, William Perry, Jay Yang
Counselor: Rebecca Bellovin