2008 participants and projects

Cory Ahn

Home university: 

University of Western Ontario

Supervisor: 

B. Guenin

Project title: 

Generating minimally non even cycle matroids

Comments:

My project for this summer was to create a computer program that, when given as input some "nice" even cycle matroid M, outputs all the minimally non-even cycle matroids that contains M as a minor. I would recommend the Undergraduate Research Assistant (URA) program to anyone interested in finding out what academic research is about.

Aaron Dos Remedios

Home university: 

University of Waterloo

Supervisor:

C. Swamy

Project title:

Algorithms for Profit-maximization in Auctions with Unreliable Supply

Comments:

I feel that working in research is a good experience for students who want to experience the field of mathematics research or to apply the knowledge that they have acquired in the classroom. While the tasks may seem daunting at times, the professors and other staff create a good support system and are often willing to help you out.
I did research on an online multi-unit auctions. My problem was to design an algorithm which could provide a good approximation to the solution of an auction optimization problem given an initially unknown supply. My supervisor and I ended up finding a solution that was twice as good as a known solution published in a 2006 paper.

Julia Evans

Home university: 

McGill

Supervisor:

C. Godsil

Project title: 

Chromatic Algebra

Alexander Festeryga

Home university: 

University of Waterloo

Supervisor: 

I. Goulden

Project title: 

A new approach to Faber's Conjecture

Malcolm Sharpe

Home university: 

University of Waterloo

Supervisor: 

L. Tunçel/W.H. Cunningham

Project title: 

Good feasible solutions of combinatorial optimization problems from continuous relaxations

Kamara Simpson

Home university: 

University of Waterloo

Supervisor: 

J. Cheriyan

Project title: 

Scheduling for wireless networks

Vladimir Soukharev

Home university: 

University of Waterloo

Supervisor:

S. Vanstone/O. Dharvishvand

Project title: 

Edwards Curves

Comments:

This summer term we researched the use of Edwards Curves in Elliptic Curve Cryptography. They provide a new model for Elliptic Curves, which has some advantages in terms of efficiency and security over the other models of Elliptic Curves present in literature.
I enjoyed working as a URA in the Combinatorics and Optimization (C and O) department a lot. I learned a lot of new mathematical concepts and I was able to use my previous knowledge in our research. It is a great experience to work as a URA in the C and O department.

Yi Su

Home university: 

University of Waterloo

Supervisor: 

N. Wormald

Project title: 

Random Graph Processes

Michael Szestopalow

Home university: 

University of Waterloo

Supervisor: 

A. Nayak

Project title: 

Lower Bounds for Small Probability Spaces

Comments:

Small probability spaces are used in the construction of error-correcting codes, derandomization of algorithms, and many other areas of mathematics. We focused on one particular kind of space that was used in quantum message encryption. The goal of the project was to determine how small these spaces could be, and if the known constructions were optimal.
The URA program was a very rewarding experience. It was an enjoyable challenge to learn the new math and apply it to the project. The weekly seminars were a nice break during the week and introduced many new areas of mathematics, as well as the projects that other students were working on. I also had the opportunity to present an application of my work at the Canadian Undergraduate Mathematics Conference at the University of Toronto. Anyone interested in graduate school would greatly benefit from this program.

Yehua Wei

Home University: 

University of Waterloo

Supervisor:

J. Koenemann

Project title: 

Groupstrategyproof mechanisms for survivable network design games