Several faculty members are considering working with students this summer. Please contact them directly if you are interested and would like more information.
- Adrien Allorant (Exploring Alternative Measures of Socio-Economic Position in Low and Middle-Income Countries, see description below)
- Zajj Daugherty ( and )
- Kyle Ormsby and Angélica Osorno (transfer systems - more information below)
- David Perkinson (matroid theory)
- Anna Ritz (computational biology & graph algorithms - see or . Also looking for students interested in developing software - see this )
- Lenny Wainstein (statistics)
Exploring Alternative Measures of Socio-Economic Position in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Background: Traditional methods of assessing socio-economic status, such as income or consumption data, are often inadequate in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), particularly among vulnerable populations. The Wealth Index, developed in 2001, sought to address this gap by using household asset ownership data from demographic surveys to estimate socio-economic position. While this approach has been widely used, it has notable limitations, including a bias towards urban households and the use of a simplistic household model that may not accurately reflect varied family structures across different cultures.
Project Overview: This research project aims to investigate and develop alternative methods for measuring socio-economic status in LMICs. The project will involve a thorough review of existing asset-based socio-economic indices and an exploration of new methodologies that could provide a more accurate reflection of socio-economic positions in these regions.
Contact: Adrien Allorant
Transfer Systems
Kyle Ormsby & Angélica Osorno seek six Reed students to conduct research on transfer systems, a combinatorial aspect of equivariant homotopy theory, as part of our NSF-funded Collaborative Mathematics Research Group (CMRG). To learn more about the subject, check out our survey article in the ! (The CMRG projects will be independent from the MRC mentioned in the article. Also note that references [BHK+23, BMO23, BMO24, FOO+22, HML24] from the article are all coauthored with undergrads!)
The program runs for seven weeks from July 8 to August 23, with participants in-person on campus. Participants will receive a $4480 stipend but must arrange their own housing for the summer.
For full consideration, apply by February 23 at . You must submit (1) a personal statement and (2) the name of a faculty reference. The personal statement should consist of at most one page of English prose including:
(a) Your relevant background and experience, including prior research, mathematics projects, ormathematics-related jobs.
(b) Your reasons for interest in the program.
(c) Your professional goals.