The MAA has received funding from the Division of Mathematical Sciences at the National Science Foundation to provide support for institutions or groups of institutions that wish to initiate or expand undergraduate mathematics conferences. The initial grant provided funding for conferences held in 2003-06. We expect to continue to fund proposals through Spring 2009. The primary objective of the grant is to provide as many undergraduate students as possible with the opportunity to present mathematically-oriented talks and to better expand their knowledge of the wide range of theory, history, and applications of the mathematics sciences at conferences that are within their geographic region. The review committee is particularly interested in expanding the program to regions of the country that do not traditionally offer undergraduates an opportunity to give mathematical presentations.
Talks presented at funded conferences should be accessible to a wide range of undergraduate students. Conferences may assume any format that accomplishes the object of the grant, but deviations from successful formats should be fully explained.
The awards are intended to cover a portion of the typical expenses involved with hosting the conference. These include travel expenses for invited speakers, lunch and refreshments for participants, and duplicating and postage for advertising. The awards might also cover expenses that are often part of an undergraduate conference such as travel reimbursement for participants. It is anticipated that most awards will be between $1,000 and $4,000, but smaller and larger requests will be considered where appropriate.
Preference will be given to proposals for grants that are submitted by our general deadlines. These general deadlines are 15 May for conferences scheduled for the subsequent Fall term, or within the next calendar year, and 15 October for conferences scheduled for the subsequent Spring term. Although proposals may be submitted at any time, those which do not meet the deadlines can be funded only if sufficient funds remain. In any case, you can expect to receive information regarding the funding of your proposal within two months of submission.
Please contact Michael Pearson, MAA Director of Programs and Services, at pearson@maa.org with questions about the Undergraduate Conferences program.
- Application and details (Word Format)
- Application and Details (PDF Format)
- Sample Proposals
- Conference Program Director's Handbook
Doug
Faires has created this web
page to help in the distribution of information that might be of
use to people who are directing undergraduate conferences in
mathematics, and particularly those that are supported in part by the
NSF grant DMS-0241090.