• Summer program of preparatory courses for graduate students prior to beginning graduate study to provide a solid foundation for the first year qualifying exam courses. This intensive review will be taken by beginning graduate students before the start of the fall term of their first year. The goal of this program is to provide students with the opportunity to solidify and review fundamental material, thereby easing the transition to graduate work and helping to ensure success in first-year graduate courses. The program consists of two courses (each meeting 8 hours per week) that cover basic topics in algebra and analysis/topology.The material covered in the summer program form the base upon which the first-year courses will build.

• Streamlined first-year graduate curriculum and qualifying exam process, together with reduced teaching, to reduce time to degree.
  
  Current exam system: There are general comprehensive examinations at the end of the first or the beginning of the second year of graduate study. These exams test for basic competency in analysis and algebra for pure students and in analysis and fundamentals of applied mathematics for applied students. The first year graduate courses have been redesigned to prepare students for these exams and the students have been able to pass them at the end of the first year or the beginning of the second year.
  
  
• Teacher training and mentoring.

  Teaching skills are developed by mandatory participation in the Mathematics Departmental TA Training Program. This program starts with a two-day introductory orientation before fall quarter classes begin. It continues throughout the fall quarter as a Teaching Assistant Practicum course. Students also receive additional mentoring in connection with their independent teaching. Students will be assigned a graduate student teaching mentor.

  Students will also have the opportunity to teach a full course for which they will have principal responsibility, under the supervision of a faculty mentor. The student will attend classes taught by the mentor to get acquainted with teaching from the perspective of the professor and to discuss teaching techniques. In turn, the mentor will attend classes taught in the following quarter by the student to offer further advice.

  UCLA Mathematics Teaching Experience is designed to provide graduate students with a firsthand experience at the teaching of large undergraduate classes without having to face the responsibility of actually running a full course.

• Participating Seminars. Special participating seminar courses (Math 290) introduce students to contemporary research topics early in graduate study. Current seminars (Fall 2007) include:
  • 290B Number Theory (D.M. Blasius, C. Khare)
  • 290C Algebra (R.E. Greene)
  • 290E Geometry (K. Liu)
  • 290F Topology (R.F. Brown, R.E. Greene)
  • 290G Analysis (J.B. Garnett, T.C. Tao, C.M. Thiele, G. Eskin, M. Hitrik, J. Ralston)
  • 290J Applied Mathematics (T.F. Chan, A. Bertozzi, L.A. Vese)

• Summer Internship Program. Funding is available to support students in the summer months to work on a research project with a mentor outside of mathematics, on a project that uses mathematics as an integral component. Recent internships have included work with faculty in Computer Science, Anthropology, Electrical Engineering, Philosophy, Neurosciences, and industry such as Rhythm and Hues and Digital Domain.
  Here are links to lists of recent internship projects.:

  Internship Poster 2007
  Internship Poster 2006

Through the VIGRE program, graduate students are in a position to take a diversity of courses on more advanced topics, covering a wide range of potential research interests at the beginning of their second year of graduate study. This has allowed students who become interested in an interdisciplinary field to begin a serious study of subjects outside the domain of traditional pure or applied mathematics. The opportunity for interdisciplinary research has been greatly enhanced with the tutorials and conferences at the the Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics on the UCLA campus. In addition, students have to opportunity to learn about other research areas through talks sponsored by the Biomathematics Department and the School of Medicine. Vigre grads also benefit by a wide range of talks sponsored by the department including weekly Math Colloquiums and the Distinguished Lecture Series. Speakers have included I.M Singer, Jean-Pierre Serre, Raoul Bott, and Sir Michael Atiyah.

Vigre students can also attend Perspective Seminars sponsored by Graduate Student Outreach. These talks organized by GSO expose beginning graduate students to different areas of research done by faculty members. The seminars help students focus on an area of specialization and new students can determine which faculty member would best meet their needs & interests as an advisor.

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