Three students and three professors team up for mathematics research

Professors James Freeman, Stephen Bean, and Tyler Skorczewski are working with Nate Dwyer ’19, Sam Cieszynski ’19, and Collin Smith ’17 for the Cornell Summer Research Institute (CSRI).

The students are tasked with producing individual projects with a similar theme. That theme is Cellular Automata.

Cellular Automata is a way to model complex systems that involves collections of cells that change based on a defined set of rules.

“It all boils down to how a made-up universe behaves according to very simple rules,” Professor Skorczewski said.

The trio of professors wanted the students to experience the entire spectrum of the research process, from reading the literature to finding and articulating a solvable problem, and finally to working the problem out and communicating the results. Along the way, they will share the ups and downs of their investigations with each other, as well as with their fellow students in CSRI.

CSRI is a ten-week intensive research program at Cornell College.