MATH 499: Summer PSU-PKU Course 2015

  • Topic: Topic: Geometry and Mathematical Physics
  • Program Dates:  7/27 – 8/14, 2015
  • Location: University Park, PA
  • Prerequisites: Math 220, Math 230, Math 250, Math 312
  • Students: Peking University and Penn State undergraduate students
  • Instructors: Dr. Panagiotis Batakidis (PSU) Prof. Ping Xu (PSU), Prof. Jinpeng An (PKU), Prof. Zhangju Liu (PKU), Prof. Lin Shu (PKU)
  • Application Deadline: Wednesday,December 10, 2014

PSU–PKU Mathematics Summer School

In this annual program, first offered in 2008, undergraduate students from the two institutions study and conduct research together, some years at Penn State and some years at Peking.

  • Subject:  Computational and applied mathematics
  • Duration:  3 to 4 weeks during the summer semester
  • Course Type: Intensive seminars and lab work with two lectures most days—students attend class for several hours each day
  • Location: Penn State or Peking University (the institutions take turns hosting the students)
  • Faculty: Penn State and Peking University faculty
  • Students: Peking University and Penn State undergraduate students
  • Tuition: Students register for one credit. Peking University students pay tuition to Peking University, and Penn State students pay tuition to Penn State
  • Support: Some travel grants and tuition remission available for qualifying Penn State students based on merit as determined by transcripts and interviews
  • Funding: In recent years, the Dean’s Office at Penn State has defrayed some of the costs associated with attending the Summer School at PKU

Brief Description and History

The Summer School, first offered in 2008, is designed to offer Penn State and Peking University undergraduate students the opportunity to study mathematics intensively in the context of a US–China cultural exchange. The coursework focuses on computational and applied mathematics including analytical and numerical solutions of differential equations.

The school, initiated by Professor Jinchao Xu, Francis R. and Helen M. Pentz Professor of Science, is an important element of a more comprehensive agreement that formalizes and strengthens the developing relationship between the two universities. Overall, the general agreement provides for the annual PSU–PKU International Undergraduate Mathematics Summer School; global collaboration between the science, business, and IST faculty at both institutions; the re-establishment of the Penn State Department of Mathematics’ Center for Computational Mathematics and Applications (CCMA) as a joint venture of the two universities; a joint PSU–PKU multidisciplinary research center with Penn State’s College of Information Science and Technology (IST); and future collaborations on graduate-level education. The Memorandum of Agreement for the school was signed in 2011.

Faculty

The school has been run as an embedded program within the Department of Mathematics at Penn State. It has been operated by the faculty members teaching the courses with limited staff assistant support. Professor Jinchao Xu has played an important ongoing role in the school’s administration and direction.

Faculty members who have participated in the school include Jinchao Xu; Xiantao Li; Chun Liu; James Brannick; Alexei Novikov; Mark Levi; Andrew Belmonte; and Ping Xu at Penn State with strong support from Dean Larson, John Roe, the former head of Penn State’s mathematics department, and Yuxi Zheng, the current head of Penn State’s mathematics department. Substantial assistance has been provided by colleagues at Peking University including Gang Tian, Jiping Zhang, Changping Wang, Bin Liu, Pingwen Zhang, Zhiping Li, Yulong Liu, Jun Hu, Bo Dai, Shu Lin, Zhangju Lin and Bing Liu.

Summer Schools

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