Stanford Undergraduate Research Institute in Mathematics (SURIM) 2026

At SURIM, students will be exposed to questions that are of interest in current mathematics, as well as the research and exploration aspects that accompany such questions. With their mentor’s assistance, students will study the prerequisite materials to understand their program’s topic and will then participate in exploration of their questions about the subject. The emphasis will be on self-discovery of examples and properties. In addition to learning new mathematics and gaining experience in mathematical research, students will practice presenting research in a seminar environment, learn to typeset mathematical research results using LaTeX, use various software packages to explore mathematics, and have valuable interactions with mathematics faculty and graduate students.

Most students will be divided into groups depending on their mathematical interest and background. Each of these groups will work closely with graduate student mentors. The group project topics will be determined by the SURIM graduate student mentors, and the participants will choose which project(s) they prefer in the first week of the program.

Other students may want to work one-on-one with a faculty member, and should have some idea of their project at the time they apply. Students applying for individual project should also obtain the approval of the professor with whom they are planning to do research. Typically individual projects are mentored by a Math faculty member; however in some cases it may be appropriate to have a faculty mentor from outside the Math department.