Whether examining the concept of Egyptian monasticism or the correlation between stress and overeating, UMW students stand a chance of making some riveting revelations. That’s thanks to the University’s innovative undergraduate research program, which included more than a dozen initiatives this semester, and to its professors, who are committed to fostering opportunities for cutting-edge exploration. During the 2010-2011 academic year, 166 students in 15 academic departments from art and art history to geography and psychology received awards to pursue an abundance of projects.  Formula for success Associate Professor of Mathematics Randall Helmstutler and Claire Gianelle ’14 string equations across a whiteboard in Trinkle Hall. The two, Helmstutler as adviser and Gianelle as student researcher, began work on their project, “Line Integral Arguments for Pick’s Theorem,” last fall. They aim to connect multivariable calculus to the famous geometrical formula put forth by Austrian … [Read more...]