Summer 2007 Research Projects  |  Summer 2006 Research Projects

Research, alive and thriving at HMC, is an exciting and a creative endeavor seeking to discover new knowledge. The short summaries of summer projects that appear on these web pages celebrate and illustrate the creative research work of HMC students, who, in collaboration with their faculty mentors, challenge the unknown. The summaries also demonstrate the wide ranging research interests of the faculty.

In the summer of 2007 more than 100 separate research projects were undertaken by 170 undergraduate students whose experience ranged from rising sophomores to graduated seniors. The areas studied covered a wide range, including quantitative and molecular biology, quantum optics and lasers, string theory, biomimic drug synthesis, seeking polymers for corneal tissue replacement, measuring diffusion of fluids through skin, understanding vibrations of large structures such as dams, finding solutions to differential equations that model drug uptake by cancer patients and designing algorithms to recognize a hand sketch and convert it to a digital format.

Most, if not all, of the work shown on these pages will be presented by students or faculty at some appropriate professional meeting and many of the results reported here will be incorporated in a scholarly publication.

An important, perhaps key, attribute of undergraduate research at HMC is the collaboration of students and faculty who are partners in the process of discovery. Only undergraduates and faculty undertake research at Harvey Mudd College since there are no graduate students. Students learn by doing – on the latest equipment, computers and instrumentation available.