In the Directed Reading Program (DRP) at Columbia University, undergraduate students interested in independently reading mathematics outside of their official coursework are paired with mathematics graduate students for a semester.
- Applications are open to any undergraduate student from any major at Columbia University and Barnard College.
- The program matches each undergraduate student with a graduate student based on their common mathematical interests.
- At the beginning of the semester, each pair agrees on reading material (e.g. textbooks and research articles) and goals for the semester.
- During the semester, the student and mentor meet each week to discuss the material and progress towards their goals.
- At the end of the semester, the program hosts a colloquium in which each undergraduate student gives a short mathematical presentation on their progress.
The DRP program at Columbia University started in Fall 2020 and is based on the Stanford Math Directed Reading Program, which itself is based on similar programs at other institutions dating back to the start of the University of Chicago DRP in 2003.
Expectations:
- The student will spend ~4 hours on work for the program outside of meetings.
- The student should have taken a proof-based math course before the start of the program.
- Students and mentors will meet once every week.
- Students will give a 10-minute talk on a topic that they learned during the semester.
Spring 2025 timeline:
January 24th: Applications due
January 26th: Mentors and students paired
January 27th–April 27th: DRP
February 9th: Book orders due
April 28th-May 2nd: Presentation week
For undergraduate students: Spring 2025 DRP Program Application (now open!)
For graduate students: Spring 2025 DRP Program Mentor Sign-up (now open!)
If you have any questions about the program, please contact one of the following organizers:
- Kevin Chang (kyc2130@columbia.edu)
- Fan Zhou (fz2326@columbia.edu)
- Amal Mattoo (am5704@columbia.edu)
- Matthew Hase-Liu (mh4198@columbia.edu)
- Alan Zhao (asz2115@columbia.edu)
DRP Groups Fall 2024
| Topic | Graduate mentor | Undergraduate student |
|---|---|---|
| Algebraic geometry | Sofia Wood | Angelina Haney |
| Algebraic geometry | Amal Mattoo | Song Yan |
| Algebraic groups and their representations | Alan Zhao | Emory Sun |
| Algebraic topology | Sangmin Ko | Keir Dorchen |
| Algorithmic game theory | Noah Bergam | Yoni Livstone |
| Analysis | Raphael Grondin | Ruimian Zhang |
| Category theory | Carlos Alvarado | Zimu Zhang |
| Combinatorial applications of cyclotomic polynomials | Matthew Hase-Liu | Mark Kirichev |
| Computational number theory and algebra | Sayak Chakrabarti | Sanghun Han |
| Differential geometry | Ethan Hall | Carmen Alves Sabin |
| Hyperbolic geometry | Caleb W. Ji | Hiya Jain |
| Linear algebraic groups | Yifan Wu | Yousif Elhag |
| Mathematical finance | Pok Him Cheng | Matthew Tang |
| Number theory | Austin Lei | Elliott Wolke |
| Probability theory | Richard Groenewald | Fatih Uysal |
| Probability theory | Shubhangi Ghosh | Moses Bashir |
| Seiberg-Witten equations and spin geometry | Raphael Tsiamis | Owen Lear |
DRP Groups Spring 2024
| Topic | Graduate mentor | Undergraduate student |
|---|---|---|
| Algebraic geometry | Wenqi Li | Chang Yoon Seuk |
| Algebraic geometry | Avi Zeff | Felix Liu |
| Algebraic geometry | Mattthew Hase-Liu | Erica Choi |
| Complex analysis | Kevin Chang | Paarth Tara |
| Complex geometry and K-stability | Raphael Tsiamis | Zachary Lihn |
| Elliptic curves and modular forms | Aditya Ghosh | Ryan Xu |
| Geometric complexity theory | Jose Sidaoui Gali | Ekene Ezeunala |
| Homotopy theory and K-theory | Caleb Ji | Andreas Welch |
| Khovanov homology | Alvaro Martinez Ruiz | Zheheng Xiao |
| Modular forms and elliptic curves | Aditya Ghosh | Kate Mekechuk |
| Nonparametric regression/spatio-temporal models | Jose Sidaoui Gali | Arman Ozcan |
| Number theory, lattices and cryptography | Austin Lei | Mark Chen |
| p-adic analysis | Alan Zhao | Gabriel Keene |
DRP Groups Fall 2023
| Topic | Graduate mentor | Undergraduate student |
|---|---|---|
| Algebra | Baiqing Zhu | Daniel Campos-Rojano |
| Algebraic geometry | Wenqi Li | Shilpa Kesavan |
| Algebraic geometry | Anna Abasheva | Erica Choi |
| Algebraic number theory | Caleb Ji | Jinoo Kim |
| Category O | Fan Zhou | Yousif Elhag |
| Combinatorial algebraic geometry | Patrick Lei | Casey Qi |
| Combinatorics | Alan Zhao | Manuel Paez |
| Combinatorics and algorithms | Amal Mattoo | Hyoungjoon Yoo |
| Elliptic curves | Alan Zhao | Yusheng Lee |
| Elliptic curves | Austin Lei | Nicole Kim |
| Hopf algebras and knot invariants | Álvaro Martínez | Gabriel Fernandez |
| Spin geometry | Raphael Tsiamis | Michael Tulskikh |
| Young tableaux | Kevin Chang | Pranav Konda |
DRP Groups Spring 2023
| Topic | Graduate mentor | Undergraduate student |
|---|---|---|
| Algebra | Zoe Himwich | Keila Leonard |
| Algebraic geometry | Kevin Chang | Xiaohua Wei |
| Derived categories | Matthew Hase-Liu | Remy Kaldawy |
| Differential geometry | Sebastian Haney | Zachary Lihn |
| Elliptic curves | Avi Zeff | Analisa Faulkner Valiente |
| Number theory | Xiaorun Wu | Gabriel Fernandez |
| Probability | Hindy Drillick | Rahul Ram |
| Probability | Richard Groenewald | Lyra Gao |
| Representation theory | Álvaro Martínez | Zhaocheng Dong |
DRP Groups Fall 2022
| Topic | Graduate mentor | Undergraduate student |
|---|---|---|
| Algebraic geometry | Kevin Chang | Dianlun Luo |
| Algebraic geometry | Caleb Ji | Stanley Jian |
| Category theory | Emily Saunders | Zheheng Xiao |
| Commutative algebra | Alex Scheffelin | Vishal Muthuvel |
| Functional analysis | Yipeng Wang | Heyuan Yao |
| Graph theory | Zoe Himwich | Keila Leonard |
| High-dimensional statistics | Luofeng Liao | Ekene Ezeunala |
| Knot theory | Álvaro Martínez | Shiv Yajnik |
| Number theory | Hung Chiang | David Chen |
| Probability | Richard Groenewald | Yimeng Sun |
| Probability | Yier Lin | Rizwan Kazi |
| Statistical mechanics | Zongrui Yang | Noah Bergam |
Fall 2022 final presentation abstracts
DRP Groups Spring 2022
| Topic | Graduate mentor | Undergraduate student |
|---|---|---|
| Algebra | Patrick Lei | David Chen |
| Algebraic geometry | Caleb Ji | Shuhan Zhang |
| Algebraic geometry | Haodong Yao | Destine Lee |
| Low dimensional topology | Alex Xu | Alan Du |
| Martingales and Brownian motion | Zoe Himwich | Harrison Wang |
| Mathematical physics | Zongrui Yang | Yipeng Wang |
| Modular forms | Yusheng Lee | Alan Zhao |
| Morse theory and Floer homology | Juan Muñoz | Zhenfeng Tu |
| Number theory | Baiqing Zhu | Michael Tulskikh |
| Representation theory | Álvaro Martínez | Iris Rosenblum-Sellers |
| Toric varieties | Kevin Chang | Ahmed Shaaban |
DRP Groups Fall 2021
| Topic | Graduate mentor | Undergraduate student |
|---|---|---|
| Algebraic geometry | Caleb Ji | Shuhan Zhang |
| Algebraic number theory | David Marcil | Destine Lee |
| Algebraic topology | Álvaro Martínez | Tuan Dolmen |
| Algebraic topology | Avi Zeff | Behshad Behan Pour |
| Category theory | Patrick Lei | Jonathan Tanaka |
| Differential geometry | Aaron Chow | Panagiotis Tsimpos |
| Higher category theory | Fan Zhou | Rafay Ashary |
| Measure theory and probability | Zoe Himwich | Harrison Wang |
| Modular forms | Yusheng Lee | Alan Zhao |
| Partial differential equations | Kevin Smith | Christopher Wang |
| Probability | Shalin Parekh | Zachary Lihn |
| Probability | Alejandra Quintos | Allison Ghuman |
| Real analysis and functional analysis | Kevin Chang | Shen Shiyang |
| Riemann surfaces | Chuwen Wang | Carter Teplica |
Fall 2021 final presentation abstracts
DRP Groups Fall 2020
| Topic | Graduate mentor | Undergraduate student |
|---|---|---|
| Combinatorics | Mark Rychnovsky | Destine Lee |
| Differential geometry | Chuwen Wang | Jason Vassilou |
| Differential topology | Yash Deshmukh | Zhenfeng Tu |
| Differential topology | Caleb Ji | Pedro Lazcano |
| Fourier analysis | Henry Liu | Zoe Zager |
| Graph theory | Sayan Das | Adiba Ejaz |
| Logic and category theory | Roy Magen | Matthew Katz |
| Probability | Xiang Fang | Ahmed Shaaban |
| Rational points on elliptic curves | Robin Zhang | Jacob Weinstein |
| Riemann surfaces | Fried Tong | Urvi Awasthi |
| Variational methods in PDE | Jingze Zhu | Josh Zhou |
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