Research Interaction Teams

You can find a list of all RITs here. As RIT plans by AMSC Faculty members become available, they will be posted.

All students are encouraged to join an RIT. RITs are one way for AMSC students to meet their seminar requirements. Masters students and doctorate students who have not reached candidacy can get credit for RIT participation by registering for AMSC 689 for up to three credits with a faculty director in that RIT. (Every AMSC faculty member can have section number assigned to them by the Academic Programs Coordinator) Doctorate students who have reached candidacy can carry out their dissertation work within the framework of an RIT but can register for AMSC 899 (Dissertation Research), rather than AMSC 689.

Each RIT will have regular meetings at which its members will discuss their activities. It is expected that doing so will both facilitate each student's work and broaden each student's education about related work. This format demands ongoing communication by each member of an RIT to all of its members. These meetings will also be a forum in which students can prepare for more formal presentations such as for a regular seminar, the AMSC/MATH/STAT Spotlight on Graduate Research and the University's Graduate Research Interaction Day. When it is appropriate, graduate students will be strongly encouraged to participate in research conferences and workshops and to prepare and submit their results for publication.

The RIT structure formalizes the process of finding a dissertation advisor, a process that had previously been informal and often intimidating for students. This format provides ample opportunity for movement and change of direction as students are not expected to stay in the first RIT they join, or to join only one. We expect students to settle on an RIT home by their third year, the team in which they will work toward candidacy and a dissertation. Once a student settles on a RIT home, the evolution of this into our familiar student advisor format will be natural.

This structure will also provide a venue for students to discover professional opportunities such as research fellowships, internships, and summer jobs. For example, they may be exposed to the work of more advanced students with internships at regional research laboratories (say NIST, NASA, or NIH). A scientist or mathematician at one of these laboratories who is collaborating with a faculty member might also be a regular visitor to an RIT, if not a full member of one. Such interactions will help match students to opportunities, which hopefully will lead to an increase the number of opportunities available to students.