RSI
Since 1996, MIT has hosted a six-week summer program for high school students who are chosen for their superior achievement in math, science and engineering. Seventy-five high school juniors are selected by the Research Science Institute (RSI) based in Washington DC. RSI is part of the Center for Excellence in Education, a federally and privately funded nonprofit organization.
There are about 3,000 applicants to the program each year and of the 75 selected, about one third are from abroad and two thirds from the United States. About a dozen students are selected to work on research projects in mathematics. The MIT Mathematics Department Faculty Advisors for RSI, Professor Pavel Etingof and Professor Jacob Fox, match each student with a mathematics graduate student mentor with compatible interests. The graduate student mentor devises a research project, often in consultation with an MIT faculty advisor. The graduate student then meets with each of his/her mentees each weekday during the RSI program. Dr. Slava Gerovitch is the program director.
Applying to RSI
The application materials and the process can be found online at CEE RSI application page.
Past Projects
At the end of the program, students make presentations to each other and to a panel of scientists who are usually former RSI participants themselves. See abstracts of recent mathematics projects and lists of participants.
Recent Awards
RSI students often use their projects to participate in the Intel Science Talent Search (Intel STS) and the Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology or the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF). The mathematics group has been very well represented among the winners of these contests.
Here is a list of recent major prize-winners and finalists. In addition to the top prize-winners, there are 31 finalists in the Intel STS and 24 regional finalists in the Siemens Competition in the individual category.
2012
Matthew Babbitt - Semifinalist Intel STS 2013
Mentor: Jesse Geneson
Surya Bhupatiraju - Finalist Intel STS 2013
Mentor: Alex Arkhipov
Joshua Brakensiek - Outstanding Presentation at 2012 MAA Undergraduate Poster Session
Mentor: Aaron Potechin
Katherine Cordwell - Finalist Intel STS 2013 / First Award Intel ISEF 2013
Mentor: Teng Fei
Kevin Garbe - Finalist Intel STS 2013
Mentor: Dorin Boger
Simanta Gautam - Semifinalist Siemens 2012 / Second Award Intel ISEF 2013
Mentor: Dmitry Vaintrob
Gil Goldshlager - Semifinalist Siemens 2012 / Semifinalist Intel STS 2013
Mentor: Aaron Potechin
Jacob McNamara - Semifinalist Siemens 2012
Mentor: Dmitry Vaintrob
Charles Pasternak - Semifinalist Siemens 2012
Mentor: Matt Coudron
Lilly Shen - Semifinalist Siemens 2012 / Semifinalist Intel STS 2013
Mentor: Jesse Geneson
Kathleen Zhou - Semifinalist Intel STS 2013
Mentor: Teng Fei
2011
Rebecca Chen - Semifinalist Intel STS 2012
Regional Semifinalist Siemens Competition 2011
Mentor: Wenzhe Wei
Sitan Chen - 3rd Prize ($40K) Siemens Competition 2011
2012 Davidson Fellow Laureate ($10K)
Finalist Intel STS 2012
Mentor: Jesse Geneson
Sidharth Dhawan - Semifinalist Intel STS 2012
Mentor: Zachary Abel
Eric Mannes - Semifinalist Intel STS 2012
Mentor: Aaron Potechin
Matthew Rauen - Semifinalist Intel STS 2012
Mentor: Jesse Geneson
Adam H. Su - Semifinalist Intel STS 2012
Regional Semifinalist Siemens Competition 2011
Mentor: Benjamin Iriarte
2010
Wenyu Cao - Finalist Intel STS 2011
Mentor: Rosalie Beranger-Rioux
Randy Jia - Finalist Siemens Competition 2010
Mentor: John Lesieutre
2009
Tian-yi (Damien) Jiang - Regional Finalist Siemens Competition 2009
Mentor: Yan Zhang
Akhil Mathew - 3rd Prize ($50K) Intel STS 2010
Project suggested by Pavel Etingof
Arjun Puranik - Regional Finalist Siemens Competition 2009
Mentor: Martina Balagovic; Project suggested by Pavel Etingof
Dennis Tseng - Regional Finalist Siemens Competition 2009
Mentor: Nan Li
Lynnelle Ye - 2nd Prize ($50K) Siemens Competition 2009 and 4th Prize ($40K) Intel STS 2010
Mentor: Tirasan Khandhawit; Supervisor Tanya Khovanova
2008
Noah Arbesfeld - 6th Place ($25K) Intel STS 2009
Mentor: David Jordan; Project suggested by Pavel Etingof
Eric Larson - 1st Place ($100K) Intel STS 2009 and 2nd Place ($50K) Siemens Competition 2008
Mentor: David Jordan; Project suggested by Pavel Etingof
Max Rabinovich - Finalist Intel STS 2009
Mentor: Emmanuel Stoica; Project suggested by Pavel Etingof and supervised by David Jerison
Adam Sealfron - Finalist Intel STS 2009
Mentor: Victor Chen
2007
Benjamin Dozier - Finalist Intel STS 2008
Mentor: Cameron Freer
Qiaochu Yuan - Finalist Intel STS 2008
Mentor: Ryan Reich
2006
Harrison Chen - Regional Finalist Siemens Competition 2006
Mentor: Zuoqin Wang
Sana Raoof - 1st Place (three-way tie; 1/3 of $175K) Intel ISEF 2008
Mentor: David Jordan
Dmitry Vaintrob - 1st Place ($100K) Siemens Competition 2006 and 3rd Place ($50K) Intel STS 2007
Mentor: Aaron Tievsky; Project suggested by Pavel Etingof
2005
Kimberly Scott - 10th Place ($20K) Intel STS 2006
Yi Sun - 2nd Place ($75K) Intel STS 2006
2002
Steven Byrnes - 1st Prize ($100K) Siemens Westinghouse 2002-2003
Mentor: Edward Early
1997
Christopher Mihelich - 1st Prize ($40K) Westinghouse STS 1998
Mentor: Alexander Soloviev; Project suggested by Sergey Fomin
Travis Schedler - 5th Prize ($15K) Westinghouse STS 1998
Mentor: Alexander Soloviev; Project suggested by Pavel Etingof
