Project Overview
As the
EDT Program Solicitation explains, "although traditional doctoral training in mathematics
has been aimed at an academic career path, recent American Mathematical Society survey data
demonstrate that a substantial portion of doctoral recipients are taking positions outside of academia."
The goal of NSF's EDT program in general, and the UTD project in particular, is to
ensure that while they are in graduate school, mathematics and statistics Ph.D. students
gain marketable skills and research experience developing mathematics and statistics to improve
understanding of problems in science and engineering.
This enriched doctoral training will augment students regular course requirments and the Ph.D. thesis research
they will perform with their doctoral advisor. To minimize the impact that the EDT project has on time to graduation,
students in the program will be supported by an EDT Research Assistantship (RA) while they are working on the project
rather than by a departmental Teaching Assistantship (TA).
The Student Research Experience
If you are selected for an EDT RA you will
- Work on an interdisciplinary research problem posed by one of
our external partners from industry, a government lab, or a research institution (for 2 semesters @ 20 hours/week).
- Perform research in a team of 2-3 students, one mathematics and one statistics faculty mentor at UTD,
and the external partner.
- Be exposed to the entire life cycle of an industrial research problem from
starting with an open-ended problem description to obtaining final results.
- Be well positioned to continue work on the project in a summer internship at the
external partner's organization.
- Gain experience that could ultimately lead to employment opportunities after graduation.
- Gain the confidence to tackle applied research problems with which you are not familiar.
- Increase your ability to communicate within research teams and to wider audiences.
Student's who plan to do their Ph.D. thesis research in any of the areas represented in our department are encouraged
to participate in an EDT project.
All projects will involve a combination of computational modeling, mathematical theory,
and applied probability or statistical analysis, thereby opening up new opportunities for students traditionally
trained in either mathematics or statistics.
Proposed projects include
- Uncertainty quantification for microseismic source estimation in unconventional oil and gas recovery
- Infectious disease forecasting
- Cone beam computerized tomography to acquire patient anatomy data for cancer radiotherapy treatments
- Multisensor tracking of multiple moving targets for defense applications
- Modeling of plasma processing systems for advanced manufacturing
EDT Faculty Mentors
External Partner Organizations
EDT Projects
Please Contact Us!
To be eligible for an EDT traineeship, students must be U.S. citizens, nationals, or permanent residents
seeking a Ph.D. degree in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at UTD.
Students who are interested in the EDT project at UTD are strongly encouraged to contact
Dr. Sue Minkoff (sminkoff@utdallas.edu) whether or not you are currently in the department's PhD program.
Students who wish to apply for an EDT traineeship should submit the
following materials by email directly to the project director (sminkoff@utdallas.edu):
- a personal statement outlining your interest in the project which addresses your career goals,
work ethic, and motivation,
- two confidential letters of recommendation.
Both mathematics and statistics students, as well as those with more theoretical and more applied interests
are eligible and encouraged to apply. We especially encourage applications from women and under-represented minorities.
For further information about the department's graduate program see the
graduate flyer and
departmental web pages.
For further information about applying to the PhD program send an email to utdmath@utdallas.edu.