Student Mathematician Participates in NSF Research Program

Before last summer, Suneil Parimoo, C’16, W’16, had never worked on partial differential equations (PDEs). But that didn’t stop the recent graduate from spending eight weeks on one such problem at a Math REU, or Research Experiences for Undergraduates.

Dozens of these highly selective National Science Foundation–sponsored programs take place across the country. Parimoo, of Bridgewater, N.J., sought out the REU’s collective problem solving. “I had done some research, but more on an individual level,” he says. “This gave me a good opportunity to collaborate.”

Typically, mathematicians use PDEs to formulate problems with several variables; Parimoo and his research partner focused on how the point in space called the interface evolves in time. He offered a wave’s motion as an analogy.

“Ideally we would like to find the exact shape of this wave and precisely how it moves. Instead we look at the crest. How do changes to wind pressure and other factors alter its behavior?” he says. “We worked on fully classifying for which parameters this crest moves forward, backward, remains stationary or waits before moving forward.”

Parimoo now works for a consulting firm doing data analytics. Eventually he plans to attend grad school for economics, statistics, or pure math.