SYE in Mathematics, Computer Science or Statistics

In the semester BEFORE you want to do your SYE:

• Talk to faculty member(s) in the Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Statistics about possible project/thesis ideas and topics.
• Look at abstracts and descriptions of past Honors Theses done in our department.
• Do some preliminary investigations of areas of interest.
• Pick a Project/Thesis Advisor (one of the department faculty) and topic.

When registering for courses:

• Register for Math 489 or CS 489 (for a Senior Project) or Math 498 or CS 498 (for an Honors Thesis). Note: You will need to ask your project/thesis advisor to add your name to his/her "permissions" list in the APR system.

After course registration (before Thanksgiving Break in the Fall or Finals Week in the Spring):

• Turn in an SYE Proposal to the department chair. Templates for proposals can be downloaded in Word or LaTex formats from the links below. Edit the"bold" text to reflect your proposal, including title and a paragraph summary of your topic.

Word SYE Proposal Template

LaTex SYE Proposal Template

• Your SYE Project/Thesis committee should consist of your sponsoring project/thesis advisor and two additional committee members (at least one of whom is from our department).

During the semester of your SYE (or last semester of a full year SYE):

• Meet regularly with your project/thesis advisor.
• Work, work, work... on your topic.
• Prepare a rough draft of your final report by the tenth week of the semester.
• (Optional- but strongly encouraged) Prepare a public presentation of your work. For example, in the spring semester we have

Hudson River Undergraduate Mathematics Conference(HRUMC) or SLU's Festival of Science.

• Prepare a final "draft" of your report for your committee members (at least one week before the final oral presentation).
• Schedule and give an oral presentation of your work (about 10 minutes for senior projects, 20 minutes for honors projects) by the end of the final exam period.
• Turn in a final written version of the project (hard copy and electronic), with approval signatures from all committee members on the paper copy. The final version must include cover/title page, abstract, table of contents and bibliography. Honors projects will be bound by the library with hard covers.