Prepare
Students begin with readings, preliminary exercises, programming, and conversations with project supervisors. The aim is to build the background needed to ask serious questions.
The central idea
Learn mathematics by helping to create it
StemForAll is a research-apprenticeship program for undergraduate students and especially talented high school students in the Rochester area. It rests on a simple principle: students should have an opportunity to see how research is actually done, even before they have completed every advanced course.
Participants work in small groups on questions drawn from pure and applied mathematics, statistics, computation, physics, biology, and related fields. They learn to formulate problems, read technical material, test ideas, use computation thoughtfully, explain their work, and persist when the answer is not immediate.
The program places learning and the creative process first. Some projects eventually lead to talks, software, or research papers, but the essential goal is to help students become confident and independent thinkers.
The research pathway
How the program works
The summer workshop is the center of the program, but the most productive projects often begin beforehand and continue long afterward.
Work intensively
The summer workshop combines mini-courses with daily research in small groups. Participants compare approaches, test conjectures, write code when useful, and present what they have learned.
Continue
Projects with further potential may continue during the fall and winter. Students can deepen the mathematics and work toward presentations, software, or research papers.
2018–2026
StemForAll program archive
Each page records the people, topics, schedules, projects, and—in several years—lecture notes and final presentations that made the program possible.
Latest program · 2026
Eight projects across mathematics, data science, and physics
Signal recovery, fractal analysis of EEG data, topology, geometric partial differential equations, neural networks, financial mathematics, and quantum systems.
View the 2026 program → 2025StemForAll research workshop
A Rochester-area program built around supervised projects, background lectures, computation, and sustained collaboration.
View 2025 → 2024From signal recovery to automated theorem proving
Projects included exact signal recovery, the Buffon needle problem, automated theorem proving, and Kolmogorov complexity.
View 2024 → 2023Geometry, number theory, probability, and data
Advanced undergraduate mathematics was paired with Python, modern data techniques, eight research projects, and final presentations.
View 2023 → 2022Neural networks: theory and computation
Mini-courses in linear algebra, probability, inequalities, and multivariable calculus supported a four-week research program.
View 2022 → 2021A comprehensive approach to neural networks
Theoretical foundations in the mornings, intensive programming in the afternoons, and projects joining pure and applied data science.
View 2021 → 2020Tripods NSF REU and Grad For All
Coursework, mentoring, Python instruction, and accessible open problems brought together students and researchers across institutions.
View 2020 → 2019Four routes into modern mathematics
Integer partitions, sums and products, foundations of geometry, and knot invariants, each followed by a research phase.
View 2019 → 2018The first StemForAll summer
Functional programming, Bayesian inference, optimization, and statistical machine learning launched the Rochester program.
View 2018 →A collaborative effort
Made possible by an extraordinary team
These programs would not have been possible without the tremendous efforts of Charlotte Aten, Ayla Gafni, Azita Mayeli, Steven Kleene, Sevak Mkrtchyan, Emmett Wyman, and many other faculty members, graduate students, undergraduate mentors, organizers, and institutional partners.
It is a tremendous privilege to work with excellent mathematicians and generous human beings on these endeavors.
Interested in undergraduate research?
Students should begin with the latest StemForAll program page, which describes current projects, preparation, participation, and contact information. Questions may also be directed to iosevich@math.rochester.edu.