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 3000 applicants to the program each year, and out of the 75 selected about one third are from abroad and two thirds from the United States. A large fraction, between one and two dozen, of the 75 elect to work on research projects in mathematics. Each student is matched by the MIT Mathematics Department Coordinator for RSI, Professor Pavel Etingof, 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 charges daily during the RSI program. Professor Jacob Fox is the Faculty Advisor. Dr. Slava Gerovitch is the program administrator.

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. Abstracts of recent mathematics projects and lists of participants can be found here.

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 30 finalists in the Intel STS and 24 regional finalists in the Siemens Competition in the individual category.

2011

Rebecca Chen - Semifinalist Intel STS 2012
Regional Semifinalist Siemens Competition 2011
Mentor: Wenzhe Wei

Sitan Chen - 3rd Prize ($40K) Siemens Competition 2011
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

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