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好色先生TV鈥檚 Summer Undergraduate Applied Mathematics Institute helps undergraduates explore if a future in mathematical research is right for them. For Teresa Pollard, the program revealed both the kind of math she wanted to pursue and the place where she could develop those skills.

鈥淭his was the first time when I really felt like I was creating something new in a way that had not been done before,鈥� said Pollard, now a Ph.D. student in CMU鈥檚 Department of Mathematical Sciences. 鈥淚t was exciting to realize that this was something I could do, and something which was fun.鈥�

SUAMI is an eight-week program for undergraduates from any institution to conduct research into applied mathematics and better understand what graduate research entails. Groups of students collaborate on projects led by Carnegie Mellon professors and postdoctoral fellows, who design the research projects and guide students through the process.

Pollard joined the 2023 SUAMI cohort as an undergraduate student at New York University. A mathematics major, she spent the previous summer at a summer mathematics research program. She wanted additional experience in number theory 鈥� the study of how integers relate to one another 鈥� and in analysis 鈥� a field focused on understanding change, limits and continuity.

鈥淢y favorite class so far had been in analytic number theory, a subject in which tools from analysis are used to answer questions in number theory,鈥� Pollard said. 鈥淚 thought it would be very neat to see these subjects play together in another context. With SUAMI, it worked out.鈥�

Pollard joined a project led by Theresa Anderson, associate professor of mathematical sciences, and Elisa Bellah, a former postdoctoral fellow. Anderson and Bellah created a problem where students were given a line and asked whether understanding certain small pieces of the line and every multiple of the pieces could let them determine the behavior of the entire line.

The small pieces were all divided by prime numbers, which are numbers that cannot be divided by any other number but themselves and 1 (such as 2, 3, 5, 7 and 11). None of these pieces perfectly overlapped with each other since none of them were divisible by any other numbers. Since none of the pieces overlapped, Pollard and her fellow students found that they could not mathematically prove what was going on a line at any point based solely on these smaller pieces.

鈥淲e were getting to build something new and strange which behaved in weird ways,鈥� Pollard said. 鈥淚t was a project where I felt like I was able to be creative. It was like a puzzle I got to solve.鈥�

Anderson said that Pollard鈥檚 excitement and interest in the project stood out during the experience.

鈥淭eresa had an eye for the big picture in a way that is rare for undergraduates,鈥� Anderson said. 鈥淲e need more creative, visionary thinkers like Teresa in math.鈥�

The mentorship and research experience Pollard gained through SUAMI motivated her to apply to Carnegie Mellon鈥檚 Ph.D. in mathematical sciences. She began her first year in fall 2025, and she earned an (ARCS) Foundation scholarship to assist her with the first three years of her doctoral degree. ARCS provides these scholarships to academically outstanding students working toward graduate degrees in science, medicine or engineering.

鈥淚鈥檓 very grateful for the SUAMI project I was on which helped me earn the scholarship,鈥� Pollard said. 鈥淚 feel like I鈥檝e been given the creative freedom to be a student and focus on my work.鈥�

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