RSI

Since 1993, the MIT Mathematics Department has participated in the Research Science Institute (RSI), an MIT-hosted six-week summer program for rising high school seniors. RSI students are chosen for their superior achievement in math, science and engineering. The selection for RSI is done by the Center for Excellence in Education, a federally and privately funded nonprofit organization, based in Washington DC. All inquiries about applications to RSI should be directed to the CEE.

There are about 3,000 applicants to the program each year and of the 80 selected, around one third are from abroad and two thirds from the United States. About a dozen students are selected to work on research projects in mathematics. The MIT Mathematics Department Faculty Advisors for RSI match each student 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 mentees each weekday during the RSI program. RSI faculty advisors are Prof. David Jerison and Prof. Ankur Moitra. Program assistant is André Dixon.

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. See abstracts and papers from recent mathematics projects.

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.

2022

Matthew Chen Semifinalist Regeneron STS 2023 Mentor: Adela Zhang
Madeleine de Belloy Semifinalist Regeneron STS 2023 Mentor: Mary Stelow
Sally Zhu Semifinalist Regeneron STS 2023 Mentor: Zhenhao Li

2021

Kevin Cong Scholar Regeneron STS 2022 Mentor: Alexander Ortiz
Eli Meyers Scholar Regeneron STS 2022 Mentor: Mary Stelow

2020

Yunseo Choi First Place Regeneron STS 2021 / USA Finalist and Gold Medalist 2020 Yau Science Award / Honorable Mention at 2021 MAA Undergraduate Poster Session Mentor: Prof. Scott Duke Kominers (Harvard)
Gregory Li 4th Grand Award (Math) ISEF-2021 Mentor: Ethan Sussman
Andrei Mandelshtam 4th Grand Award (Math) and 3rd Special Award (from AMS) at ISEF-2021 / Finalist Regeneron STS 2021 Mentor: Daniil Kalinov

2019

Dimitar Chakarov Finalist ISEF-2020 Mentor: Yichi Zhang
Rupert Li Finalist ISEF-2020 Mentor: Yibo Gao (PRIMES project)
Jason Liu Finalist Regeneron STS 2020 / Davidson Fellow 2020 Mentor: Robert Burklund
AnaMaria Perez Finalist ISEF-2020 Mentor: Rose Zhang

2018

Kayson Hansen Finalist ISEF-2019 Mentor: Hood Chatham
Kaiying Hou Scholar Regeneron STS 2019 Mentor: Ruoxuan Yang
Aknazar Kazhymurat Finalist ISEF-2019 Mentor: Bar Kartal
Chavdar Lalov Third Award in Math from AMS at ISEF-2019 Mentor: Guangyi Yue
Kevin Liu Scholar Regeneron STS 2019 Mentor: Chun Hong Lo
Roshan Warman Finalist ISEF-2019 Mentor: Yibo Gao

2017

Alan Peng Semifinalist Siemens 2017 / Scholar Regeneron STS 2018 Mentor: Guangyi Yue
Michelle Shen Semifinalist Siemens 2017 / Scholar Regeneron STS 2018 Mentor: Younhun Kim
Grace Tian Semifinalist Siemens 2017 / Finalist Regeneron STS 2018 Mentor: Vishal Patil
David Wu Semifinalist Siemens 2017 / Finalist Regeneron STS 2018 / Davidson Fellow 2018 Mentor: Robert Burklund
Karthik Yegnesh Second Award in Math and AMS Honorable Mention ISEF 2018 Mentor: Augustus Lonergan

2016

Benjamin Chen Semifinalist Siemens 2016 / Scholar Regeneron STS 2017 Mentor: Thao Do
Angela Deng Scholar Regeneron STS 2017 Mentor: Guangyi Yue
Caleb He Semifinalist Siemens 2016 Mentor: Ethan Jaffe
Dona-Maria Ivanova Fourth Award in Math ISEF 2017 Mentor: Zhenkun Li
Nolan Reilly Semifinalist Siemens 2016 Mentor: Mason Biamonte
Dhruv Rohatgi Semifinalist Siemens 2016 / Scholar Regeneron STS 2017 Mentor: Chiheon Kim

2015

Amy Chou Semifinalist Siemens 2015 Mentor: James Hirst
Brandon Epstein Semifinalist Siemens 2015 / Semifinalist Intel STS 2016 Mentor: Hong Wang
Brian Gu Semifinalist Siemens 2015 Mentor: Brandon Tran
Meena Jagadeesan Semifinalist Siemens 2015 Mentor: Andrew Rzeznik
Abijith Krishnan Semifinalist Siemens 2015 Mentor: Shan-Yuan Ho
Wilbur Li Semifinalist Siemens 2015 Mentor: Cesar Cuenca
Sarvasva Raghuvanshi Regional finalist Siemens 2015 / Outstanding Presentation at 2016 MAA Undergraduate Poster Session Mentor: James Hirst

2014

Kavish Gandhi Semifinalist Intel STS 2015 Mentor: Chiheon Kim
Petar Gaydarov Second Prize Intel ISEF 2015 Mentor: Sam Hopkins, project by Alexander Postnikov
Noah Golowich First Place Medal Intel STS 2015 / Davidson Fellow Laureate Mentor: David Rolnick, project by Jacob Fox
Lev Kendrick Semifinalist Intel STS 2015 Mentor: Gus Lonergan, project by Pavel Etingof
Shashwat Kishore Third Place Medal Intel STS 2015 Mentor: Gus Lonergan, project by Pavel Etingof
Yelena Mandelshtam Semifinalist Siemens 2014 / Finalist Intel STS 2015 Mentor: Miriam Farber, project by Alexander Postnikov
Peter Tian First Prize Siemens 2014 / Semifinalist Intel STS 2015 / Davidson Fellow Mentor: Jesse Geneson, project by Jesse Geneson
Jesse Zhang Semifinalist Siemens 2014 / Semifinalist Intel STS 2015 Mentors: David Rush, project by Vic Reiner

2013

Rumen Dangovski Second Prize Intel ISEF 2014 Mentor: Nathan Harman, project by Pavel Etingof
Raj Raina Semifinalist Siemens 2013 / Semifinalist Intel STS 2014 Mentor: Rik Sengupta, project by Jacob Fox
Sarah Shader Semifinalist Siemens 2013 / Semifinalist Intel STS 2014 / Second Place AMS Menger Award at Intel ISEF 2014 Mentor: Gaku Liu, project by Alexander Postnikov
Jessica Shi Semifinalist Siemens 2013 / Finalist Intel STS 2014 /
Outstanding Presentation at 2014 MAA Undergraduate Poster Session
Mentor: Francisco Unda, project by Jacob Fox
Bertrand Stone Semifinalist Siemens 2013 / Semifinalist Intel STS 2014 / Honorable Mention for AMS Menger Award at Intel ISEF 2014 Mentor: Chiheon Kim, project by Pavel Etingof

2012

Matthew Babbitt Semifinalist Intel STS 2013 Mentor: Jesse Geneson
Surya Bhupatiraju Finalist Intel STS 2013 Mentor: Alex Arkhipov
Joshua Brakensiek Outstanding Presentation at 2013 MAA Undergraduate Poster Session / Davidson Fellow 2013 / 2013 MathFest Pi Mu Epsilon Student Presentation Award
Semifinalist Siemens 2013 / Semifinalist Intel STS 2014
Mentor: Aaron Potechin
Katherine Cordwell Finalist Intel STS 2013 / First Award Intel ISEF 2013 Mentor: Teng Fei
Kevin Garbe Finalist Intel STS 2013 Mentor: Dorin Boger
Simanta Gautam Semifinalist Siemens 2012 / Second Award Intel ISEF 2013 Mentor: Dmitry Vaintrob
Gil Goldshlager Semifinalist Siemens 2012 / Semifinalist Intel STS 2013 Mentor: Aaron Potechin
Jacob McNamara Semifinalist Siemens 2012 / Davidson Fellow Honorable Mention 2013 Mentor: Dmitry Vaintrob
Charles Pasternak Semifinalist Siemens 2012 Mentor: Matt Coudron
Lilly Shen Semifinalist Siemens 2012 / Semifinalist Intel STS 2013 Mentor: Jesse Geneson
Kathleen Zhou Semifinalist Intel STS 2013 Mentor: Teng Fei

2011

Rebecca Chen Semifinalist Intel STS 2012
Regional Semifinalist Siemens Competition 2011
Mentor: Wenzhe Wei
Sitan Chen 3rd Prize ($40K) Siemens Competition 2011
2012 Davidson Fellow Laureate ($10K)
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

2010

Wenyu Cao Finalist Intel STS 2011 Mentor: Rosalie Beranger-Rioux
Randy Jia Finalist Siemens Competition 2010 Mentor: John Lesieutre

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