Steven Collazos
RUSIS 2010
 

"My name is Steven Collazos. I am rising senior mathematics major and physics minor at State University of New York (SUNY) at Binghamton. As you might have noticed, this is the second time I participate in RUSIS. One of the reasons why I came back to Rice is because I wanted to earn more research experience and learn more about statistics, which is a discipline I have not had the time to study much. Since last year, I decided that I wanted to pursue pure mathematics in graduate school, possibly focusing on analysis or analytic number theory. Learning about statistics is something I wanted to do because I think that there is no such thing as knowing too much, specially when it comes to mathematical subjects. However, pursuing statistics in graduate school is still a possibility. This program will probably provide me with my last formal research experience as an undergraduate.

This summer I am doing research on the behavior of tails of bivariate distributions. It has been very exciting to study a problem which is not on mainstream statistics. This program has helped me consolidate my research work ethic, while at the same making me reflect upon things I should change in that work ethic. The program also allowed me to meet students from other schools, and this has allowed me to learn about myself as well.

I spend most of my time doing mathematically related activities, such as studying math, doing math, reading about math subjects that are not covered in my math courses, reading about the history of math (and science and philosophy, sometimes), participating in the Math Club, of which I am the vice president, and so on. Outside of mathematics, I enjoy playing the piano, listening to works for the piano, specially from the Classical and Romantic period, reading about many things and socializing with friends."

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