Students in the math honors program are expected to do an independent study/research project (MA 491) as one of the requirements for completing the honors program. Students have commonly used two different routes (and sometimes both) to fulfill this requirement:

Do a project with a faculty member at NC State. Most of the time students work with faculty in the math department but occasionally students will work with faculty in other departments. Projects must be approved by the student's advisor and the honors director. A list of possible projects and faculty to mentor those projects is available. Please note that since MA 491 can be used to fulfill the senior writing requirement for the university's GER requirements, the student is expected to write a summary of the work done in MA 491.

Participate in a summer REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates). The National Science Foundation sponsors REUs at several colleges and universities in the US. Please see the web site here for more details. This list should be updated as sites are approved. Applications for each of the programs are usually due by February 28 or March 1. These programs are quite selective and if you're interested in doing an REU, it's useful to have your basic application materials (resume, references, etc) ready before the list comes out because you don't have much time to complete your applications. Other summer research programs are listed by the Mathematical Association of America at this link. and by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics at this link.

Students who do research projects (either here or at an REU) are encouraged to present their work at the Undergraduate Research Symposium sponsored by Sigma Xi and held in April at the McKimmon Center. Awards are given in four different categories (Biological Sciences, Engineering and Technology, Humanities and Social Sciences, Physical and Mathematical Sciences) and interdisciplinary and cross disciplinary contributions are encouraged. Information can be obtained from the web at http://www.NC State.edu/ugrs/ or the offices of the Associate Deans for Research and Academic Affairs. Students may also wish to present their results at the annual meeting of the Southeastern Section of the MAA which is held every year in March. The Morgan Prize is a national award given to an undergraduate student (or students submitting joint work) for outstanding research in mathematics.