MaCSS Summer Institute

The 2024 MaCSS Summer Institute will take place on campus in Ann Arbor, July 7 – August 3. Housing will be in Cambridge House.

The MaCSS Summer Institute is an integral piece of the MaCSS Program, consisting of a 4-week residential learning intensive, taking place on campus in Ann Arbor from May to June. The institute is fully-funded, including campus-provided housing, meals, program activities and outings, as well as payment of a $1000 stipend to assist with additional expenses.

The primary goal of the Summer Institute is to help build a rich, social-academic community amongst MaCSS Scholars. These supportive peer relationships will carry forward as scholars advance into more challenging upper-level coursework, providing a network of built-in social and academic support to program scholars during their time at U-M and beyond.

An additional goal of the MaCSS Summer Institute is to inspire, engage, and excite scholars by offering hands-on, novel and challenging project-based experiences within their prospective major, while gaining valuable exposure to team-based learning and problem-solving. This, together with the community aspect of the MaCSS program, aims to foster a sense-of-belonging for scholars as they progress in their careers at U-M and into their respective disciplines.

Finally, the Summer Institute seeks to concretely prepare students for several key second/third year U-M courses, including Math 217-Linear Algebra (for Math majors), Math 214-Linear Algebra (for CS and Stats majors), Math-215 Multivariable Calculus (for Math and Stats Majors), EECS 203-Discrete Math (for CS Majors), Math/Stats 425-Probability (for Stats and many Math majors). With this in mind, the MaCSS Summer Institute offers the opportunity for scholars to gain foundational knowledge in concepts including discrete math, linear algebra, mathematical proofs, discrete and continuous probability, and relevant computer programming.

The overarching theme explored during the 2023 Summer Institute was probability. Scholars worked collectively to answer questions such as: “What is randomness?”; “How many times do you need to shuffle a deck of cards for it to be sufficiently random?”; and “When should you really bluff in poker?”

The topic for the upcoming 2024 MaCSS Summer Institute is still to be determined. Please check back for future updates regarding the upcoming MaCSS Summer Institute.

• 9:30 – 10:00 Puzzle of the Day
• 10:00-12:00 Class / Exploration / Projects
• 12:00 – 1:15 Lunch Break
• 1:15 – 2:15 Afternoon Colloquium / Special Presentations / Guest Events
• 2:30- 4:30 Writing, coding, homework, etc.

The first two weeks of the institute are organized as a single, intensive course with a cohesive content arc. The second two weeks are less structured, as students begin to work primarily on group projects of their choosing.