Leah Michelle Birch will participate in the 2011 Research in Industrial Projects for Students (RIPS) program at the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics at UCLA. This summer undergraduate research program provides high-achieving undergraduate students with the opportunity to work in teams on a real-world research project proposed by a sponsor from industry or the public sector. The students, with direction from their academic mentor and industrial sponsor, will learn about the problem, master the latest analytical and computational approaches and techniques to solve it, and develop report-writing and public-speaking skills to be able to make professional presentations about the progress and results of their work to a scientific audience.