Federal Project Grant Award Summary

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Mathematical Sciences awarded $180,000 to the University of Illinois at Chicago under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049) for a two-year project running from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2028. The grant funds theoretical research in extremal graph and hypergraph theory and Ramsey theory, with the principal investigator (PI) developing new mathematical techniques to understand how local constraints affect the global structure of networks and finite set families. Key research deliverables include investigations into the supersaturation phenomenon for pentagons in linear hypergraphs, the inducibility problem for graphs, and conjectures in extremal hypergraph theory, as well as work on classical Ramsey theory problems involving both lower and upper bounds for graph and hypergraph colorings.

The award supports workforce development through doctoral student training in combinatorics, with anticipated career trajectories in artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, and theoretical computer science. The research outcomes are expected to yield theoretical advances with applications across information theory, coding theory, and theoretical computer science, while contributing to the broader scientific understanding of complex real-world network systems. As a Project Grant within NSF's Mathematical and Physical Sciences portfolio, this award represents typical basic research funding that strengthens the Nation's fundamental scientific enterprise in mathematics.