Can Undergraduates with Limited Experience Pursue Math Research Opportunities?

[tcbh]

I'm a 2nd year math major looking for a research position for next quarter (and perhaps beyond). Ideally I would be able to find a math professor to work with, but since I have no prior experience and have only taken a few upper div classes I'm not sure that that's realistic. I'm not even sure what types of math research I would be able to do.

I have found a couple positions in biology/health fields that require people with programming experience to develop computational models. Is this the type of thing that could be good experience for someone going into Applied Math? And is it the type of thing that would be considered positively if I were to look for a research mentor or REU spot in a "pure" field?

 

[hadsed]

Programming is a very useful for any technical major. I would talk to some professors, they'll know if anyone in the department is doing work that you may be capable of understanding/helping with. Computational skills are in high demand, so that's always good to get experience in.

 

[tcbh]

Thanks for the advice. I guess part of the problem is that I don't really know any of the professors that well and it might seem presumptuous to ask about research opportunities.