One of the advantages of the mathematics sciences group being embedded in a wider school means that there are additional training opportunities. For example, last week Jim Bennet from Microsoft visited the University of Plymouth to show the new Xamarin.Forms product. This allows users to write cross-platform Apps for both the android and Iphone systems. The Apps could connect with the cloud and also use AI services in the cloud. There was also a workshop on the Internet of Things.
The visit was organized by Dr Nicholas Outram in Electrical Engineering. Although the visit was aimed at computing, there was a staff member from CMS and a student on the undergraduate maths program attending as well.
Later on on the year, there will be another visit from a person from Microsoft, who will explain the AI offerings in more detail.
There are many tasks that at active researcher must do, such as reading relevant papers, in addition to actually performing the calculations required in the research. Another important way to keep current in a research area is to attend research seminars. Normally an external speaker will visit a research group and present a 1 hour talk followed by questions. (Often the research group will take the speaker to dinner afterwards, where there will be further discussion about the research and some general gossip.)
Recently Fernando Jimenez Alburquerque from Oxford University presented a seminar in the pure mathematics seminar at the CMS with the title: An introduction to variational integrators.
Abstract: In this talk we shall introduce the basic notions on geometric integration of mechanical systems, naturally described by Lagrangian/Hamiltonian dynamics. The numerical approximation of such dynamics, respecting its underlying geometrical aspects, represents a crucial challenge in modern geometric integration. Variational integrators [MaWe2001], class of geometric integrators that have received a lot of attention from the mathematical community in the last two decades, are a well-established example of numerical schemes that succeed in such a task, and moreover display a superior performance in some aspects than benchmark numerical integrators. We shall go over their definition and fundamental properties. Finally, we shall also introduce future challenges of variational integrators when approximating the dynamics of dissipative mechanical systems.
The audience had members from the pure mathematics, theoretical physics and applied mathematics groups. The physics group was interested, because the techniques are similar to those in this paper.
An important part of the final year in a mathematics degrees is working on an individual project. A topic and supervisor is chosen. The student does research into an area of mathematics, statistics, or physics that they are interested in. On Wednesday 8th May there was a poster session, where the students explained their work using a poster they had created. Staff members, other students and representatives from industry viewed the posters and then they asked questions.
Below is a partial list of topics of the posters:
Relativistic Charge Dynamics in Electromagnetic Fields
Elliptic Curves and Cryptography
Gravitational Waves
The Path Integral Formalism
Investigation of ONS Personal Well-being Data Using Data Visualisation and Data Mining Techniques
How Risk Theory is used within the Actuarial Profession
Statistical techniques for Financial Asset Management
Students who have identified a topic of particular interest have the opportunity to study it in a final year project. Students work individually and independently, with help and advice from a supervisor, on the chosen topic. The project is assessed through presentations and the preparation of a dissertation. This is a major piece of work and the project counts as two modules
The official description of the content of a third year student project.
Vincent Drach from Mathematical Sciences at the University of Plymouth is attending the conference: MASS 2019: CP³-Origins 10 year anniversary, to present a talk about his research. Vincent was a postdoc in Denmark a few years ago.
There is an Institute of Physics group for Physics Education research in higher education. Last Wednesday, there was a community meeting in Bristol. There were 6 talks in the afternoon about various aspects of Physics Education research. Craig McNeile presented the talk: Experiences with running an experimental physics lab for students.
In this short podcast final year mathematics student Paul Gerry explains why attending open and applicant days is important and how it can help you make the right decision on what and where to study. There is more information about open days at the University of Plymouth (including when the next one is scheduled.)
University of Plymouth 2nd year student Dhru Shah, BSc (Hons) Mathematics and Statistics, shows you how to prove that sine squared plus cosine squared equals one for an arbitrary angle, theta.
To celebrate this we are streaming a lecture about about the development of LiFi. The lecture will be streamed from the head quarters of the Institute of Physics in London. There are more details here.
