Wales Institute of Mathematical and Computational Sciences

On Monday 8th March 2010 from 2.30 - 3.30 p.m. at Swansea University and on Tuesday 9th March from 10.30 a.m. - 12.30 p.m. at Cardiff University, Keith Parramore from the University of Brighton will give the Royal Statistical Society Schools Lecture 'The Bottle Factory - Order from Chaos'.   

What does "random" mean? Chaotic? "Pernicious"? Is random selection fair or do we empathise with the following quotation, heard on Radio 4? "Well, fairer in the sense that everyone's got an equal chance, but not fair in the sense that, well, it is literally a lottery".  Here's another quotation from Radio 4, from 'Material World', in which an 'expert' was trying to justify the need for the enormous computing power available from networked super computers: "We build mathematical models and then (need to) throw trillions of numbers at them". What is this all about?

In the lecture, Keith examines and develops the concept of randomness and then uses random numbers to drive a simulation to solve an industrial problem.  Participants who have calculators which will generate random numbers should bring them along, but it doesn't matter if they don't have them.

Aimed primarily at students of Mathematics and Statistics at GCSE, AS and A level and their teachers, this free lecture will also be of interest and accessible to (and enjoyed by) students of other subjects in which Statistics is taught.  For more details and to book places please email Alison Braddock outreachcoordinator@wimcs.ac.uk for the Swansea University event and Paul Harper Harper@cardiff.ac.uk for the Cardiff University event.
 

Bloodhound SSC - The Adventure Begins

 On October 7th 2009, key members of the Bloodhound team (www.bloodhoundssc.com) will give a lecture explaining the importance of mathematics and science focussing on the themes of aerodynamics and computational modellng for which the School of Engineering at Swansea University is of worldwide renown.  In particular, it will highlight topics such as simultaneous equations, forces, moments and basic gas relationships describing how an understanding of these will help the Bloodhound team keep the car safely pinned to the ground even at 1000mph! The Bloodhound Project is an exciting British engineering adventure that seeks to create a new world land speed record taking a car up to speeds of 1000 mph by 2011. But, most importantly, its ultimate goal is to inspire a new generation of engineers, mathematicians and scientists. 

This free event is aimed at year 12 students of mathematics, physics and engineering.  For more information contact the Outreach Coordinator WIMCS (Email: outreachcoordinator@wimcs.ac.uk).

"Thinking machines" - Is this the future?

Paul Curzon, Peter McOwan and Jonathan Black of cs4fn, Queen Mary, University of London, will gave the Wales Institute of Mathematical and Computational Sciences (WIMCS) Annual Lectures for 2009 in June at three Welsh universities. Support for the lectures came from EPSRC and Google.  cs4fn is a website and magazine created, written and edited by Paul Curzon and Peter McOwan of the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science of Queen Mary, University of London with the aim of sharing their passion about all things to do with Computer Science (www.cs4fn.org). Many people and companies from the IT industry support cs4fn, including Google, ARM and Microsoft.

 

The free lectures for Year 10 pupils, entitled The mind of the machine : Artificial Intelligence? took place at Cardiff University on Tuesday 2^nd June, Aberystwyth University on June 3^rd, and Bangor University on June 4^th. Some of the lectures were accompanied by a workshop for a smaller number of pupils.  There was alsoa careers information event at each university supported by Careers Wales.

 

We all know the movie plot, evil robots and computers taking over the world, but what is the reality? The lecture looks at artificial intelligence research, the field of science that tries to build “thinking machines”. How are they built? What can they do? And as importantly what can’t they do? The talk covers topics ranging across computer science, electronic engineering, psychology, philosophy and biology. It gives a taste of how modern science cuts across different subjects. 

Johnny Ball presents Mathematical challenge to Welsh pupils

From Wednesday 25th to Friday 27th June 2008, Johnny Ball - the well known BBC Children's TV presenter and writer of 'funtastic' mathematics - gave the inaugural WIMCS Annual Lectures at four Welsh Universities: Aberystwyth, Bangor, Cardiff and Swansea.  Pupils from years 10, 11 and 12 from schools across Wales attended the lecture entitled Wobbling on the Shoulders of Giants.  The lecture was accompanied by a masterclass and a mathematics challenge competition with prizes ranging from iPod Nanos to book tokens for the winning teams. Many schools entered teams into the mathematics challenge competition and according to Professor Aubrey Truman, Head of Mathematics at Swansea University, the quality of entries was outstanding.  The prizes for this year’s lectures were sponsored by the Admiral Group plc, Blackwell, HBOS plc, and Waterstones.

Johnny gave an entertaining insight into how the Egyptians wove beautiful mathematics into the building of their pyramids, how Galileo explored parabolic curves by studying the path of a cannon ball and how Archimedes worked out the volume of a sphere.  With interesting props, audience interaction and musical interludes, Johnny gave a very positive message to young people on the future of science and mathematics and on how anyone with an aptitude could play a part in discovering novel solutions.

 

Professor Terry Lyons, FRS, FRSE, Director of the Wales Institute of Mathematical and Computational Sciences, said: “Our Annual Lectures series and associated activities are part of the Institute’s programme for educational outreach in Wales, which aims to inspire future generations of researchers in the mathematical and computational sciences.