Maths Week 2014 (29/10/2014)
October 11th-19th 2014 marked the advent of the 9th annual Maths Week Ireland and the UCD School of Mathematical Sciences was proud to play a role in this all-island celebration of Mathematics. Over four hundred 4th, 5th and 6th year students from eleven secondary schools across the country were invited to the Moore Auditorium in the brand new UCD O’Brien Centre for Science to participate in “The Mathematical Sciences Triathlon at UCD”.
Following a welcome and introduction by Professor Gary McGuire, Head of the School of Mathematical Sciences, students were engaged in three energetic presentations from members of the subjects of Mathematics, Applied & Computational Mathematics and Statistics & Actuarial Science respectively.
First, Dr Maria Meehan provided a tour de force of the mathematical ideas that first gave her a love for the subject area, including the concepts of infinite sets and Hilbert’s paradox of the Grand Hotel. Next up was Dr Conor Sweeny who entertained students by illustrating pendulum theory via a “swinging banana” and showed how the behaviour of a lava lamp can be computationally modelled and used to predict similar heating and cooling effects in atmospheric weather systems. Finally, Dr James Sweeney educated students on the optimal methods for choosing lottery numbers, discussed the probabilistic implications of “the birthday paradox” and addressed the pressing issue of whether the UCD School of Mathematical Sciences has “too many Sweeneys”.
All three legs of “The Mathematical Sciences Triathlon” involved a high level of interaction with the pupils in attendance, with questions posed by the speakers and spot prizes awarded for the best student contributions. Both the staff and the audience thoroughly enjoyed the event and we look forward to welcoming more students to UCD to share our love for mathematical sciences during the tenth anniversary of Maths Week Ireland in 2015.
