Advanced Mathematics Day 2016
Published on the 21 Sep 2016
Last Friday 16 September we hosted our sixth annual Advanced Mathematics Day in the Scientia at UNSW.
First and second year students gathered in the Scientia Galleries in the morning to hear from Department Heads Daniel Chan, Spiro Penev, and Josef Dick, who provided advice about choosing a major.
Former student Dorothy Cheung, now an Actuarial Analyst at Suncorp, spoke about her experiences studying Advanced Maths and shared advice and her insights with the attending students.
Treves Li and Mimi Greenbaum of MathSoc briefly addressed the students to inform them about the Maths Society’s activities, before the group broke for morning tea.
Following morning tea, an Honours info session was held for third and fourth year students. Honours Coordinators Catherine Greenhill, Shane Keating and Feng Chen gave a presentation before a panel discussion featuring past and current Honours students was held. Tom Whitaker, Jeremy Nugent, and Harry Gibbs fielded questions from the students for half an hour, providing a personal insight into the Honours year. Following the panel, three-minute flash talks about potential Honours projects were presented by six staff members: Denis Potapov, Lee Zhao, Chris Tisdell, Shane Keating, Peter Straka, and Feng Chen.
Head of School Bruce Henry presented the Advanced Mathematics Honours Scholarship to exceptional student Brendon Lai, who will be commencing Honours in Semester 1, 2017.
Lunch was held in the sunny surrounds of the Scientia Lawn, where students were joined by members of staff, including Dean of Science Peter Lovibond and UNSW Vice President Peter Noble.
The Honours, Masters, and PhD student cohort then sat down to hear from UNSW alumnus Dr Gary Brassington, Principal Research Scientist of the Bureau of Meteorology. Dr Deborah Cromer, Research Fellow at the Kirby Institute was next to present, followed by a passionate and engaging talk by Dr Alina Ostafe of the School of Mathematics and Statistics. Dr Gery Geenens was last on the agenda, and provided the students with information about Masters and Research degrees.
Students and staff alike were then ushered into the Scientia Foyer where they enjoyed drinks in the sunny atrium.
Thanks very much to all attendees and speakers who made the day such a success.