The School of Mathematics and Statistics ran maths workshops for over 700 young women in years 10-12, and expanded the Do The Maths program to an international audience for the first time.
Last week the School of Mathematics and Statistics held our flagship outreach workshops, Do the Maths (DTM), with both an on-campus event and two online sessions on separate days. We were delighted to host over 700 students from across Australia and South East Asia.
The program aspires to encourage young women to consider studying maths at university, to showcase the many career paths available in mathematics, statistics and data science, and to demonstrate the beauty, fun and applications of maths and stats.
Our on-campus event welcomed over 300 students from more than 30 NSW high schools to the UNSW Roundhouse on Wednesday 7 June.
Students received an introduction from event MC Catherine Greenhill, followed by a warm welcome from Head of School Professor Adelle Coster. Our 2023 UNSW Women in Mathematics and Statistics Ambassador, Professor Inge Koch, next delivered a talk on "Mathematics, Statistics, and Where it Can Lead to". Professor Koch was one of the co-founders of the Do The Maths program 18 years ago.
Talks were also presented by Dr Anna Romanov ("Searching for Symmetry"), Dr Alessandro Ottazzi ("Degrees and Scholarships"), and Dr Mareike Dressler (“Optimising Your Life”).
A vibrant Maths Carnival gave students the opportunity to engage with hands-on maths activities across 12 booths: Optimisation with Bubbles; 4 Colour Theorem; Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases; Integrable Systems on Lattices in 2, 3 & 4D; Origami; Minimise/Maximise: Network Game; Let’s Invent GPS; Vectors in Virtual Reality; Knots: Same or Different?; Rotating Fluids; Curse of Dimensionality Puzzle; and Data Science: Meet our Ambassadors.
Student groups also participated in a mathematical workshop developed by Dr Sean Gardiner called Getting a Grasp of Games, where they got a taste for combinatorial game theory by playing games and coming up with strategies.
Tours of the campus were navigated by UNSW Future Students Ambassadors, and the event wrapped up with a Q&A moderated by Professor Catherine Greenhill which featured current student panellists Isabela Conde, Fiza Shafeeque, Abi Srikumar, Tiana Tsang Ung and alumna Alina Young.
On the evening of Thursday 8 June Professor Inge Koch delivered a public lecture, "Mathematics and Gender: Nature versus Nurture", to over 60 attendees in Colombo Theatres. Following the talk, guests viewed the Australian Women of Mathematics Exhibition in the Colombo foyer over refreshments.
We hosted two online DTM events via Zoom on Friday 9 June, with the morning session welcoming 350 students from 15 Australian high schools. Dr Alessandro Ottazzi facilitated a more global reach for this year's program, and arranged an afternoon session hosting student groups from schools in the South East Asian region. The Online participants received a welcome from Professor Adelle Coster, a talk from Professor Inge Koch, participated in an online workshop, and posed questions to a Q&A panel of current students Sarah Cheng, Isabelle Greco, Queenie Huang and Jovana Kolar.
Campus Q&A panel
Co-founders of the DTM program: Catherine Greenhill, Inge Koch and Adelle Coster
2023 Data Science Ambassadors
Australian Women of Mathematics Exhibition
Origami Maths Carnival booth with Michelle Dunbar
Sean Gardiner presenting Getting a Grasp of Games workshop
The 2023 DTM event organising committee included: Frances Kuo (lead organiser), Mareike Dressler, Michelle Dunbar, Sean Gardiner, Andrew Hwang, Benjamin Lyall, Alessandro Ottazzi, James Rutner, Tom Stindl and Susannah Waters.
We also acknowledge the massive contributions of Joshua Capel, Adelle Coster, Catherine Greenhill, Alec Gilbert, Laure Helme-Guizon, Inge Koch, Dirk Nuyens and Anna Romanov; our PhD students Christian Bagshaw, Josef Bisits, Yudhi Bunjamin, Isabela Conde, Michael Denes, Eva-Maria Hekkelman, Queenie Huang, Ryan Seelig, Brock Sherlock and Abirami Srikumar; the Maths Carnival staff: Michelle Dunbar, Caitlyn Farmer, Catherine Greenhill, Laure Helme-Guizon, Randell Heyman, Andrew Hwang, Andrew Kels, Jonathan Kress, Russel Morison, James Rutner, Eka Shinjikashvili, David Warton, Atefeh Zamani, 2023 Data Science Ambassadors Fiza Shafeeque, Sarah Cheng and Min-Sik Son, the Kirby team: Deborah Cromer, Steffen Docken, Karen Elias, Ainslie Hie and Jin Wang; and our Q&A panellists and UNSW Future Students Ambassadors.
