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Congratulations to three members of the Mathematical Institute who were recognised in the 2012 Teaching Awards exercise, held across the Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division. Jon Chapman and Kathryn Gillow won two of the four Individual Awards for their outstanding contribution to undergraduate and graduate teaching respectively, and Martin Griffiths won the Project Award for his project on problem-solving for undergraduates.

General

Position:- The project is on average 1 week ahead of programme with the critical activities running through the south atrium and entrance works.

Cranes & Hoist:- The structure is largely fed by the tower cranes. These are supplemented occasionally with mobile cranes on days not affected by high winds. A hoist to access the mezzanine and basement from ground level feeds the blocklaying and will supply materials for the services starting shortly.

Temporary Yellow Props: The large cylindrical yellow props have been removed now the mezzanine slab has gained the required strength. The holes formed around where the props used to be will now be made good.

Visits:- The Considerate Contractors Scheme representative visited the site again on 12/6/2012.

Future works for June

Steel Beams & Columns:- Steelwork has been erected in most of the Entrance and continues to be delivered and erected as required.

Blockwork:- The block walls that form a straight face in front of the structural secant piles in the basement are over 50% complete. The Mezzanine has also commenced with blockwork to the perimeter.The internal blockwalls that form individual plantrooms are being progressed at the same time fed by the hoist.

Ground Floor:- The north and south are now complete with the focus progressing towards the central area and the entire floor is expected to be complete towards the end of June. Large prestressed concrete beams form part of the ground floor slab that will span the large lecture theatre.

1st Floor:- The last slab to the south is 23A expected to be poured in the next week. These slabs consist of a set of precast concrete planks (temporary supported) with an insitu concrete topping with strands (steels within tubes) which are stressed (tightened at the ends) after the concrete has set hard.

2nd Floor:- The second floor on the north is complete. The first pour on the south was poured on 31/5/2012. The second floor on the south is expected to be complete by mid July.

3rd Floor:- The columns and walls (2nd to 3rd floor) have begun on the north.

Recent Site Photos

St Hugh's undergraduate Stephanie Crampin has been awarded a national prize, the British Society for the History of Mathematics undergraduate essay prize. Stephanie took paper O1 (History of Mathematics) as one of her options this year.

The BSHM announcement follows:

"The BSHM is pleased to announce the inaugural winners of its undergraduate essay prize as Stephanie Crampin for an essay entitled The contribution of Évariste Galois to the founding of group theory and Nicole Johannesen for The application of mathematical understanding in the ancient Olympic Games. Stephanie is a third year student studying mathematics and philosophy at St Hugh's College, Oxford and Nicole a third year student studying mathematics at St Andrews University.

Though on very different topics the judging panel felt that amongst the submissions received, these two could not be separated in terms of overall standard and hence concluded two prizes should be awarded this year.

The Society was pleased with the range and quality of all the submissions it received this year with BSHM President, Professor Robin Wilson, stating 'I am very pleased that, in this the inaugural year of the undergraduate essay prize, the standard has been so high. This indicates not only the excellent standards of teaching of the history of mathematics in many universities across the UK, but also the creativity and enthusiasm of our undergraduates. We look forward to seeing another set of excellent submissions for the 2012-13 prize.'"

Congratulations to Richard Earl who has won a OUSU Teaching Award for Lecturing.

The network connection for the Gibson Building has failed again at 8:35am on Saturday 2nd June. It is likely this is another failure of the OUCS equipment that provides the network connection.

Update (2:25pm 2/6/2012): a creative workaround has once again been put in place to bypass the failed OUCS equipment and restore service.

We would expect OUCS may not investigate the repeat problem with their equipment until Wednesday but would hope when they do the problem is satisfactorily resolved this time.

General

Position:- The project remains 1 week ahead of programme with the more critical activities running through the south.

Cranes & Hoist:- The structure continues to be fed by the cranes but have been affected by the spring wind on certain days.

Temporary Yellow Props: The large cylindrical yellow props have gradually become redundant as the completed slabs at mezzanine and ground will form the permanent strut. Once the prop is removed the concrete protrusion is then cut off using a diamond cutting cable saw.

Visits:- The Maths Department visited the site on 25/5/2012 to view the latest progress.

Future works for June

Steel Beams & Columns:- Steelwork has been erected in most of the Entrance and continues to be delivered and erected as required.

Blockwork:- The block walls that form a straight face in front of the structural secant piles in the basement are 40% complete. The internal blockwalls that form individual plantrooms are being progressed at the same time. The hoist is used to serve the blocklayers with materials.

Mezzanine Floor:- The last remaining mezzanine level slab in the central area was poured on 16/5/2012. As the slabs are completed and gain strength the temporary large yellow props spanning across the site will progressively be removed.

Ground Floor:- The critical sections on the south are progressing towards the central area and the entire floor is expected to be complete towards the end of June. Large prestressed concrete beams form part of the ground floor slab that will span the large lecture theatre.

1st Floor:- The south 1st floor 2nd pour was completed on 24/5/2012. These slabs consist of a set of precast concrete planks (temporary supported) with an insitu concrete topping with strands (steels within tubes) which are stressed (tightened at the ends) after the concrete has set hard.

2nd Floor:- The second floor has commenced on the north and is expected to be complete by 1/6/2012. The first pour on the south was poured on 31/5/2012 and it is expected to be complete by mid July.

3rd Floor:- The columns and walls (2nd to 3rd floor) have begun on the north.

Recent Site Photos

Due to a UPS failure, there is currently no network connectivity in the Gibson Building.  The outage began around 18:00 this evening.  The network equipment belongs to OUCS, who have been notified.  Until OUCS can investigate and repair the fault, there will be no network related services available in the Gibson Building - this will include internet access, access to workstations, home directories, and printing.

Update (2:15pm 26/5/2012): a creative workaround has now been put in place to bypass the failed OUCS equipment and restore service. When OUCS fix their equipment next week the bypass will need removing which will result in a short outage of a few minutes.

Update (17:30 28/05/2012): the UPS unit has been fixed, and the workaround removed

General

Position:- The project remains 1 week ahead of programme with the more critical activities running through the south.

Cranes & Hoist:- The cranes continue to feed the structure works but have occasionally been winded off due to some recent inclement weather. A hoist to access the mezzanine and basement from ground level was installed in position on 19/4/2012.

Visits:- The university's Buildings and Estates Subcommittee (BESC) visited the site on 16/5/2012.

Future works for May

Steel Beams & Columns:- Steelwork is being delivered and erected as required.

Blockwork:- The block walls that form a straight face in front of the structural secant piles in the basement are 15% complete. The internal block walls that form individual plant rooms are being progressed at the same time. The hoist is used to serve the blocklayers with materials.

Mezzanine Floor:- The last remaining mezzanine level slab in the central area is expected to be poured by w.c. 21/5/2012. As the slabs are completed and gain strength the temporary large yellow props spanning across the site will progressively be removed.

Ground Floor:- The critical sections on the south are progressing towards the central area and the entire floor is expected to be complete towards the end of June. Large prestressed concrete beams form part of the ground floor slab that will span the large lecture theatre.

1st Floor:- The north 1st floor was completed on 9/5/12. These slabs consist of a set of precast concrete planks (temporary supported) with an insitu concrete topping with strands (steels within tubes) which are stressed (tightened at the ends) after the concrete has set hard.

2nd Floor:- The second floor has commenced on the north and the vertical columns 1st to 2nd on the south have begun.

Recent Site Photos

Congratulations to Apala Majumdar who has been awarded the British Liquid Crystal Society Young Scientist Prize for 2012.

Nick Woodhouse is to become President of the Clay Mathematics Institute from 1 July 2012, and at the same time the CMI will move their President's Office to Oxford. The work of the CMI in supporting mathematics is well known and this is an exciting development for both CMI and Oxford.

More details can be found at http://www.claymath.org/May2012Anc/ .