Special Topics
There is a great variety of special topic lecture courses listed below. Each falls under a broad heading of Modelling/Methods or Computation, and is marked [M] or [C] accordingly. Students should complete at least one Modelling/Methods course marked [M] in the list and at least one Computation course marked [C] in the list. Students may submit up to two additional special topic reports. A special topic is usually assessed by a mini-project of up to 20 pages on a topic agreed with the lecturer as described in the special topic guidelines available from the main MMSC course webpage. Students wishing to do a special topic on one of these courses should inform the lecturer before the end of term, and a pdf version of the special topic must be submitted online, via the University's Inspera platform, by the deadline listed in the Diary of Important Events. The lecturer and one other assessor will mark the work and make a recommendation to the examiners.
These are the courses available for the Academic year 2026-2027. Note that the list of courses may change from year to year.
Michaelmas term 2026
- Applied Complex Variables [M], synopsis
- Further Mathematical Biology [M], synopsis
- Integer Programming [C], synopsis
- Mathematical Geoscience [M], synopsis
- Mathematical Mechanical Biology [M], synopsis
- Mathematical Physiology [M], synopsis
- Solid Mechanics [M], synopsis
- Theories of Deep Learning [C], synopsis
- Topics in Fluid Mechanics [M], synopsis
- Viscous Flow [M], synopsis
Hilary term 2027
- Computational Algebraic Topology [C], synopsis
- Elasticity and Plasticity [M], synopsis
- Finite Element Methods for PDEs [C], synopsis
- Machine Learning [C], synopsis
- Mathematical Models of Financial Derivatives [M], synopsis
- Networks [M], synopsis
- Nonlinear Dynamics, Bifurcations, and Chaos [M], synopsis
- Optimal Control [M], synopsis
- Optimisation for Data Science [C], synopsis
- Stochastic Modelling of Biological Processes [M], synopsis
- Waves and Compressible Flow [M], synopsis