L1

This session will take place live in L1 and online. A Teams link will be shared 30 minutes before the session begins.

Candida Bowtell

Title: Chess puzzles: from recreational maths to fundamental mathematical structures

Abstract:
Back in 1848, in a German chess magazine, Max Bezzel asked how many ways there are to place 8 queens on a chessboard so that no two queens can attack one another. This question caught the attention of many, including Gauss, and was subsequently generalised. What if we want to place n non-attacking queens on an n by n chessboard? What if we embed the chessboard on the surface of a torus? How many ways are there to do this? It turns out these questions are hard, but mathematically interesting, and many different strategies have been used to attack them. We'll survey some results, old and new, including progress from this year.

Joshua Bull

Title: From Cancer to Covid: topological and spatial descriptions of immune cells in disease

Abstract:
Advances in medical imaging techniques mean that we have increasingly detailed knowledge of the specific cells that are present in different diseases. The locations of certain cells, like immune cells, gives clinicians clues about which treatments might be effective against cancer, or about how the immune system reacts to a Covid infection - but the more detailed this spatial data becomes, the harder it is for medics to analyse or interpret. Instead, we can turn to tools from topological data analysis, mathematical modelling, and spatial statistics to describe and quantify the relationships between different cell types in a wide range of medical images. This talk will demonstrate how mathematics can be used as a tool to advance our understanding of medicine, with a focus on immune cells in both cancer and covid-19.

This session will take place live in L1 and online. A Teams link will be shared 30 minutes before the session begins.

How can we make maths more accessible, promote its many applications, and encourage more women to enter the field? These are the questions we aim to address with Mathematigals.

Caoimhe Rooney and Jessica Williams met in 2015 at the start of their PhDs in mathematics in Oxford, and in 2020, they co-founded Mathematigals. Mathematigals is an online platform producing content to demonstrate fun mathematical curiosities, showcase ways maths can be used in real life, and promote female mathematicians. Mathematigals primarily produces animated videos that present maths in a way that is engaging to the general public.

In this session, Jess and Caoimhe will talk about their initial motivation to begin Mathematigals, demonstrate the process behind their content creation, and describe their future visions for the platform. The session will end with an opportunity for the audience to provide feedback or ideas to help Mathematigals on their journey to encourage future mathematicians.

This session will take place live in L1 and online. A Teams link will be shared 30 minutes before the session begins.

This session will take place live in L1 and online. A Teams link will be shared 30 minutes before the session begins.

This session will take place live in L1 and online. A Teams link will be shared 30 minutes before the session begins.

This session will take place live in L1 only and not online on Teams. 

Are you interested in sharing your love of Maths with the next generation of mathematicians, but you don’t know where to start? In this session we will discuss some basic principles and top tips for creating a workshop for students aged 14–16, and get you started on developing your own. There will also be the opportunity to work on this further afterwards and potentially deliver your session as part of the Oxfordshire Maths Masterclasses (for local school students) in Hilary Term. Bring along your favourite bit of maths and a willingness to have a go.

Fancy a fun afternoon on the final Friday afternoon of term? Then come along, either by yourself or pre-organised teams of up to four, to this week’s Fridays@2 for the first ever Big Mathematical Quiz of the Year!

Have you ever had to explain mathematics to someone who isn’t a mathematician? Maybe you’ve been cornered at a family gathering by an interested relative. Maybe you’d like to explain to a potential employer what you’ve been doing for the last three years. Maybe you’ve agreed to explain vector calculus to a room of 13-year-olds. We’ve all been there. This session will cover some top tips for talking about maths in a way that makes sense to non-mathematicians, with specific examples from the outreach team.

Mathematicians need to talk and write about their mathematics.  This includes undergraduates and MSc students, who may be writing a dissertation or project report, preparing a presentation on a summer research project, or preparing for a job interview.  We think that it can be helpful to think of this as a form of storytelling, as this can lead to more effective communication.  For a story to be engaging you also need to know your audience.  In this session, we'll discuss what we mean by telling a mathematical story, give you some top tips from our experience, and give you a chance to think about how you might put this into practice.