The many faces and hands of Online Student Lectures

It is a cliche that crises create opportunities. But they certainly demand innovation (and a lot of hard work). In Oxford Mathematics, in line with many others departments and universities, we have had to switch from in-person teaching to online in most cases. This has been 100% the case in terms of undergraduate lectures which normally take place in large lecture theatres where a whiteboard, a marker pen (or two or three) and a mathematician take centre stage.

However, the online world is a much more varied place. Lectures tend to be shorter (though the courses are the same length), some lecturers write as they go using tablets while some use pre-prepared slides. Some are in shot, some are not. However, as you can see from the image above and the lecture below, some lecturers, in this case André Henriques (and also Artur Ekert in other lectures), are trying different approaches, taking advantage of latest technologies. The lightboard is not new, but this might be its teaching moment.

Then again, the important thing is that the teaching is up to scratch. You can judge for yourself via the lecture below. You can also watch a range of student lectures on our YouTube channel as we show what we do and the increasing variety of ways we do it.

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The Oxford SIAM Student Chapter 3 Minute Thesis Competition

Postgraduate students are mathematics' future. 

The Oxford University Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Student Chapter 3 Minute Thesis Competition saw 10 of our postgraduates present their latest research to a panel of our judges. Topics included Langland's Grand Unified Theory; Quantum irreversibility; and using magnets and maths to deliver stem cell therapy.

You can watch the competition via the video below. 
 
 

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One Term in 5 Minutes

To gain an insight in to mathematical student life under lockdown, we asked Oxford Mathematics and St Peter's College 2nd Year Undergraduate Matt Antrobus to provide us with one-minute updates over the course of last term.

So he did in a very personable and honest way, describing the maths he is doing, how he is doing it and how much work is involved. Matt also reflects on the stark fact that over half his time in Oxford has been under the cloud of Covid.

You can watch all five films by scrolling through our Twitter, Facebook or Instagram pages.

 

 

Please contact us with feedback and comments about this page. Created on 24 Mar 2021 - 13:52.

Round up: the Oxford Mathematics Annual Newsletter

Round up, the Oxford Mathematics Annual Newsletter, is a calculated attempt to describe our lives, mathematical and non-mathematical, over the past 12 months. From a summary of some of our research into the Coronavirus to a moving tribute to Peter Neumann by Martin Bridson, via articles on diversity, fantasy football and of course our Nobel Prize winner (pictured), it throws a little light, we hope, on what we did during the year that was 2020.

The Newsletter goes out to over 12,000 Oxford Mathematics alumni around the world and to anyone else who may be interested of course. Arguably the most expressive part of the Newsletter is a wordless photo montage. Why not have a look?

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Geometry of Surfaces - 4 more Oxford Mathematics Student Lectures

Our 'Fantastic Voyage' through Oxford Mathematics Student Lectures brings us to four 3rd Year lectures by Dominic Joyce on Topological Surfaces. These lectures are shown pretty much as they are seen by the students (they use a different platform with a few more features but the lectures are the same) as we all get to grips with the online world. Lectures on Linear Algebra, Integral transforms, Networks, Set Theory, Maths History and much more will be shown over the next few weeks.

Below is the fourth lecture of the course, but you can watch all four of Dominic's lectures via the Playlist as well as over 30 other student lectures on the YouTube Channel.

Incidentally 'Fantastic Voyage' is a classic bit of 60s sci-fi about a submarine crew who are shrunk to microscopic size and venture into the body of an injured scientist to repair damage to his brain. It's a tenous link but we like it so, if you are interested, check it out.

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Oxford Mathematics Public Lecture. From one extreme to another: the statistics of extreme events - Jon Keating

Oxford Mathematics Public Lecture
Tuesday 16 March 2021
5.00-6.00pm

Jon Keating will discuss the statistics of rare, extreme events in various contexts, including: evaluating performance at the Olympics; explaining how glasses freeze; illustrating why computers are more effective than expected at learning; and understanding the Riemann zeta-function, the mathematical object that encodes the mysterious distribution of the prime numbers. 

Jon Keating is Sedleian Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Oxford and a Fellow of The Queen's College.

Watch live (no need to register and it will stay up afterwards):
Oxford Mathematics Twitter
Oxford Mathematics Facebook
Oxford Mathematics Livestream
Oxford Mathematics YouTube

The Oxford Mathematics Public Lectures are generously supported by XTX Markets.

Please contact us with feedback and comments about this page. Created on 12 Mar 2021 - 12:51.

What's been going on at the Oxford Online Maths Club?

In the bleak, school-less midwinter, James Munro and his student crew have been keeping the maths going for high school students who want to step aside from the curriculum for an hour or so and peek round the corner at University Maths. Cue novels, (yes there is literature as well), dragons and your favourite graph.

The Oxford Online Maths Club is live and free for everyone, wherever you are, every Thursday at 16:30pm UK time. There are maths problems, puzzles, mini-lectures, and Q&A via the chat. It’s interactive, casual, and relaxed, with an emphasis on solving problems, building fluency and enjoying mathematics.

Join the club

[youtube:sQuSZvh1hYI|800|600|February Highlights | OOMC]

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Georgia Brennan wins Silver Medal at STEM for Britain 2021

Oxford Mathematician Georgia Brennan has won a silver medal in the Mathematical Sciences category at STEM for Britain 2021 for her poster (extract in the image) on 'Mathematically Modelling Clearance in Alzheimer’s Disease: A Mathematical Drug Trial for the UK’s Protein Pandemic'.

STEM for Britain 2021 is a major scientific poster competition and exhibition which has been held in Parliament since 1997 (online this year), and is organised by the Parliamentary & Scientific Committee. Its aim is to give members of both Houses of Parliament an insight into the outstanding research work being undertaken in UK universities by early-career researchers.

Please contact us with feedback and comments about this page. Created on 08 Mar 2021 - 13:07.

UNIQ 2021 - A Digital Summer School for Maths

Since 2010 UNIQ has been providing in person and, since 2018,  digital Summer Schools for State School students in the UK. As a free access programme we prioritise students with good grades from backgrounds that are under-represented at Oxford and other highly selective universities.

231 UNIQ 2020 students have now received offers from the University of Oxford and we look forward to welcoming them here as Oxford undergraduates in September 2021. Each year 1 in 3 UNIQ students who apply to Oxford get offered a place, as compared to 1 in 5 state school students.

This year we are merging UNIQ Digital with the online summer school to offer one UNIQ programme to 2,500 students. UNIQ 2021 takes into account the disrupted learning students have suffered over the past year: the programme starts in April and offers sustained support for students over several months. 

Oxford Mathematics together with Oxford Statistics will once again be a big part of UNIQ this year. Our main lectures are on Matrices & Markov Chains. So why not Enter the Matrix? (And if you don't know how to enter then you haven't been born, quite literally if you are in Year 12...).

Find out lots more and how to apply.

Please contact us with feedback and comments about this page. Created on 03 Mar 2021 - 10:13.

#WhatsonYourMind Series 3: A Sam Howison Special

Take a mathematician with an endless curiosity about the world around him & the capacity of his subject to interpret it, & you have Series 3 of our #WhatsonYourMind films: a Sam Howison Special featuring geometry, flying spiders, tennis, rain, Pascal's mystic hexagram &, of course, Professor Pointyhead.

Editor's note: #WhatsonYourMind is the opportunity for Oxford Mathematicians to let it all out in 58 seconds (2 seconds for credits).

You can also watch the first two series on the Oxford Mathematics YouTube Channel.

 

 

 

 

Please contact us with feedback and comments about this page. Created on 21 Feb 2021 - 18:22.