The Maths Academy
is running two projects in the 2014-2015 academic year; Interactive Lecture Series
and a University Mathematics Project.
You can find details of lecture dates, times, and locations in the descriptions below,
and registration and contact details at the bottom of the page.
To register to attend the Interactive Lecture Series or the University Mathematics Project or if you have any questions, please email Dr. Fionntan Roukema (f.roukema(at)sheffield.ac.uk).
This is an interactive lecture series aimed at eager and interested year 12 and year 13 students. The lectures will be highly interactive and so the session content may differ from the titles and descriptions below. There is a restricted number of places and priority will be given to year 12 students. The semester two (February and March 2015) sessions will take place in Hicks Building, Lecture Theatre 6 (see the map below).
View Larger Map |
The interactive lectures will take place in Lecture Theatre 6 (Floor E) of the Hicks Building at the University of Sheffield.
The lectures will take place at 16:30-17:45 on Thursday the 26th of February, and the 12th of March student presentations
session is likely to take place at King Edward VII school (exact location/times for the student presentation to follow).
The initial plan was to hear about Probability, Monopoly and Google, but our speaker was sick and then John Wayne came to the rescue! Remarks and links following the session:
|
Although counting is innate, it can very easily get out of hand! We will see how we can answer questions of the type "How many..?" quickly, using techniques that combine more than one area of mathematics. Remarks and links following the session:
|
At the end of the Maths Academy we ask students to form teams and tell the maths academy team about some area of mathematics that they have independently researched and found interested. In keeping with our philosophy of no pressure or stress, participation is optional (but encouraged). Talks should be in teams with greater or equal to one person, and the talks should be about 10-15 minutes long. Friends and family are warmly invited with the presenters permission. Remarks and links following the session:
|
Links to further reading will be posted after the sessions above so that you can independently research beyond what you saw during the lecture. You can have a look at details of the sessions from semester one below.
This will be a talk about infinity; take the red pill and see how far the rabbit hole goes! In this lecture we'll think about what infinity is, and rediscover a stunning result that shook the world of nineteenth century mathematics. Remarks and links following the session:
|
Way beyond the days were a padlock was enough to lock away precious belongings, we will talk about a modern version of secret telling and keeping, using Mathematics. Remarks and links following the session:
|
Leonard Euler observed a formula regarding relating a number to a polyhedron in 1751. In fact it gives a way of distinguishing between different spaces. We will learn in particular what this means and see how to calculate the Euler Characteristic. Remarks and links following the session:
|
At the beginning of the term, Fionntan spoke about infinity. How high we can make our numbers, without hitting the ceiling of infinity? Well, as high as you want, obviously! We'll talk about how to make big numbers efficiently. Remarks and links following the session:
|
A collection of tiles of various shapes is called aperiodic if it tiles the whole plane (without gaps or overlaps) with no repeating pattern. It is surprising that this is possible, but in this talk you will see several examples, including the famous Penrose kite and dart tiles. You'll learn how to make kite and dart tilings and how we can figure out the ratio of kites to darts. Remarks and links following the session:
|
This project invites year bright and interested year 13 students to attend a series of lectures based on the first semester's material from a first year undergraduate module (MAS114 Numbers and Groups) taught at the University of Sheffield. The module will be novel and differ from anything you will have seen at school. However, the material will be accessible to anyone who enjoys mathematics. The course will be about the fundamental properties of numbers. There is a restricted number of places and priority will be given to students who attended the interactive lecture series last year.
View Larger Map |