Mathematics and Statistics: Student Views by Science at Sheffield

Maths & Stats Student Views.

www.sheffield.ac.uk/maths

Shining a spotlight on student life in Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Sheffield.

“

If you’ve looked through our brochure, browsed our website or visited us on an open day, you’ve hopefully got a good idea of the sort of things you can study as part of your maths degree at the University of Sheffield. But there’s more to being a student than lectures, tutorials, coursework and exams. Over the next few pages, our students will tell you about some of the other things you can do as a Sheffield maths student: from work experience and studying overseas, to pizza seminars and pub crawls.

“

Professor Caitlin Buck Head of Undergraduate Recruitment and Admissions

Maths for Fun A maths degree isn’t just a path to a great career – it’s a chance to explore a subject you love. Lots of our students get involved with activities we run outside of lectures and tutorials, so that they investigate interesting maths problems, puzzles and challenges in their spare time. Pizza Seminars These sessions combine two of our favourite things: maths and pizza. Our mathematicians lead informal seminars on interesting and unusual topics, while students discuss and solve problems over a few slices. It’s mathematics you can really sink your teeth into.

Undergraduate Challenge Teams of students spend two weeks puzzling over tricky maths problems set by our staff. We’re always impressed with the innovative and entertaining ways that students come up with to reach their solutions. The prizes are vouchers for the cafes in the Students’ Union which, we’re sure, our students use to spend even more time collaborating on maths problems over cups of coffee.

PROBLEM CORNER

Guest mathematicians sometimes set problems for our Undergraduate Challenge. This one came from the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT in the United States: It is a classical problem to use a biased coin which flips a head with probability p, strictly between 0 and 1, to produce an experiment with two outcomes of equal probability (you are encouraged to think of how to do so, or look it up online). Suppose that you are given a fair coin. For which p between 0 and 1 can you use your coin to produce an experiment which has an outcome with probability p? 3

Student society: SUMS The Sheffield University Maths Society, or SUMS, is at the heart of our departmental community. The team of students behind it run lots of socials, sports and initiatives, so getting involved is a great way to help you settle in and get to know other maths students. SUMS also works closely with our Staff-Student Forum to help change the content and style of the modules on our courses, based on student feedback.

“This year has been a successful one for SUMS, with lots of exciting events taking place. We have had several socials, including pub golf, where we all dressed up in golf attire. Our freshers’ social was a huge success too, with over 100 freshers attending. It’s always a great way to meet new people on the course! “Charity work is very important to us, and we have raised money throughout the year for the Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice, which is a local charity in Sheffield providing support and end of life care for children, young adults and their families. At the beginning of the year, our Charities Officer organised a raffle with the top prize being two tickets to a Sheffield United football game. We also held a bake sale in March selling lots of homemade cakes, and raised £41! “At the end of April, we hosted our annual ball, at the Holiday Inn Royal Victoria in Sheffield. It is always a fantastic event, with students dressing up and celebrating the end of the year.” Eizabeth Sheppeck, Sheffield University Maths Society

SUMS: Photo album We asked the members of SUMS to give you a round-up of what they’ve been up to lately and share some of their favourite snaps. Socials “We host many events across the whole year including coffee mornings, Laser Quest, ice skating, pub quizzes and paintball. We’re so lucky to live in such a busy city as Sheffield, there’s always something to do! Fundraising and volunteering “As a society, we host events throughout the year to raise money for Project Buzz, a charity that helps underprivileged schoolchildren in after school clubs. From bake sales on Pi Day (celebrated every 3 March, or 3.14!) to staff versus student football matches, we try do as much as we can for a great cause and have a lot of fun at the same time.

“We host a freshers social at the start of the year which is always a laugh and a great way to get to know your new coursemates. “Later on in the year there’s a trip abroad which is a must do. Past destinations include Paris and Amsterdam.”

“On top of this, groups of students also go into struggling schools and put on maths workshops which are mostly maths themed games. It gets the kids involved and is always good fun for everyone.”

Sports “SUMS offer many different sports to keep you active outside of your studies. The men’s football team recently went unbeaten for two seasons, helping them come top of their league twice in a row. Likewise, the SUMS netball team have been finalists in recent tournaments. We’ve also got plans to get involved in hockey, squash and dodgeball so there’s plenty to keep you entertained!” Ball “The most popular event is the end of year ball where everyone gets dressed up and ends the year on a bang. This year we sold over 120 tickets for our ball at the Holiday Inn and it’s guaranteed to be a memorable event with games and high quality food throughout the evening. It’s the perfect end to a brilliant year in Sheffield.”

Study abroad We have partnerships with universities around the world that teach in English, and with many universities across Europe. This means that students on our Study in Europe, Year Abroad or language degrees can spend a year of their course studying maths overseas. There are lots of opportunities in English speaking countries, or you can go to a non-English speaking country and have language classes before you go. Bethany James, MMath Mathematics with a Year Abroad Bethany went to the National University of Singapore (NUS), consistently ranked as one of the best universities in the world.

“One of the things that drew me to choose NUS as the destination for my year abroad, in addition to its impressive status as a world topranking university, was my interest in the local culture and the travel opportunities that the location presented. “Over the course of the year I travelled to eight different countries and met people from all over the world. Whilst abroad, in addition to amazing travel experiences and to my academic work, I made sure to get involved fully with university life. “I took part in events run by the NUS Exchangers programme, completed an exchange in Taiwan over the Christmas break, and throughout the year I competed for the university as a varsity athlete in the NUS Alpha Verve cheerleading team. “I would highly recommend Singapore as a destination for any student who wishes to study abroad. It is an amazing city with so much to see and do, the people are warm and welcoming and the food is delicious!”

Matthew Allcock, MMath Mathematics with a Year Abroad Matthew went to Monash University in Victoria, Australia, the largest university in the country. “It gave me the unique opportunity to visit some of the world’s most beautiful places, whilst experiencing the academic, cultural, and social differences between two leading universities. “I made the most of the different academic strengths that Monash University has by studying dynamical meteorology with the world-leading atmospheric science department. This involved studying the mathematics behind large scale weather systems, in particular the extreme and often dangerous Australian weather.

between my two semesters at Monash University. This gave me the fortunate opportunity to visit some of Australia’s famous natural landmarks, including diving at the Great Barrier Reef, cycling and hiking up Australia’s highest mountain, Mt Kosciuszko, and camping along the Great Ocean Road. “I had been doubtful about the classic ‘bucket list’ adventures, but I would say that the Great Barrier Reef absolutely lives up to the hype – it is another world down there!”

“The Australian and British seasons are in antiphase, meaning I had a long Summer holiday over Christmas 9

Summer projects Students can apply for a scholarship to work alongside one of our lecturers on a research project in their area of expertise. The Sheffield Undergraduate Research Experience Scheme (SURE) is great preparation for a career in mathematics research, and can lead to great opportunities such as presenting at conferences or publishing in academic journals.

“A knot is just like we would imagine from everyday life, such as our shoelaces or our earphones in our pockets. A knot invariant assigns a number (or some algebraic object) to each knot to provide us with a method to distinguish between different knots.

Jordan Williamson, MMath Mathematics Jordan Williamson worked with Dr Simon Willerton to develop a computer programme that uses an algorithm to calculate knot invariants. This led to Jordan presenting his findings at the British Conference for Undergraduate Research and on to a PhD.

“I really enjoyed the opportunity to undertake research since it gave me an insight into a style of learning that I hadn’t encountered in my module work. Although reading textbooks and papers at first was extremely frustrating, after a while I got to grips with independent study, and I feel this helped me in my module work throughout the year. “Also, to undertake my project I had to develop my coding skills beyond what I had learned already, and I feel that skills such as this will stand me in good stead for my future.”

Hope Thackray, MMath Mathematics Hope did a summer research placement with Dr Eun-Jin Kim. At graduation, she was awarded the David Burley Prize in Applied Mathematics, for the best overall performance in applied mathematics, and is now working on her PhD with Dr Rekha Jain. “My project, ‘Modelling of SelfOrganisation in Turbulence’ solves certain nonlinear dynamical systems. More specifically, we studied a variation of the Lorenz system (general case shown below), which is a well-known system of nonlinear differential equations that exhibits chaotic behaviour when given certain perturbations. dx = σ(y-x), dt dy = x(ρ-z)-y, dt dz = xy-βz. dt

sustain itself, and it may just go back to being still, or the movement might become periodic or even chaotic, which is unpredictable. “My task was to examine these behaviours. I looked for periodic orbits by solving the system for various different coefficients using Matlab. I had never really used this sort of software, so this was a whole new experience for me. I can now appreciate the time and effort that researchers put into coding when solving problems numerically!”

“The behaviour of the system depends on the values of the coefficients σ, ρ and β. We observe different movements of the point (x,y,z), depending on how large the coefficients are, and the velocity of the point is described by our system of differential equations. “For example, the parameters might not be large enough for movement to 11

Undergraduate Ambassadors Scheme The nationwide Undergraduate Ambassadors Scheme was created by maths writer and broadcaster Simon Singh. As participants, our students can gain course credits by working as student tutors in local schools, helping to inspire the next generation of scientists and mathematicians.

Grace Charalambous, BSc Mathematics with Spanish “I have wanted to be a teacher since a very young age so knew that I would probably enjoy the opportunities that the module would provide. “The module has given me so much new knowledge of teaching in so many ways. I am more aware of difficulties facing education today and have come across ways to overcome these too. “Through taking part, I have learnt how to take a more independent approach in my actions, my time management skills have strengthened and I feel as though my communication skills have also improved through speaking with the pupils about their future aspirations.”

Charlotte Hall, MMath Mathematics with Study in Europe “When I heard about the Undergraduate Ambassadors Scheme, I was really excited by the opportunity to help young people in the local community to develop their mathematical ability. It provides a great opportunity to practise a wide range of valuable skills, such as professionalism and organisation, in a completely different environment to other modules. “The scheme helped me to decide whether a teaching career is indeed for me, and the positive experiences I had helped me to confirm my decision and apply for a PGCE.

“One particularly enjoyable lesson involved investigating Eisenstein’s Handshaking Lemma with a Year 9 group. I found that the challenging environment gave me the chance to really get stuck-in, motivating the children. I felt a great sense of achievement when I saw the children understanding or enjoying a topic under my influence.”

Careers and placements Our students have access to lots of careers support, from our dedicated career development skills module to year-long work placement opportunities. It all helps our graduates to find great jobs after they’ve finished their course. Placement years and employment experience Students can spend a year of their degree gaining valuable work experience. You have the option of applying for a course with a Placement Year built in, or adding a year of Employment Experience to one of our other courses once you’ve started.

Nicola Brant, BSc Mathematics with Employment Experience Nicola spent a year of her degree as an Operational Researcher at the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP). She go to apply statistical and computational techniques to real world problems, and learned new programming languages and data analysis techniques. “I built on the analytical skills that I have learnt in my degree so far, as well as the leadership and teamwork skills that I picked up whilst on the student committee for the walking club. “I am now a lot more aware of what I am looking for in my future career, whether I apply for a position with DWP or explore another opportunity.”

Graduate profiles

Ashis Patel, BSc Mathematics with Employment Experience Ashis spent a year of his course working for Lloyds Banking Group, by taking part in the University of Sheffield’s Degree with Employment Experience scheme. After graduation he did some volunteering before joining the tech industry. “After graduation I decided to go do some volunteering in Nepal. I was working in a small village on a women’s equality programme. After I returned I started my graduate position at Accenture. “I’m currently a technology consultant which involves decomposing key business problems, to identify value areas and to structure and implement complex technology solutions for a range of clients. It has been very interesting and exciting to be able to work in different industries.”

Tom Miner Tom took part in the University of Sheffield’s Degree with Employment Experience scheme and spent a year of his degree working at Unilever, where he is now a Finance Manager. “I was lucky enough to be offered a place on the Unilever graduate programme after I graduated. It was great going into the final year of my degree knowing that I had a job secured so I could focus on my final year exams. “The joy of a maths degree is that it can take you down a wide range of possible career paths and the transferrable skills you can pick up are applicable in almost any workplace.”

Keep in touch School of Mathematics and Statistics The University of Sheffield Hicks Building Hounsfield Road Sheffield S3 7RH Email: maths.admiss@sheffield.ac.uk Call: +44 (0)114 222 3999 www.sheffield.ac.uk/maths Follow us on social media: /somassheffield @mathsatshefuni