About this day
For A-level and IB students
Give your KS5 students the opportunity to meet our crack team of mathematicians, engineers, statisticians, architects, code-breakers, data scientists and more for the ultimate educational experience. Maths in Action features five lively and enriching sessions exploring a variety of topics carefully designed to extend students’ knowledge. A session on examination success will equip students with the tools to succeed.
Programme & speakers
Nim, Officers, and Other Games Colin Wright, Mathematician and Juggler
People are familiar with all sorts of games, but as we start to look at them with an analytical eye we sometimes find connections and similarities. In this workshop we play a few games, look for connections, and finish with a result that’s genuinely almost too good to be true.
About Dr Colin Wright
Colin received his maths doctorate in 1990 from Cambridge University. While at Cambridge he also learned how to fire-breathe, unicycle, juggle and ballroom dance.
Fighting Disease with Mathematics Sara Jabbari, University of Birmingham
Sara will describe the way mathematics can be used to understand antibiotic resistance, track the dynamics of bacterial infections and even develop new drugs to tackle disease.
About Dr Sara Jabbari
Sara is a mathematician specialising in using mathematical modelling to understand how bacteria behave. She works with microbiologists to use these models in developing new treatments for bacterial infections.
Magical Maths Matt Pritchard, Scientist and Magician
Predicting the future, reading minds, sending secret messages and making objects vanish are easy when you’re a maths magician. Matt’s aim is to give his audience tricks they can go away and use to amaze their friends and families.
About Dr Matt Pritchard
Dr Matt Pritchard is a magician and a member of the Magic Circle. He is a lapsed atomic physicist with a love of recreational maths. He is also a member of the Science of Magic Association, which aims to foster research collaborations between magicians and psychologists.
Over-analysing Video Games Matthew Scroggs, University College London
Matt will apply some mathematical thinking to Pac-Man and other video games. We will work out the shortest possible route to complete a Pac-Man level, and discover the 2-, 3- and 4-dimensional shapes that video game characters live on.
About Matthew Scroggs
When not working Matthew writes puzzles and articles for Chalkdust Magazine, including the infamous crossnumber, and reads Martin Gardner books.
A Prime Puzzle Sophie Maclean, Mathematician and Communicator
Mathematicians’ fascination with prime numbers is something that has transcended cultures and history, and Sophie is not immune to their spell. In this talk she explores what we know, how we know it, and what still remains a mystery. She will even give a special mention to her favourite mathematician – can you guess who it is?
About Sophie Maclean
Sophie is a Maths Communicator and a member of the team behind Chalkdust Magazine. She has previously worked as a Quantitative Trader, a Software Engineer, and a Maths tutor.