The School of Mathematical Sciences

“Best Graphic to Share and Connect with Statistics”

Competition

to celebrate World Statistics Day

October 20, 2020.

TY Work Experience in the School of Mathematical Sciences, UCC in January 2020

Dead water is a term which describes the fascinating nautical phenomenon whereby the speed of a vessel slackens suddenly, and dramatically, with no apparent cause observable from the surface of the ocean. Descriptions of the phenomenon can be traced back to the early seafarers of antiquity, for whom it must have been a very frightening and mysterious experience indeed. This is reflected in the quite outlandish (and unscientific) range of causes they put forward to explain dead water: sea-monsters, submarine magnetic rocks, supernatural forces and hordes of fish sticking to the ship’s body (an explanation attributed to the Roman-era Pliny the Naturalist). 

The School of Mathematical Sciences would like to congratulate Ms. Yihan Wang on being awarded The Donal McCarthy Postgraduate Research Scholarship in Statistics. Yihan is a 2^nd year Ph.D. student in Statistics and has been awarded €5000 euros to assist in her research area. Yihan’ s research area focuses on longevity risk, especially the mortality improvement modelling for demographic data in Ireland and the UK. This award is funded by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and is named after Dr. Donal McCarthy. Dr. McCarthy was President of UCC from 1967 to 1978 and is also a former Director General of the CSO. The scholarship was founded to promote university research in the area of Official Statistics and is awarded to students in areas of research such as survey sampling, multivariate methods, time series, and small area estimation.

Kathleen O’Sullivan (President of the Irish Statistical Association (ISA), School of Mathematical Sciences, University College Cork) launched the Young Statisticians’ Section of the ISA, the Young-ISA, on Friday October 04, 2019, in the Glen Royal Hotel, Maynooth, Co. Kildare.

The ISA formed its Young-ISA  to provide a forum for career-young statisticians, that is, statisticians in the early stages of their careers, across Ireland.  This is an exciting initiative by the ISA to encourage and nurture career-young statisticians.

This inaugural meeting, organised by the Young-ISA Section, showcased the breadth of research undertaken by career-young statisticians in Ireland. I would like to specially thank the keynote speakers, Drs Norma Bargary (University of Limerick) and Aidan Boland (Edge by Ascential) for providing insights into their career paths from academia and industry, and to all those who contributed talks and participated in the round table discussion.

Having recently returned home from China, where I took part in Huawei Technologies' Seeds for the Future programme, my thoughts turn back in reflection to the amazing three weeks I spent in a country with such an amazing culture, heritage and future. A clear highlight was being hosted by Ambassador O'Leary in Beijing. A fellow Cork man, we were soon chatting about Cork's All Ireland chances. Getting to visit the Great Wall and Forbidden City before starting a week long course in Mandarin and Chinese culture at the Beijing Language and Culture University was another highlight. After Beijing it was off to a week of ICT training at Huawei HQ in Shenzhen, a city which only 40 years ago was just a small fishing village. The rate of change in China makes it a place of undoubted opportunity. The training there offered great insights into the cutting edge of future technologies. Finally, we finished in Hong Kong, where we very fortunate to be hosted by the Irish Consulate in a round table discussion with Irish expats. I am very thankful to Huawei for this wonderful opportunity, as well as to the nine other partaking Irish students who I am now happy to count as friends. Hopefully one day I will be able to return to China, as I feel I have barely scratched its surface.

 Fionn Bracken

4th Year Mathematical Sciences 2019

University College Cork. 

Dr. Clifford Gilmore, School of Mathematical Sciences, UCC.

This week the School welcomed the fourth group of students from Bejing Technology & Business University. The students are part of our BSc Risk and Actuarial Science Degree with students undertaking 2 years in their home University followed by 2 years in UCC. A total of 32 students have enrolled for 2019 with a busy schedule this week and next of settling into their new homes, tours of Cork and the University with Orientation arranged by the Admissions Office and the International Office next week. 

The School wishes the student every success in their studies and their time in Cork. 

Novel Applications of Statistical Method

On Thursday 20th June, 18 of our students were conferred with their BSc Risk and Actuarial Science Degree. The class of 2019 is the second group of students to have graduated from the programme since it commenced in 2014. The students and their families attended the morning graduation ceremony followed by a reception in the Western Gateway Building, attended by Professor Sarah Culloty, Head of College of SEFS, Professor Finbarr O'Sullivan, Head of School of Mathematical Sciences, along with academic colleagues and friends.

Many of the students are pursuing additional postgraduate studies, with some having secured graduate positions both in Ireland and the UK.

This week a number of our students were involved in the first ever "Free Maths Grinds Program" which ran over 200 tailored sessions to individual students/small groups. Students from accross the County took up the opportunity to avail of these sessions in advance of the State Exams taking place on June 7th and 10th. Students were guided through exam techniques and making use of their remaining time before exams. The volunteers also concentrated on key themes of the exam papers such as:

1. Algebra
2. Numbers
3. Functions
4. Probability and Statistics 
5. Trigonometry and Geometry 

Award for Irish Teachers of Mathematics 

On Friday 3^rd May, the School of Mathematical Sciences welcomed Professor Yu DongChuan from the Nanjing Software Valley, China.

Best New Society at National Awards 2019

 Irish Mathematical Student Association Conference

SEFS PUBLICATION OF THE YEAR

We talk to some of our students about why studying Mathematical Sciences interests them!     

Transition Years Experience University Life as a Mathematical Sciences Student

Following the success of the Boole2School initiative in 2015, UCC continues its tradition of cross-border Mathematical contributions with the implementation of the Maths Circles and Junior Maths Enrichment lesson plans to Uganda, as an outreach activity of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences.  

A record 260 students from secondary schools across the Cork area have registered to participate in the UCC Mathematics Enrichment programme 2018-2019.

Johnson and Johnson WiSTEM2D

Title: On a three-dimensional nonlinear model of Pacific equatorial ocean dynamics.

Tuesday 27th November 2018, WGB G02 4-5pm 

Title: An efficient and flexible evidence-providing solver for polynomial equalities in Agda

Speaker:Donnacha Oisin Kidney 

New Light on George Boole Book Launch 

The School of Mathematical Sciences welcomes two new postdoctoral researchers this semester. In this article we find out a little bit about them and their research area.

UCC Hamilton Prize in Mathematics for 2018

Potluck 2018

To celebrate Maths Week Ireland we have  a maths problem for you to solve here. 

6pm-9pm Wednesday 17 October
Western Gateway Building WGB 107

Mr. Chun Xie and Prof. Sebastian Wieczorek (UCC Department of Applied Mathematics, School of Mathematical Sciences) together with Prof. Peter Ashwin (University of Exeter, UK) organised an International Workshop from Monday 27th August to Friday 31st August 2018 on Critical Transitions and Tipping Points. 

A new book on Synchronization has been published by Cambridge University Press in 2018.  It provides a modern introduction into the topic, which is suitable to undergraduate and post-graduate students.  The book is authored by Stefano Boccaletti, Alexander N. Pisarchik, Charo I. del Genio, and Andreas Amann.

UCC Spring Open Days were held on the 16^th and 17^th May 2017.

The m:iv network consists of five partners situated in Cork, Granada, Leicester, Munich and Tsukuba.

Title: Pioneering Irish Women in Mathematics Public Lecture on Tuesday, 14th March at 6:00pm. The Lecture will be delivered by Colm Mulcahy (Spelman College, USA) in Room 107, Western Gateway Building.

In 2014, Dr. Michael Mortell published, with two Russian colleagues Elena Shchepakina and Vladimir Sobolev, the book entitled Singular Perturbations in the Springer series Lecture Notes in Mathematics.

The 13^th edition of the School of Mathematical Sciences’ Financial Mathematics & Actuarial Science Industry Day was a very successful event with a huge student turnout.

The ISA Gossett lecture 2017 will be delivered by the distinguished Professor David Hand OBE (Imperial College London) in the Royal Irish Academy, 19 Dawson St., Dublin on April 6^th at 6:00pm.

The annual School Table Quiz took place last night Thursday 26th Jan 2017.  It was a great success.

School Staff and students (38 in total) along with two border terriers (Ally and Marley) travelled to Killarney to take in the beautiful scenery and walks on Saturday, 26th November.

We host our annual Open Afternoon on Wednesday, 7th December 2016 with Student Registration at 2.15pm.

On Tuesday 15h November, the Staff celebrated the Maths Outreach activities of our School over the years. 

Huge congratulations to all of our Graduates of 2016.

The University College Cork Alumni Network has this week selected former student Prof. John Ryan as Alumnus of the Week

Peter Fennell was recently granted a prestigious fellowship, giving him an opportunity to work in any institution in the United States.

Congratulations to The Numbas Project Team (Julie Crowley, Áine Ní Shé, Vivienne Terhorst, Deirdre Casey, Kieran Mulchrone, Tom Carroll) who had a very successful presentation and launch on Thursday 20^th October 2016.

On Saturday 15th October, in Dublin, Maths Week Ireland presented their inaugural award for raising public awareness of mathematics to emeritus professor Des MacHale.

The UCC Selection Committee determined that Dr Mustata should be honoured with the Exceptional Citizen Award.

The UCC Post Doc Development Hub’s mission is to enrich the professional training experiences and long-range outcomes of Postdoctoral Researchers.

 We had a very exciting day at the School of Mathematical Sciences on Wednesday the 24th of August where we welcomed 28 students from Beijing Technology and Business University (BTBU) to UCC.

Applied Mathematics Seminar (all are welcome to attend)

Speaker:  Dima Rachinskii (UT Dallas)