UCC MSc student wins Prestigious SCOR Actuarial Award

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