I'm back!

Rather a long hiatus in posting here. What have I been doing? I've been involved in Bioinformatics Training for over the last 3 years. First at the Institute of Food Research (Now known as the Quadram Institute) and now at Cancer Research UK's Cambridge Institute.

Bioinformatics is a really excellent example of a STEM-based career. Firstly as we are dealing with living organisms, it involves biological understanding. The sequencing technologies involve a lot of state of the art engineering micro-fluidics, flow-cells and discoveries like the Oxford Nanopore.
The sheer amount of data requires considerable IT resources (Programming, Storage, Clusters) to analyse along with a wealth of techniques from Mathematics and Statistics.

Call for RSS Statistical Ambassadors

If you are in the first ten years of your career working with statistics and data, and based in the UK, please do consider applying for the RSS statistical ambassadors programme:

https://www.statslife.org.uk/members-area/member-news/latest-call-outs-to-members/2710-could-you-be-one-of-our-statistical-ambassadors

The RSS statistical ambassadors programme is developing the public engagement skills of UK-based professional statisticians, to create a cohort of volunteers willing and able to respond to requests from event organisers and the media. Existing ambassadors have given media interviews, participated in public events, helped journalists and press officers understand statistical issues, written popular articles, and much more.

We are now accepting applications for a further ten ambassadors to join the programme.

The programme is specifically aimed at early-career statisticians (up to ten years in the profession), including postgraduate students, and those with limited public communication experience.

It aims to support and assist those who wish to engage with public audiences about statistical matters through the media, in person, or online. The programme is not aimed at those wishing to change careers into the media or into professional communication roles.

Statistical ambassadors will receive two days' training and four telephone group mentoring sessions with experts including David Spiegelhalter, Winton Professor for the Public Understanding of Risk at Cambridge University, to help you reflect on and develop your skills. We ask statistical ambassadors to be responsive to requests from the RSS for volunteer time for public engagement. Participation in the programme is eligible for the RSS CPD requirements.

Applications close on 23 March 2016. For full details of how to apply, visit: https://www.statslife.org.uk/members-area/member-news/latest-call-outs-to-members/2710-could-you-be-one-of-our-statistical-ambassadors

Grants for running maths activities at high schools, colleges & Universities

Education Grant Scheme

Individuals in secondary schools, Colleges of Further Education (FE) and Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) in the United Kingdom can apply for a grant to help with the costs of running or attending an educational activity relating to mathematics.

A budget of £6k has been earmarked for this scheme and will be split equally between schools/Further Education and Higher Education. Grants will be made up to a value of £600.

The Institute is aware that educational establishments may have to find alternative funding to help with the cost of running or attending an educational activity relating to mathematics. The Institute is pleased that the Education Grants will help financially support such activities, which will help increase the popularity of mathematics with learners and encourage the take up of mathematics post-16.

More details here at IOM web-site

Public lecture - The Complexity of the International Food Trade Network - Norwich 13:00 Friday 18th September

Professor Jozsef Baranyi

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Jozsef Baranyi will give a public lecture entitled The Complexity of the International Food Trade Network on Friday 18th September
Time: 13:00
Venue: United Nations Association, Friends Meeting House, Upper Goat Lane, Norwich NR2 1EW

Abstract:
With demand for food to increase by 50% by 2030, the current global food distribution system compromises food tracebility, which has an impact on its chemical and microbiological safety.
During a food poisoning outbreak, the first and most important task is to identify the origin of the contamination. Delays in this task can have severe consequences for the health of the population and incur social, political and economical damages with international repercussions. However, the International agro-Food Trade Network (IFTN) is less and less suitable to track the origin of food products.  A case in point was the consequences of the three weeks delay in identifying the origin of the E. coli contamination in Germany in June 2011.
An interdisciplinary approach is needed to better understand the IFTN.  Such an approach is entirely within the means of science and technology, if supported by detailed and systematic data to monitor and control food flows.  The issue no longer affecting just single countries, but the global livelihood of the human population. International organisations, such as the United Nations and the European Union, are essential to the efforts to collect and monitor data on the food trade networks.

London event
Pop-Up Screens <http://www.popupscreens.co.uk/> is a mobile cinema that
does a lot of open-air cinema screenings in Summer and other events in
indoor locations at less warm times of the year. They are doing a series
of five films in May which lend themselves to a bit of science
commentary. All take place at Chelsea Town Hall on Fri, Sat or Sun 15-17 May,
1pm or 6.30pm, details below.

  * Alien with science commentary
    <http://www.popupscreens.co.uk/movies/alien-with-science-commentary/> -
    6.30pm, 15 May
  * Apollo 13 with science commentary
    <http://www.popupscreens.co.uk/movies/apollo-13-science-commentary/>
    - 1pm, 16 May
  * Back to the Future 2 with science commentary
    <http://www.popupscreens.co.uk/movies/back-to-the-future-2/> -
    6.30pm, 16 May
  * Shaun of the Dead with science commentary
    <http://www.popupscreens.co.uk/movies/shaun-dead-science-commentary/> -
    1pm, 17 May
  * Good Will Hunting with science commentary
    <http://www.popupscreens.co.uk/movies/good-will-hunting-maths-commentary/>
    - 6.30pm, 17 May

Today's Google Doodle is about mathematician Maria Gaetana Agnesi...

Maria Gaetana Agnesi, an Italian Mathematician,..is credited with writing the first book discussing both differential and integral calculus

Using Games Theory to explain benefits of Forgiveness

(This page is a work in progress - I will be updating it after the event for which it was created has actually occurred).
I'm planning an outreach activity for the Local Methodist Church's Messy Church family event. It involves showing how a branch of mathematics (Game Theory) can demonstrate the benefits of forgiveness in a game.
I'm using the classic Peace-War game.
The cards and the activities text for the game are downloadable from Dropbox, just follow the links. These are both in Adobe PDF format so you will need to install the free Acrobat Reader software if it is not already on your computer. I printed them, used a laminator and then cut the cards up. Despite printing a pattern on the other side, the cards came out a little transparent for my liking. I'd suggest printing on some lightweight coloured card rather than white paper.

Happy 306th Birthday Euler!

Leonhard Euler was a pioneering Swiss mathematician and physicist. He made important discoveries in fields as diverse as infinitesimal calculus and graph theory.
And very prevalent in the MT365 OU course....

Using NodeXL to visualise a Twitter BigBangFair network

Microsoft NodeXL graph of Twitter network of people tweeting about @bigbangfair
(I'm the STEMnet Ambassador icon :-) )

Reflections on IFR Day 2 @Bigbangfair

Another insanely busy day on the IFR stand at Big Bang Fir. Our network stand was very popular with young people crowding the tables to get one of our food passport bags and get onto @MEandER pizza network sculpture. We were relieved when Joanne, Dr Phil & Charlotte arrived to reinforce us. They went into flat out packing of the bags as our supply was dwindling. Even this heroic effort wasn't enough to keep up with the maximum flow (Networks reference :-)) and we had to close the stand for 15 minutes whilst we went all hands to the pumps to re-supply before next surge.
Jozsef (Baranyi) and I had a frantic but wonderful time talking about the maths of network science and it's applicability to the real-life problem of food safety & Food sceurity.

Two concerns remain 1) will our passport supply last out to Sunday and 2) will my voice last out?

I feel this has been our best stand so far and that we've successfully engaged with a huge number of youngsters about IFR science. We could not have done this without our volunteer helpers and generous funding by IFR and the Global Food Security consortium.

More photos to follow (including a mightily passport festooned sculpture)....

IFR on Day 1 @Bigbangfair at Excel London

Our Big Bang Fair Experience starts today with schoolchildren fro around UK getting their contemporary science fix.
We arrived yesterday at about 1pm and in a mere 8 hours had unloaded both vans and got both the IFR and JIC stands up (photos to follow) in what could only be described as Ice Station Zebra conditions....

We're showing how food-borne outbreaks fof  in our global food supply chain can occur and our weapon of choice to explain it is Network Science - so break out the math!

Pi Day Live with Marcus du Sautoy (@MarcusduSautoy)

Celebrate Pi day on 14th March at 1:59 with Marcus du Sautoy here.

* Ever wanted to know what we use Pi for? Be amazed at how often it turns up in unexpected places...
* Ever wondered how to calculate Pi without a computer?
* Ever wanted to have a go at crowd-sourcing a problem? (Join others in calculating Pi and see if the 'Wisdom of the Crowd' will win the day?

Launching Maths in Europe (@MathsInEurope) portal and Mathematics of Planet Earth 2013

Launching of the European portal for Mathematics on Facebook and Twitter. The web addresses arehttps://www.facebook.com/EUMaths andhttps://twitter.com/MathsInEurope, respectively.  Our Twitter name is @MathsInEurope. 

You can help us spreading the word by forwarding this message to your contacts, 'liking' our Facebook page , following and re-tweeting our Twitter feed.

This week we will be releasing Christmas Maths. The portal will be sharing maths news and maths media (no pun intended). 
The target age is younger adults and teenagers, including teachers and anyone with curiosity. If you teach we encourage you to share the info with your students. We are measuring how quickly we get to 1m 'likes'.

We invite you to join us promoting Mathematics in wider Europe: we encourage you to post messages in our Facebook page, mention us on Twitter and make us aware of the great things that are being done in mathematics across the continent.

To begin with we are collating information about UK activities under the theme Mathematics of Planet Earth 2013 (http://mpe2013.org/) for the main website Mathematics in Europe (http://www.mathematics-in-europe.eu/). 

Tomorrow's Mathematicians Today 2013

Courtesy of the Open University:

 

Tomorrow's Mathematicians Today 2013

The IMA and University of Geenwich are organising a conference 'Tomorrow's Mathematician's Today 2013' on Saturday 16 February  at which undergraduates will be able to give short presentations about mathematics which excites them. For further information, go to http://mathsoc.cms.gre.ac.uk/tmt/

#scienceclub episode 2

OK, a quick review of the second episode. Please forgive any omissions as I didn't take notes and had my two young sons creating their own brand of mayhem in the room...

The show was themed on Einstein (The real one not the Yahoo Serious one). A brief animation of his work and the History of Physics was shown. We were brought into a conversation with Professor Jim Al-Khalili (Whose excellent Shock and Awe series on electricity is being repeated at the moment - recommended viewing) about 'nothing' or rather what does space consist of (so ideas like dark matter & dark energy and vacuum energy featured). The findings about how the universe is expanding even more rapidly that previously thought heading towards  a theoretical 'Big Rip'.
Experiments included measuring the speed of light using micro-waved cheese on toast and Mark M. did some fridge dis-assembly(!).
The funding of big science (e.g. applied physics) got a similar treatment to last episodes piece on the Human Genome project (i.e. can we afford to fund it, what practical use is it etc) and included a disappointing sound-bite from Sir David King implying that we should fund more practical science rather than 'Big Science'.
Finally, a consideration of the fate of Albert's brain after he died and what made it different from 'normal' brains occurred.
All in all, a good episode, but in my own personal view,not quite as good as the first episode (but then I'm a biologist :-)).
Next episode will have the theme of life, death & extinction (sounds cheerful!).

Relatively Prime series

Of interest to mathematicians and students of mathematics:

Relatively Prime is a series of eight shows all about the stories

behind mathematics that was funded through Kickstarter. The first

episode of Relatively Prime will be released on September 17th and the

series will run until November 5th, with a new episode being released

every Monday. Relatively Prime will be licensed under a Creative

Commons Attribution-Share Alike License and Samuel Hansen is looking

forward to any remixes that may result. The show will be available to

download directly at the show’s website, through the RSS Feed, and

through iTunes.

Website: http://relprime.com/

RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/relprime

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/relatively-prime/id560923828

Full press release: http://acmescience.com/shows/1687

Solvay Conference photo colourised.

A magnificent moment if the history of Science (from the fifth Solvay Conference in 1927)
29 icons of science in one photo

By any other name...

What a mathematician might send out on February 14th - Courtesy of Google's WebGL powered 3D-plotting

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