MSS
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Mathematics Students Society @ UQ You are at the UQ website
 
 
The Maths Students Society

 

 

Mission Statement:

Have you ever suffered the indignity of being asked by someone to perform arithmetic in your head because as a mathematician, that is your expertise? It is the goal of the Mathematics Students Society of the University of Queensland to instigate a public consciousness raising. Let it be known that if you want someone to add a bunch of numbers together then you should go see an accountant. If you want to engage in debauchery, procrastination or witty banter then to a mathematician you should proceed posthaste.

Mathematics Students Society

 

The Mathematics Students Society is primarily a social society. It is a way for students to meet and socialise away from an academic environment. It is YOUR society, so if you have any ideas on what we could be doing for you, let the president know.

How to Join:

Take this short test to see if you should join the MSS. I Like Mathematics:
I continually try to procrastinate:

Pi day should be a public holiday?

 

You know where this comic comes from.

If you answered yes to two or more of these questions, the Maths Student Society wants YOU! To join, just join the MSS mailing list here. All maths PhD students, honours students, and tutors are automatically members of the MSS.

Maths Students on FACEBOOK:

For luddites such as myself, FACEBOOK represents nothing but the skate park where kids get together to terrorize old people and smoke tree leaves rolled up in tally-hos. But in the interest of the youngins, here is a link to the UQ maths FACEBOOK PAGE. Why not join, get to know others, hit the MSS up for a maths funded event.

Events:

Events will be added as the year progresses. Stay vigilant.
To be informed and invited to all MSS events subscribe to the MSS mailing list here. If you are a maths PhD student, maths Honours student, or maths tutor, you already have a subscription. But feel free to subscribe with another email address.

Wine & Cheese

Is Now OVER but here are some pictures:

GRANITE BELT WINE COUNTRY
Featuring wines from:
Pyramids Road Wines
Mason Wines &
Ballandean Estate

A full wine list can be found here

An evening of Lawn Bowls:

Participation is free. Includes a BBQ.

Where? Toowong Bowls Club, Gailey Rd Taringa.

When? 5pm Thursday 30th May 2009.

How? Too late.

Why? A meaningless question.

Intra-School Soccer Tournament:

The Mathematics Department was victorious for the second year in a row. We defeated the Earth Scientists 4-1 in the final. Below is our winning team.

Trivia at Second Degree:

When I was a youngin we played Triva at the Red Room.
Now it is time for the new young maths nerds to play Triva at Second Degree. If a maths based team is willing to participate email the President to organise payment of entry fee (if there is one) or a bar tab. But you must keep the same team name.
Team name: Gaussian Eliminators.

 

Student Achievements

The MSS would like to know about special occasions for students in the department, such as the submission of PhD theses, acceptance of papers and any awards received. The MSS offers to either provide a celebratory afternoon tea, a congratulatory email or at the very least a pat on the back.

Follow the link to stare in amazement at other students and their wonderful achievements. These people also got cake.

Executive:

President: Leesa Wockner.

Treasurer: Fionnuala Buckley

Secretary: Karl Stacey

Postgraduate Rep: Leesa Wockner

Honours Rep: Alex Ridley

Undergraduate Reps: Hien Nguyen and Sky Taylor-Woodlands .

Revenue:

Our main source of income is the Coke machine in front of Priestley building. If this machine should breakdown or become empty then call Nick Coxon on 61431. If however, this machine should eat your money, then you know that it has not broken down. You should not harass Nick and you should definitely not do as one audacious student did and demand his $2 back from the Head of Department. As a point of interest the Head of Department contravened our policy by reimbursing the student.

Other Causes:

We would like to see π redefined to be the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its radius. This is in keeping with the definition of a radian, which is the angle subtended at the centre of a circle by an arc of circumference that is equal in length to the radius of the circle. So there will now be π radians in a complete circle. Say goodbye to writing 2π, except of course if you wanted the value that was formerly 4π.

We support the Dump the Riemann Integral Project (D.R.I.P.). Find here an open letter to authors of Calculus textbooks explaining why the Gauge Integral is so awesome. It is a Riemann-like integral with Lebesgue power!

Recommended Reading:

The Cross Entropy Method by Reuven Y. Rubinstein and Dirk P. Kroese.
Is there anything cross-entropy can't do?

Algebraic Topology by Allen Hatcher.
Excellent text on the subject and best of all it's free.

The CRC Handbook of Combinatorial Designs editored by Charles J. Colbourn and Jeffrey H. Dinitz. An essential reference.

Set Theory: 3rd Millenium Edition by Thomas Jech.
If you can't afford the $110 for a copy of this book, then find someone who has it and photocopy it page by page using Maths department funds.

Arithmetic of Higher Dimensional Algebraic Varieties editored by Bjorn Poonen and Yuri Tschinkel. Includes a chapter by Victor Scharaschkin.

Ulrich Haarburste's Novel of Roy Orbison in Cling Film by Ulrich Haarburste.
This is probably the only book you will ever need to own on the subject of wrapping Roy Orbison in clingfilm.

Piled Higher and Deeper by Jorge Cham. An amusing look at the life of a postgraduate student.

 
Last updated by Leesa Wockner, 10 June 2009