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.
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!
How to Join:
If you are dedicated to the kind of activity depicted below, then you are already a member. Consult our list of events to see how you can become involved.
"Mmmm that's a lot of pizza."
Events:
Events will be added as the year progresses. Stay vigilant.
An evening of Lawn Bowls:
Participation is free. Includes a BBQ.
Where? Toowong Bowls Club, Gailey Rd Taringa.
When? 5pm Thursday 10th April.
How? RSVP to Geoff (gm@maths.uq.edu.au) by Monday.
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 the Red Room:
Every Wednesday from 5:30pm.
Team name: Gaussian Eliminators.
Student Achievements:
- Ben Smith has won the Combinatorial
Mathematics Society of Australasia
Student Prize for the best presentation by a student at the ACCMCC
Conference in Otago, December 2007. - Gareth Evans has won the I-Sim/ACM-SIGSIM
Best Student Paper Prize for his
paper,
"Parallel Cross-Entropy Optimization", at the Winter Simulation Conference
held in Washington. - Leesa Wockner was awarded a Smart State
PhD Scholarship to study
Multivariate Methods for the Analysis of Microarray Gene-Expression Data
with Applications to Cancer Diagnostics. - Susan Worsley, Peter Finch and Thomas
McCourt have had their first papers
accepted.
Susan Worsley, Katrina Hibberd, Barbara Manhaut. Enhancing the student experience in mathematics through the use of a group project. ANZIAM.
Karen Dancer, Phil Isaac, Peter Finch. Universal Baxterization for
Z-graded Hopf algebras, Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and
Theoretical.
Elizabeth Billington, Diane Donovan, James Lefevre, Curt Lindner and
Thomas McCourt, The triangle intersection problem for nested Steiner
triple systems, Ars Combinatoria.
- Melissa Duncan completed her MPhil.
- Xin Liu submitted his PhD thesis.
- Carlo Hämäläinen submitted his PhD thesis "Latin Bitrades and Related Structures".
- David Sirl, together with Hanjun Zhang
and Phil Pollett, has had his first paper published. It is titled
Computable bounds for the
decay parameter of a birth-death process, in the Journal of
Applied Probability. - Leesa Wockner has had her first paper accepted. Co-authored with Martin O'Hely, the paper titled Models for loosely-linked gene duplicates suggest lengthy persistence of both copies is in the Journal of Theoretical Biology.
- Vivien Challis has recently had her first paper accepted, titled 'Fracture resistance via topology optimisation' in the Journal of Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimisation.
- Melissa Duncan won the Ethel Raybould Prize in Mathematics for showing the greatest proficiency in Mathematics Honours for 2006.
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.
Executive:
President: Geoff Martin
Treasurer: Nick Coxon
Secretary: Peter Finch
Postgraduate Rep: Leesa Wockner
Honours Rep: Michael McNamara
Undergraduate Reps: Jon Klaric and Eugene Chai.
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.
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.