This month, three members of the ‘Modelling and Analytics for a Sustainable Society’ (MASS) group travelled to Oxford University for the UK graduate modelling camp. Edward Acheampong, Ernst Schäfer and Hayley Mills were accepted to attend the week-long workshop alongside 30 fellow PhD students from around the country. A large number of these were a part of the ‘Industrially focused Mathematical Modelling’ (InFoMM) Centre for Doctoral Training at Oxford. Edward found that “one interesting observation was the similarities between the InFoMM and MASS groups which has given us ideas I believe we can adopt going forward”.
The camp began with a presentation of the five mathematical topics on offer, each designed to give hands-on experience of modelling genuine problems which have arisen in science or industry. The group was then split into five teams, each supported by an experienced mentor, in which they were to work on their chosen problem throughout the week. Edward “attended the program with high expectations to return with ideas to enhance my PhD work”, with his team looking at ‘Modelling enzymatic reactions and molecular transport in cellular systems’. Meanwhile Hayley and Ernst worked together on modelling a new type of non-volatile computer storage - ‘Spin-Torque Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory’.
“The camp provided us an invaluable opportunity to come together with students from other University’s such as Oxford, Cambridge and Edinburgh, learning from their different ways of thinking and working as well as providing our own insights and expertise to the problem” said Hayley. “Our group gelled really well as we had such a range of backgrounds, for example the Physics of the underlying problem was completely new to me and something I was really interested to learn about. Once we then transformed the underlying equations into ODE on the second day and a SDE on the third I then came into my own, so I think it was great that each person was both able to contribute and also learn something new”. “Yeah it was really great to see how, instead of a couple people taking the lead and leaving the rest behind, everyone was able to provide valuable input and contribute to the solution.” Ernst added. “I think that's what's most valuable about events like this, early career researchers get to experience first-hand how valuable it can be to work with someone who has a different background.”
Each group also gave two presentations – firstly on the progress made in the middle of the week and finally on the end results. Prizes supported by the ‘Institute of Mathematics and its Applications’ (IMA) were given to each member of the team deemed to have given the best presentation at the end of the camp – this was awarded to the group mentored by Professor Richard O. Moore from the New Jersey Institute of Technology which included Nottingham’s Ernst and Hayley who each received a book token and year-long associate memberships of the IMA.
Posted on Wednesday 19th April 2017