About this day
Do your students wonder what mathematicians do?
At our interactive and inspirational day they will discover how classroom maths is used by people every day in fields from statistics, engineering and cyber security to research mathematics. Five renowned speakers from universities, industries and the media reveal mathematics at its very best and your students will have a whole lot of fun along the way!
Programme & speakers
Bits and Pieces: Secrets of a Digital World James Grime, Mathematician and communicator
How does a film studio know if you are sharing movies illegally? How are messages transmitted from space without mistakes? How can a scratched CD keep playing? James Grime take a look at the hidden maths behind the digital world, from WWII to WiFi.
About James Grime
Dr James Grime is a mathematician and public speaker. James runs The Enigma Project, travelling the world giving public talks on the history and mathematics of code breaking. He is also a presenter on the Numberphile YouTube channel.
Lies, damn lies and newspapers Emily Grossman, Broadcaster
Can we believe everything we read in the papers? In this highly interactive and amusing talk, Dr Emily Grossman takes a light-hearted look at these issues, illustrated with examples from her own experience as a TV science broadcaster.
About Emily Grossman
Emily is a bestselling science author, internationally acclaimed public speaker and TV personality. She is best known for explaining science stuff on her fun YouTube videos and on TV shows such as Sky1’s Duck Quacks Don’t Echo (hosted by Lee Mack).
Voting for Goats Matt Pritchard, Scientist and Magician
From TV game shows to General Elections we’re often forced to make choices based on numbers. In this interactive show Dr Matt Pritchard will reveal how our brains can be tricked and how to boost our critical thinking.
About Matt Pritchard
Dr Matt Pritchard is a magician and a member of the Magic Circle. He is a lapsed atomic physicist with a love of recreational maths. He is also a member of the Science of Magic Association, which aims to foster research collaborations between magicians and psychologists.
Maths and chocolate Helen Wilson, University College London
This is the story of a maths project that made headlines around the world. Chocolate is wonderful (of course) but the maths we can use to describe it also explain the behaviour of everything from custard to lava.
About Helen Wilson
Helen Wilson is a mathematician from UCL. She works on weird fluids – many different ones including molten plastics, uncooked custard, and even mucus, but her favourite is chocolate.
A special session of practical maths Colin Wright, Mathematician and juggler
Several games played by children of all ages turn have connections between them, and investigating those connections has turned up surprising results. In this interactive workshop we play some of the games, see the connections, and discover unsolved problems.
About Colin Wright
Colin received his maths doctorate in 1990 from Cambridge University. While at Cambridge he also learned how to fire-breathe, unicycle, juggle and ballroom dance.