Ria Symonds, AC for Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire
2019 will be the fourth year that the University of Nottingham has hosted a Celebrating Women in Maths conference for Year 10 students in the area. This enrichment event gives female mathematicians the opportunity to showcase their work to inspire the next generation, whether they are male or female!
Last year’s event was very well received and very popular. Over 160 schools pupils took part in the event which consisted of three mathematical workshops and a fun enrichment talk given by Dr Emily Grossman. Workshops ran for 45 minutes and, during the session, presenters would use the time to inform students of how mathematics was relevant or used in their day to day lives/careers and to also give a hands on opportunity of trying out some of this mathematics. Presenters included females from Veterinary Science, Rolls Royce, Walgreens Boots Alliance, and STEM in Style.
This year’s event will run in a similar fashion and so far we can confirm speakers from the OR Society, a Medical Statistician from the University of Keele, and a Lead Service Manager from IBM. We will also be introducing a FAQ session to this year’s event. We will be encouraging all pupils who attend the event to think of at least one question to ask our panel of females, in the hope they will gather more information of where mathematics can take them in the future.
If you are interested in attending this event then we still have some spaces left! Each school may bring up to a maximum of 15 pupils and you may be eligible for funding to help with transport costs. You can find out more by emailing me at [email protected].