On Tuesday 7 June 2022, girls from across the south of England gathered at the University of Southampton for the AMSP’s very first Steps to University for Mathematical Students (SUMS) enrichment day in the South region.
The day started with one of the postdoc students research fellows, Dr Joanne Ellison, talking about her inspirational undergraduate to postgraduate journey at the university, followed by her giving a very interesting talk on demographics and fertility.
In the first session titled Slow Maths, students were introduced to the idea of “What’s the same and what’s different?” and how this applies to mathematical structure. The AMSP’s James Morris and Nicole Cozens then did a terrific job of building the concept of group theory using principles of transformations and complex numbers. There were lots of great discussions running through the day based upon the structure of Cayley tables, which illustrated the similarities and differences between mathematical structures.
The girls who attended greatly enjoyed their day which was wonderfully hosted by the University of Southampton and its maths staff and mentors. We’re very much looking forward to next year’s SUMS enrichment days already!