At least 1,000 years before the Greek mathematician Pythagoras looked at a right angled triangle and worked out that the square of the longest side is always equal to the sum of the squares of the other two, an unknown Babylonian genius took a clay tablet and a reed pen and marked out not just […]
Insight into brain’s complexity revealed thanks to new applications of mathematics
The lack of a formal link between neural network structure and its emergent function has hampered our understanding of how the brain processes information. The discovery of a mathematical framework to describe the emergent behaviour of the network in terms of its underlying structure comes one step closer. A new approach to neuroscience based on […]
Singapore schools to introduce e-learning portal from 2018
SINGAPORE: Students in Singapore will be able to access an online learning portal starting next year, the Ministry of Education (MOE) announced in a press release on Wednesday (Aug 16). The basic functions of the Singapore Student Learning Space (SLS) are currently being piloted at 62 primary and secondary schools, and the portal will be […]
Young professors receive Early Career Awards from DOE
Lin Lin, an assistant professor of mathematics, and Eric Neuscamman, an assistant professor of chemistry, have received 2017 Early Career Research Program awards from the Department of Energy to further their work on new materials. Lin, who joined UC Berkeley’s math department in 2014 and is a faculty scientist in the Computational Research Division at […]
We’re All Born With Mathematical Abilities (And Why That’s Important)
As an undergraduate at the University of Arizona, Kristy vanMarle knew she wanted to go to grad school for psychology, but wasn’t sure what lab to join. Then, she saw a flyer: Did you know that babies can count? “I thought, No way. Babies probably can’t count, and they certainly don’t count the way that […]
UK to adopt Chinese maths textbooks to improve test scores
Students across the British school system will be using textbooks almost identical to students in the Chinese megacity of Shanghai from January 2018, in a bid to improve ailing mathematics test results. The British government will implement an initiative worth US$54 million whereby half of all primary school teachers to use the Real Shanghai Mathematics […]
U.S. math team finishes 4th behind Korea, China, Vietnam
July 25 (UPI) — The U.S. International Mathematical Olympiad team finished in fourth place in international competition, taking home gold and silver medals, the Mathematical Association of America announced. The U.S. team’s fourth place finish was out of 110 teams around the world and behind only Korea, China and Vietnam in the competition, which was […]
Asia’s top-ranked university appoints new president
National University of Singapore promotes provost Tan Eng Chye The National University of Singapore, Asia’s top-ranked higher education institution, has appointed a new president. Tan Eng Chye, who has served as deputy president (academic affairs) and provost since 2007, will take charge at the university in January 2018. The mathematician and academic leader succeeds Tan […]
Renata Konrad Using Industrial Engineering, Mathematics to Combat Human Trafficking
Trip to Ukraine inspired her to find solutions to worldwide problem Professor Renata Konrad remembers the face of a teenage girl she met at an orphanage in Ukraine more than a decade ago during a volunteer trip to the country where her grandparents were born. The girl had no family and no chance for a […]
Mathematics yields techniques for more accurate weather predictions
Weather forecasting is one of the most computationally challenging problems in science. Forecasts are produced by simulating a numerical model of the Earth’s weather patterns and then predicting its future behaviours. For such simulations to correctly reflect actual weather conditions with high accuracy, it is important to update the model with the latest satellite data. […]