Wadham Mathematics equinoctial subject reunion

This Saturday I joined fellow Wadham mathematicians from across the decades for a reunion in Oxford (these photos  were posted by Wadham after the event).  After lunch in college we walked to the new Andrew Wiles Building for a guided tour.



It's an impressive (and indeed award winning) building on a much bigger scale than the previous Institute and with lecture theatres big enough to hold the first year lectures so todays students are denied the regular site of dinosaurs that we enjoyed on our way to our lectures hosted in a the Natural History Museum.   As we passed through the common room we noticed an intriguing puzzle on one of the screens….. something to muse on.



Settling into one of the lecture rooms we were treated to a delightful series of short talks from some of the Wadam Mathematics fellows.  First up we were introduced to "kiiking" which turns out to involve a large swing that you stand up on and aim to build up the required momentum to manage complete revolutions.  There are 2 records associated with this: the largest number of complete revolutions in 1 minute (video of record - recommend skip forward to just over 8 mins into the video); the greatest height of the swing (video of record).  Having introduced us to the sport Sam Howison then took us on a whistle stop tour of a mathematical model that suggests what the limits of these records will be.  More details - here

Next up Andrew Hodges ( most recently famed as the author of the book Alan Turing: The Enigma which inspired the film "The Imitation Game") spoke about "twistor" geometry.  Discovered back around 1970 by Roger Penrose these ideas were seen as what Andrew called "an Oxford eccentricity".  Work continued and 30 years later they came to be seen as fundamental in some areas of particle physics.  More details at www.twistordiagrams.org.uk

Nick Woodhouse spoke briefly about the Clay Mathematics Institute ( of which he is the President) and their PROMYS Maths Masterclass program before handing over to Alex Ritter for the last talk of the afternoon.  Alex treated us to a 30 minute tour of tilings.  More content from Roger Penrose but this time his work on non-periodic tiling - fascinating stuff.   Full details in the notes from a masterclass that Alex ran here

With our last lecture of the day complete it was time for a drink and to say goodbye.

It turned out that the 21st was also the day for the opening of the Weston Library so we took the chance for a quick look in there - impressive transformation.

In an action packed day for Oxford it was also the start of the Oxford Literary Festival (maybe the date for the opening of the library across the street wasn't a complete coincidence) so we rounded off our day with a talk in the Sheldonian by Tony Hawks on his new book.

Corruption of the Magi

I realise that the celebration of Christmas is becoming increasingly secular with declining levels of Biblical Literacy.  If you want to check out your knowledge of bible versus popular misconceptions try this short quiz from the Bible Society.

I know that the news focuses on the stories of crazed shopping, fighting over bargains, vast amounts of money being spent and not so much on the good work that is done at this time of year to address issues such as loneliness and homelessness.

Even so, I was a little surprised by the extent to which the "Season's Greetings" that I received in an email from an Accountancy Firm was so at odds with my view of what this time is all about.

Here's what they sent me ( if it looks a bit odd it's because I've blanked out the name of the firm in question )…

In the narrative to which I cleave, the Magi came to worship a new born king.  With them they brought extravagant gifts, giving freely.  The message being transmitted here however seems to me to be the complete antithesis.  Rather than giving costly gifts we have them written off to expenses and tax deductions.  Rather than coming to offer themselves we instead have a self satisfying "in it for what I can get back" attitude.  A, probably unwitting, extra emphasis coming from the fact that it is the gift of Myrrh, with its symbolism of the suffering and self sacrificial death that Jesus would face, that has been replaced by the self centred attitude of one of the company directors.  "Wise"?  I beg to differ.

Top-lip topiary - a tipping point

Interesting development in the Movember journey.   Until now very few people have commented on my changing appearance.  Last week I even had the amusing experience of being with my wife and having someone comment on her recent hair cut and not mention anything in my regard :-)

Yesterday something changed and I'm starting to get more comments ... perhaps we have passed the point where it could be a trick of the light or a failure to shave that morning..... what do you think?

If you feel inspired to donate to movember, and help raise my national ranking from my current position of #18930, then please head over to mobro.co/mechanicalmole

Hirsute adventure - making a start

November comes round once more and with it the annual event that is Movember raising funds and awareness of men's health issues, particularly Prostate and Testicular Cancer.  After some years of seeing others around me at work getting involved this year I'm joining in.

Here's where we are at day 4

Some concern at the moment that in sleepy autopilot mode one morning we will see decades of behaviour reassert itself but if it doesn't I'll post further updates during the month!  

If you would like to make a donation to Movember's work then you can do so at my "Mo Space" http://mobro.co/mechanicalmole

The end of our time in South Africa looms large #ibmcsc South Africa

Wednesday dawned with the education team being the only one still to deliver its final report to the project sponsors.  We had a meeting set for 10am with our 2 sponsors due to come and meet us at the hotel so we could present our findings and recommendations to them.  If there is one attribute that I have learnt over the last month to be of critical importance it is flexibility, particularly where it relates to schedules.  Today was to be no exception.  Early in the morning we get a message that another meeting means that our main sponsor won't be able to make the meeting.  It is important that he be there so the meeting is rearranged for 1:30pm.  At around 12:15 or so we decide to get some lunch ahead of the meeting and head out of the hotel to make the usual pilgrimage to Woolworths.  Just as we are walking across the car park we are hailed by someone behind us…. our main sponsor has arrived for the meeting!

Slightly awkward in that his colleague is set to arrive around 1:30 but never mind, we head back into the hotel and sit down with him to discuss our report.  Our findings and recommendations are well received which is good to hear.  A bit before 1:30 we agree to head over to the Mugg and Bean in the mall for some lunch and to continue our discussion.  The second of our project sponsors arrives around 1:30 and joins us so we take him through the outline of the report as we wait for lunch.

Lunch over we grab a quick group photo outside the Mugg & Bean

All in all a very positive end to our project with the department of education.  I'm pleased with the progress we were able to make during our time in South Africa and am confident that we have produced a set of recommendations which, if implemented, will help to see TeachersTryScience adopted more widely in the schools.

As an added bonus the trip to Mugg and Bean gave me the chance to add to my burgeoning collection of "Mayorships" on Foursquare - I'm going to have some very fond memories triggered over the coming months as I am notified about others "stealing" my mayorships.



































With all of the teams having done their final presentations and in light of this being our final evening in the Stayeasy we thought a group dinner was in order.  The ever helpful and accommodating staff at the hotel agreed that we could take over the central seating area and rearrange the tables for our meal.




The basic idea was that everyone would contribute something that was appropriate to their nationality.  Woolworths were out of trifle but I did manage to get a custard tart ( looked very much like this ) and a "Mess" which was somewhat along the lines of an Eton Mess.  Other contributions included BBQ ( US), spicy rice and curry (India), Sushi making (Japan) and the hotel kindly provided us with some South African pap as well as bread rolls.  All told quite a feast.

Here is the before photo as we gathered before digging in…..





It will be sad to leave Pietermaritzburg but this was a great way to mark the end of our time there and the bonds that we have built inside the team over the last 4 weeks.

Visit to University of KwaZulu Natal and preparing for final presentations to our sponsors #ibmcsc South Africa

Continuing to catch up on my blog posts from the final days of our trip to South Africa…

Last Tuesday we headed back to Durban to visit the School of Education at the University of KwaZulu Natal.




Having looked at how TeachersTryScience.org could be used to support teachers who are currently working in schools we also wanted to understand how they are trained at the university and what scope there might be to include TeachersTryScience in that process.

It's a pity that we were only able to connect with them at the end of our time in South Africa as it felt that there would indeed be some good possibilities for collaboration.   Something for us to hand over to our local IBM colleagues in South Africa for them to follow up on when we are gone.

Back to the hotel and some focussed attention on completing our final report and presentation that we would be delivering to our sponsors on Wednesday and to the IBM team back in Johannesburg on Thursday.

We pretty much finished the work around 7:30pm so headed over to the mall for our dinner.  We were joined by others in the group for a "Wakaberry walk".





And then a walk back through the largely deserted mall.




Including passing by the "outside" seating for one of the restaurants, have to say that it always felt a bit odd on arriving for a meal when they asked us if we wanted a table "inside or outside" !


Hard to believe that the whole project is coming to a close and Wednesday will be our last day in Pietermaritzburg.

School visit and learning about education centres #ibmcsc South Africa

We were interested in understanding more about the education centres that exist where teachers can access resources to help them with lesson planning and materials for use in lessons.

There was to be an event at the Ekuphileni Primary School ( which is a little outside Durban) to officially launch their library.   The Senior Manager for Library Services and Education Centres was going to be there so this was a great opportunity to meet with her and see another school in action.

We arrived and parked up on what is usually the school netball court.


I did find myself wondering how much time they spend retrieving the ball from down the hillside when the court is actually in use.



The school was better equipped and maintained than some others that we have seen but is built on a fairly steep hill which gives a lot of topographical challenges.

Round the back of one of the classrooms they had a large pile of car tyres that had been donated to them …


….which were being used around the site to build retaining walls, such as here where they are building a play area behind the new reception classroom…

… they are also used for decoration at the edges of their flower beds whose plants are donated by local nurseries. They don't help however to do anything for the problem of rain damage on a steeply sloping path.



In our meeting we learnt more about the 60 education centres that there are across the KwaZulu Natal province and how they can help to support teachers as well as individual learners and provide services to the broader community.

From the school we headed back into Durban to visit the KwaNdengezi Education Centre



As you can possibly tell from the photo this centre is based on a converted house.  It was initially set up through collaboration between the local community and the Pinetown branch of the Rotary Club.  We met the centre manager who gave us an overview of the impressive range of services that they provide from such a small site.  They help to support the 9 schools in the local township providing access to books and a few computers ( though they lack any internet connectivity). Non fiction books are in a small library in the main building and fiction can be found in a "wendy house" in the grounds.  As well as the centre staff they have a range of volunteers from the community who come in and assist.


They also have 3 converted shipping containers in the grounds which provide classroom space


To put it mildly they are not an optimal shape for teaching and I suspect liable to get rather hot but a good example of improvising and making good with what resources that can obtain.



It is very humbling to look round places such as this and hear them talk about the great things they are doing to support learning, working with what they have.  I don't think we heard a single complaint about lack of facilities or resources during our visit just a clear vision of what they were doing and plans for how this could be built on in the future.