Irish Mathematical Society
- Cumann Matamaitice na hÉirinn
Women in the Mathematical Sciences Day: Public Talk
Public Talk: Why maths?
- Speaker: Victoria Sánchez Muñoz, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.
- Location: AC201, Arts/Science Building, University of Galway
- Times: Monday 12 May and Tuesday 13 May, both at 12.30. The talks will be about 45 minutes in duration.
- Booking: to book your place at this talk, send an email to Niall Madden.
What's the best route to go home? How to fit best everything inside the backpack? How can we hide messages so that only your friends can read them?
Maths has all the answers to these questions!
I'll give many (daily life) examples of some of the cool things you can do with maths, and I'll show you that escaping maths is impossible! Because it's everywhere! Even in literature, in videogames, and in art!
I will also explain how I used maths to challenge my insurance company, and if the students are interested on knowing what I do now, I'll briefly explain why randomness is super important and my current research on how to generate randomness with quantum stuff.
This talk will be non-technical (and hopefully fun), thus suitable for any secondary school student. I'll try to keep it highly interactive, so come along with ideas, with questions, and with some answers to "why maths?".
This event is part of the Royal Irish Academy/Irish Mathematical Society Women in the Mathematical Sciences Day, and takes place on 12 May, which is International Women in Mathematics Day.
University of Galway is also hosting Women of Mathematics from around the World. This international portrait exhibition will be on display in the exhibition space of the Hardiman Research Building, University of Galway, for two weeks from May 12.
Victoria Sánchez Muñoz
Bio:
"¡Hola!", I'm Victoria, I'm from Spain but I don't like olives. I did a BSc in Physics at Universitat de València, in Valencia, Spain; and a MSc in Theoretical Physics at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, in Madrid, Spain.
After a post-studies life crisis of "what do I do with my life?", I decided to try for a PhD, and that's how I ended up in the lovely School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences at University of Galway. My PhD focused on studying certain simple games in a triangle-network setting when the players can use quantum stuff.
Currently I'm a postdoctoral researcher at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, in Brussels, Belgium (yeah, lots of delicious waffles and fries). Now I'm researching how to generate higher-quality randomness using quantum stuff.