Stellenbosch University Mathematics Society

It is our pleasure to announce the SUMS Organising Team for 2021. The committee members are:

Rocco van Velden (Chairperson)
Amber de Decker (Graphic Design)
Adri Wessels (Media Manager)

Thank you everyone for supporting the 2020 team this year despite the global pandemic. We are all looking forward to what the new committee will accomplish.

It is our pleasure to announce the SUMS Organising Team for 2021. The committee members are: Rocco van Velden (Chairperson) Amber de Decker (Graphic Design) Adri Wessels (Media Manager) Thank you everyone for supporting the 2020 team this year despite the global pandemic. We are all looking forward to what the new committee will accomplish.

We will be having our last talk of the year this Thursday, 29 October. The talk will be "The Future is Full of Mathematics" by Dr Tim Boykett of Time's Up, University of Applied Arts Vienna, and Johannes Kepler University Linz. This will take place on MS Teams. The abstract of his talk is below:

Being a mathematician gives you ways of looking at the world that are different and hopefully, valuable. In our work at Time's Up on Futuring, a wide range of mathematical ideas arise. In this talk, I want to look at some of them and contextualise them.

Futuring, also known as Foresight, is a practice based around imagining what the world, society, a business or an organisation might do in some kind of near future. The analytical and predictive forms emerged after the second world war in the area of cybernetics and systems theory. As the impossibility of prediction became clear, with the emergence of chaos theory and such disciplines. We know that, in the words of many, "predictions are difficult, especially about the future" and thus, we accept that prognoses are impossible. Futuring, as we practice it, is a process of imagining a number of possible/plausible/preferable scenarios and using this imagination in order to better prepare the relevant group to be able to respond to the possible scenarios.

We will cover a number of tools that we use with some mathematical content, as well as discussing the ways in which the mindset of a mathematician can help in being a good futures practitioner.

Date: Thursday, 29 October 2020
Time: 13:00
Place: MS Teams (https://tinyurl.com/y5s3nfeo)

We hope to see you all there!

We will be having our last talk of the year this Thursday, 29 October. The talk will be "The Future is Full of Mathematics" by Dr Tim Boykett of Time's Up, University of Applied Arts Vienna, and Johannes Kepler University Linz. This will take place on MS Teams. The abstract of his talk is below: Being a mathematician gives you ways of looking at the world that are different and hopefully, valuable. In our work at Time's Up on Futuring, a wide range of mathematical ideas arise. In this talk, I want to look at some of them and contextualise them. Futuring, also known as Foresight, is a practice based around imagining what the world, society, a business or an organisation might do in some kind of near future. The analytical and predictive forms emerged after the second world war in the area of cybernetics and systems theory. As the impossibility of prediction became clear, with the emergence of chaos theory and such disciplines. We know that, in the words of many, "predictions are difficult, especially about the future" and thus, we accept that prognoses are impossible. Futuring, as we practice it, is a process of imagining a number of possible/plausible/preferable scenarios and using this imagination in order to better prepare the relevant group to be able to respond to the possible scenarios. We will cover a number of tools that we use with some mathematical content, as well as discussing the ways in which the mindset of a mathematician can help in being a good futures practitioner. Date: Thursday, 29 October 2020 Time: 13:00 Place: MS Teams (https://tinyurl.com/y5s3nfeo, clickable link in bio) We hope to see you all there!

Our talk for this week will be given by Lourens van Niekerk. He will presenting "Almost a Pie, and other approximations" tomorrow. This will be a workshop about his Honours project, and some interesting things he got to play around with. This should be highly informative for those planning on doing an Honours project in the future. This talk will be on MS Teams once again.

Date: Thursday, 22 October 2020
Time: 13:00
Place: MS Teams (https://tinyurl.com/y5s3nfeo)

We hope to see you all there!

Our talk for this week will be given by Lourens van Niekerk. He will presenting "Almost a Pie, and other approximations" tomorrow. This will be a workshop about his Honours project, and some interesting things he got to play around with. This should be highly informative for those planning on doing an Honours project in the future. This talk will be on MS Teams once again. Date: Thursday, 22 October 2020 Time: 13:00 Place: MS Teams (https://tinyurl.com/y5s3nfeo, link in bio as well) We hope to see you all there!

This week's talk will be presented by Dr Liam Baker. He will be talking about "Lucas' Theorem: Mathematics in our Blood". This will take place tomorrow on MS Teams. Tomorrow is also the closing date for 2021 committee applications, so please apply if you have not done so already:

https://tinyurl.com/y3x4feu6

Time: 13:00
Date: Thursday, 15 October 2020
Place: MS Teams (https://tinyurl.com/y5s3nfeo)

We hope to see you all there!

This week's talk will be presented by Dr Liam Baker. He will be talking about "Lucas' Theorem: Mathematics in our Blood". This will take place tomorrow on MS Teams. Tomorrow is also the closing date for 2021 committee applications, so please apply if you have not done so already: https://tinyurl.com/y3x4feu6 Time: 13:00 Date: Thursday, 15 October 2020 Place: MS Teams (https://tinyurl.com/y5s3nfeo) We hope to see you all there!

This week's talk will be given by Stellenbosch University alumni, Dylan Nelson. He will be presenting his talk: "Is Democracy a Myth? The Mathematics of Voting Systems". We believe this will be a highly informative talk considering the big event happening in a few weeks, namely the election of the Stellenbosch University Mathematics Society committee for 2021! Dylan's talk will be on MS Teams on Thursday.

Date: 1 October
Time: 13:00
Place: MS Teams (Team link: https://tinyurl.com/y5s3nfeo)

If you would like to apply for the SUMS Organising Team 2021, please fill out the following Google Form before 15 October: https://tinyurl.com/y3x4feu6

We hope to see you all on Thursday!

This week's talk will be given by Stellenbosch University alumni, Dylan Nelson. He will be presenting his talk: "Is Democracy a Myth? The Mathematics of Voting Systems". We believe this will be a highly informative talk considering the big event happening in a few weeks, namely the election of the Stellenbosch University Mathematics Society committee for 2021! Dylan's talk will be on MS Teams on Thursday. Date: 1 October Time: 13:00 Place: MS Teams (Team link: https://tinyurl.com/y5s3nfeo) If you would like to apply for the SUMS Organising Team 2021, please fill out the following Google Form before 15 October: https://tinyurl.com/y3x4feu6 We hope to see you all on Thursday!

The Wits Maths Competition will be taking place next week (14-20 September). Undergraduate students compete in their own division and postgraduate students participate unofficially. If you would like to participate, send us a DM with your name and student number.

This week we will have Dr Gareth Boxall talking about the p-adic numbers. This will be our last talk before the recess, and it will be on MS Teams.

Date: Thursday, 10 September 2020
Time: 13:00
Place: MS Teams

We hope to see you all there!

This week we will have Dr Gareth Boxall talking about the p-adic numbers. This will be our last talk before the recess, and it will be on MS Teams. Date: Thursday, 10 September 2020 Time: 13:00 Place: MS Teams We hope to see you all there!

This week's talk will be given by Dr Karin-Therese Howell. She will be presenting "Matroids You Already Know" as an introduction to Matroid Theory. As per the last few talks, we will be on MS Teams for this talk.

Date: Thursday, 27 August 2020
Time: 13:00
Place: MS Teams

MS Teams Link: https://tinyurl.com/y5s3nfeo

If you have not already, please submit a quote for our "To: Her" project.: https://tinyurl.com/y3t2vq8d

This week's talk will be given by Dr Karin-Therese Howell. She will be presenting "Matroids You Already Know" as an introduction to Matroid Theory. As per the last few talks, we will be on MS Teams for this talk. Date: Thursday, 27 August 2020 Time: 13:00 Place: MS Teams MS Teams Link: https://tinyurl.com/y5s3nfeo If you have not already, please submit a quote for our "To: Her" project.: https://tinyurl.com/y3t2vq8d We hope to see you all at the talk!

Our talk for this week will be given by Ms Leslie Wessels on Near Vector Spaces, an active field of research in the Mathematics division. As per the previous talk, the meeting will be on MS Teams.

Date: Thursday, 20 August 2020
Time: 13:00
Place: MS Teams

MS Teams Link: https://tinyurl.com/y5s3nfeo

Furthermore, we wish to remind you of our "To: Her" project for Women's Month. The link for quote submissions is:

https://tinyurl.com/y3t2vq8d

We hope to see you all there!

Our talk for this week will be given by Ms Leslie Wessels on Near Vector Spaces, an active field of research in the Mathematics division. As per the previous talk, the meeting will be on MS Teams. Date: Thursday, 20 August 2020 Time: 13:00 Place: MS Teams MS Teams Link: https://tinyurl.com/y5s3nfeo Furthermore, we wish to remind you of our "To: Her" project for Women's Month. The link for quote submissions is: https://tinyurl.com/y3t2vq8d We hope to see you all there!

For our August event, we would like to create a motivational artwork for all girls and women. If you have any words of encouragement or quotes you would like to share, you can submit it at the following link:

https://tinyurl.com/y3t2vq8d

If you would like to design the artwork, you can contact Summayyah for more info.

We will send the final product to the SRC for wider publication.

For our August event, we would like to create a motivational artwork for all girls and women. If you have any words of encouragement or quotes you would like to share, you can submit it at the following link: https://tinyurl.com/y3t2vq8d If you would like to design the artwork, you can contact Summayyah for more info. We will send the final product to the SRC for wider publication.

We hope you had a relaxing holiday, and have settled into the new semester's schedule. We will have our first talk for the semester this Thursday, 6 August at 13:00. This will be the first talk in our 2020 Women's Month series. For this week we will have the SUMS organising team members putting the spotlight on some important female Mathematicians. There will be time for discussion at the end, so you are very welcome to share some factoids about your favourite female Mathematicians. Note that we will be using MS Teams instead of Zoom for this semester.

Date: Thursday, 6 August 2020
Time: 13:00
Place: MS Teams

MS Teams link: https://tinyurl.com/yyutxtmy

Furthermore, we would like to create a collage of quotes aimed at encouraging and inspiring girls and women to start or continue their Mathematics studies, regardless of what level they are at the moment. The final product will be submitted to the SRC for wider publication. If you have a quote or word you would like to include, you can submit it on the following link:

https://forms.gle/mMYhqdJM6NLKVABAA

Furthermore, furthermore: make sure you have signed up for the talk by Dr Eugenia Cheng if you plan on attending that over the weekend.

We hope to see you all there!

We hope you had a relaxing holiday, and have settled into the new semester's schedule. We will have our first talk for the semester this Thursday, 6 August at 13:00. This will be the first talk in our 2020 Women's Month series. For this week we will have the SUMS organising team members putting the spotlight on some important female Mathematicians. There will be time for discussion at the end, so you are very welcome to share some factoids about your favourite female Mathematicians. Note that we will be using MS Teams instead of Zoom for this semester. Date: Thursday, 6 August 2020 Time: 13:00 Place: MS Teams MS Teams link: https://tinyurl.com/yyutxtmy Furthermore, we would like to create a collage of quotes aimed at encouraging and inspiring girls and women to start or continue their Mathematics studies, regardless of what level they are at the moment. The final product will be submitted to the SRC for wider publication. If you have a quote or word you would like to include, you can submit it on the following link: https://forms.gle/mMYhqdJM6NLKVABAA Furthermore, furthermore: make sure you have signed up for the talk by Dr Eugenia Cheng if you plan on attending that over the weekend. We hope to see you all there!

Rumour has it our friends at Wisaarkhu - Psychology of abstract mathematics have some exciting events coming up. Follow their social media pages or check out their magazine, Wisaarkhu (https://wisaarkhu.co.za/) to get a taste of what they do.