All degrees are not created equal

I saw a really interesting piece on BBC Breakfast this morning in which the claim was made that there are now too many graduates entering the jobs market and that graduates of many degrees are not finding graduate jobs as a consequence. This interested me particularly because of an incident earlier in the week. I was asked by a student at one of my careers talks in Scotland why, given what I was saying about what an excellent degree mathematics was for so many career choices, numbers of students taking mathematics was falling. Firstly I said I thought we are starting to turn that particular tide, with good inititatives and a rise in numbers (with maths rising above the general rise). Secondly I said I felt there was a lack of understanding among school students looking to take degrees of the relative value of different degrees, with students thinking maths is a difficult choice of degree subject and not realising the extra value that it has for their graduate prospects.

Podcast: Episode 19 - Maths news with Sarah Shepherd

These are the show notes for episode 19 of the Travels in a Mathematical World Podcast. 19 is the smallest number n such that n to the power n is pandigital (contains all 10 digits). More about the number 19 from Number Gossip.

This week on the podcast I met Sarah Shepherd, PhD student at the University of Nottingham and Editor of iSquared Magazine and we discussed some maths news. Links to all the articles we mentioned are below.

Emperor penguins face extinction due to climate change, a new study and mathematicial model suggests. Read "Emperor penguins face extinction" on the BBC News website.

Graham Parker has solved his rubix cube after 26 year attempting to do so. Read "Rubik's Cube finally solved after 26 years by avid fan" from the Telegraph.

Professor David Williams of Swansea University has solved a mathematical problem following brain surgery, though his piano playing ability is not what it once was. Read "Swansea professor’s maths victory" from the Weston Mail at WalesOnline.

Carol Vorderman is to head a new maths task force for the Conservative Party. You can read about this in many places, including "Vorderman heads maths task force" from the BBC, "Carol + David = new Tory strategy to make maths fun" from Guardian and "If Vorderman is the answer, Cameron's asking the wrong question" in the Guardian. There is an interview with Carol which touches on this and other issues, "Carol Vorderman on money, celebrity and being the new maths czar" in the Times. Carol would like pupils and parents to email her at carol@mathstaskforce.com with their questions, complaints and observations about how they are taught maths.

There is an interview with Marcus du Sautoy in the Independant, "Credo: Marcus du Sautoy".

There is a piece about Charles Darwin's contribution to the development of statistics "Darwin: The Reluctant Mathematician" in Science News.

There is a column in the Independent which touches on a lot of current issues in mathematics. Read "Boyd Tonkin: The answer is 23: new shots at maths" in the Independent.

Remember the snow at the start of February? Read "Why do snowflakes have six arms?" in the Times.

At the time of recording, the current edition of Marcus du Sautoy's column in the Times is "Sexy maths: Why Palladio's proportions are pleasing on the eye and the ears".

We had a ramble about Twitter. I have decided to try Twitter so you can follow me at http://twitter.com/peterrowlett. Plus magazine are also using Twitter via http://twitter.com/plusmathsorg. You can read Plus magazine at plus.maths.org.

If you are a student who is not receiving an email with links to PDF articles from the IMA members publication Mathematics Today, please email me. This facility is free for students only.

iSquared Magazine is available through www.isquaredmagazine.co.uk.

You can find out more about my work with the IMA by reading this blog and visiting www.ima.org.uk/student.

Goodbye, Scotland

I have now concluded my time in Edinburgh and am heading home on the train. I have really enjoyed my week in Scotland. I have visited some wonderful places and met some lovely people. I didn't have as much time as I would have liked to explore the places I visited but then this isn't a holiday! As well as yesterday morning seeking the Clerk Maxwell statue, I spent a couple of hours before my train this morning in a beautiful, sunny Edinburgh. Below are a couple of the many pictures I have taken. I particularly think the last one is a nice rendition of Edinburgh in sping. I would like to have spent more time (a fortnight perhaps?!) exploring but I had to get on a train as it is a long journey home at the end of a very busy week.

James Clerk Maxwell statue in Edinburgh

I started the day with a spare hour in Edinburgh during which I had a pleasant walk around old Edinburgh and sought out the statue of James Clerk Maxwell which was erected earlier in the year and to which the IMA made a contribution. There are some pictures of the statue below.


If you click on the picture of the plaque below you will see a larger version and may be able to make out the names of the donors, including the IMA at the bottom right.After seeing the statue, the good people of the Royal Society of Edinburgh showed me into the Maxwell room which included a hologram of the statue and a case of artifacts (pictures below). I was particularly taken by the manuscript for an article hand written by Maxwell which is exhibited along with the hand written referees comments.

Crisis and Careers in Edinburgh

I have had a somewhat fraught day in Edinburgh. I gave a careers talk hosted by Dugald Duncan at Heriot-Watt University in the late morning. This was well attended and went perfectly well. I even made contact with a student who is in the process of forming a Mathsoc at that university and encouraged him to consider a University Liaison Grant application. There is a picture of a statue of James Watt at Heriot-Watt below.


Next I went to the University of Edinburgh for the afternoon. First I had lunch with Liam O'Carroll who organised the afternoon then we were joined by a group of postgraduate students and staff for tea and biscuits in a "Meet Peter Rowlett" session. Following this I was due to give a talk and on arrival at the room I realised I had left my laptop at Heriot-Watt. Crisis! I phoned Heriot-Watt and Pat Hampton offered to go to the room to look for it. I had to give my talk on a laptop provided by a member of the audience, David Mitchell. At the end of the talk I received word from the School Office that my laptop had been found safely at Heriot-Watt and I should phone to arrange collection of it but no time for that, I was on to my next appointment! I spoke briefly at the start of the staff meeting about my work with the IMA, which was a fairly intimidating affair, particularly being, as I was, slightly flustered by events so far. Then I was able to phone Heriot-Watt and arrange for them to send my laptop over in a taxi. David took me to a cash machine and waited with me for the taxi but we were still waiting as the time crept up to the second showing of my careers talk. I had to go and give the talk so David offered to wait for the taxi for me and collect my laptop. I went and gave my talk again and again it went well. Attendance at both talks was good, particularly given that it was Friday afternoon so I was pleased with this. After the talk I met up with David and my laptop is fine. I recorded podcast episodes with David and Mike Maher and then retired to the pub with David and some of his fellow PhD students for a relaxing drink at the end of a very stressful afternoon.

I am extremely grateful to both Pat Hampton and David Mitchell for their help with my laptop crisis. Without their involvement I could not have come to a happy solution. I think the talks in Edinburgh went well and were well attended despite my self-imposed crisis.

Glasgow

Thursday was Glasgow day in my Scottish tour. I started the day by travelling to Glasgow. The picture below is of George Square which is very impressive but somewhat affected by the rain. I have received mixed opinions of the rain in Glasgow with some people telling me it rains at least every other day and others telling me it is mostly sunny. On my day there it was grey and rainy.


The picture below is of the main gate at the University of Glasgow, which is not where I gave my talk. In the maths building I passed a pleasant hour with Professor David Fearn discussing my work for the IMA and the proposed merger with the LMS. Professor Nick Hill took me to lunch and for a tour of campus including the houses where once the 12 university professors lived, including at one time Lord Kelvin, and the River Kelvin from which his title was derived. After this, Professor Peter Kropholler hosted me for my careers talk to what turned out to be a surprisingly small group of students. The talk went well and felt nicely intimate but it was a shame not to have seem more students.


Next I travelled to the University of Strathclyde. My talk was in the Livingstone Tower and there is a picture of a statue of David Livingstone below. I met with Professor Iain Stewart who organised my talk which I gave to a reasonably large crowd and it seemed to go well.


After my talk in the staff room at Strathclyde I took the following snap. I was pleased to see iSquared among the available publications. In the course of my careers talk I always ask students if they read iSquared and Plus magazines. Not many do, actually, so perhaps these need greater promotion. I think both give a good idea of the range of career options and areas of work open to maths graduates that they are not necessarily aware of otherwise.

Careers in the home of golf

From Aberdeen I moved on to St. Andrews. On the train I was in awe of the scenery which was quite beautiful but my only opportunity to stop and take pictures was when I was at Leuchars station waiting for the bus, which was unusually unremarkable. On the approach to St. Andrews we passed a sign "Welcome to St. Andrews - The home of golf" but my only view of the famous course was when it was too dark to see it.

Once in St. Andrews it was starting to lose the light so I took a couple of pictures from the bus station (below) before I had dinner with the Chaosoc committee.


After dinner we moved on to one of the St. Andrews university buildings where I gave my careers talk. This was well received by a fairly large turn out. A lady from the university careers service was keen to reiterate most of the content of the talks to the students at the end of the talk and was able to remind the students how the careers service can help them. It is good to have a local contact speak for a couple of minutes at the end of my talk to reinforce how the students can access careers advice locally. After the talk I was given a tour of the town by the Chaosoc President Alistair Wallis. Then the committee and I retired to the pub before I was given a lift back to the railway station.

Aberdeen

On Wednesday I went to Aberdeen and had lunch with Garry Brindley, Chair of the IMA Scottish Branch in the Aberdeen Maritime Museum, where I saw a scale model of an oil rig.

I then travelled to the University of Aberdeen where I gave my careers talk to the Maths Club. This was well received in a nice, informal setting by a lively bunch of students. In attendance was Vivien Ellins from TechFest-SetPoint and she was able to say something to the students about their work bringing graduates to present maths masterclasses in schools. Pictured below are a couple of pictures I took wandering around campus; the second is the Meston Building where I gave my talk.


Aberdeen is lovely and the weather was great and it is a shame I was only able to stay for about 3 hours in all. In between being a bit lost and other activities I remembered to take some pictures (below) of and from Union Street.

Talk to Scottish Branch

On Tuesday after teaching a class at Nottingham Trent 10am-12noon I jumped on the 12.45pm train to Edinburgh. I arrived at 5.30pm and by 6.30pm I was giving a talk to the IMA Scottish Branch. Busy day!

The invite to my talk went to staff and postgraduate students at Napier University and IMA members more generally in the Branch. I gave most of the content from my careers talk but filled this out with some background on the University Liaison initiative and some of my activities, including other talks, careers fairs, the RUMS group, University Liaison Grants, Mathematics Today and the Student Section, the Younger Members Group, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, this blog, my Twitter page and the podcast.

I'm happy to report that a member of the audience has already passed on what I said, including a link to this blog and the Maths Careers website from the maths4edinburgh blog.

Careers in Cardiff

I spent a very enjoyable overnight stay in Cardiff. I gave my careers talk at the School of Mathematics, University of Cardiff (pictured below) and had lunch afterwards with Julie Hepburn, who acts as the AGCAS half of our AGCAS-IMA link. We talked about the ways we can work together to promote maths careers. Recently Julie distributed an email to careers advisors on my behalf talking about the good careers resources available from the IMA directly and through the Maths Careers project and offering to give careers talks, etc.


While I was in Cardiff I met Gareth Howell of the IMA Younger Members Group for a drink and I did indeed do what the bridge says and drink Brain's (below; if ever there were a need for misapplication of an apostrophe! Just one small grammatically correct mark away from being a zombie direction).

Podcast Episode 18: Jane Wess, Science Museum

These are the show notes for episode 18 of the Travels in a Mathematical World podcast. 18 is the only number that is twice the sum of its digits. More about the number 18 from Number Gossip.

For episode 18 I visited the Science Museum where Jane Wess told me about the mathematics collection. To accompany this episode there is a video of Jane demonstrating Napier's Bones.



You can find out more about my work with the IMA by following me on Twitter, reading this blog and visiting www.ima.org.uk/student.

At Brunel giving the same talk, differently

Today I woke in Uxbridge and spent part of the day with Victor Arulchandran at Brunel University. I gave my careers talk first to the third year, where I was joined by the mathematics careers advisor, Raj Sidhu. I focused the talk on the career development aspects - the benefits of joining a professional body to commit to your professional development and help improve your career prospects. Following this, I gave the same talk to the second year, where I was joined by the mathematics placement officer, Reay Elliott. I focused the talk on the skills acquisition aspects and developing yourself during your degree by aiming to develop (and be able to evidence) the skills businesses want and those they think maths graduates don't have (overcoming those ole' stereotypes). The picture below is of the Mathematical Sciences building at Brunel. Victor and I had lunch then I jumped on a train to Cardiff.

Wii ball games in Greenwich

Yesterday I took the Wii to the Mathsoc at the University of Greenwich. I gave a talk on spin in the ball games pool, golf and tennis and then the students played pool and tennis on the Wii. I think everyone had a good time and hopefully it raised or reinforced their awareness of the IMA. It was a good evening, anyhow. Some pictures follow.

Hold the bandwagon, I want to get on

I have been considering for a while the phenomenon that is Twitter. The BBC programme (or podcast) Digital Planet this week described it as: "until relatively recently, Twitter, where people just decribe what they're doing in 140 characters or less was a rather niche, almost geeky thing" but it is now hitting the mainstream with celebrities and several people I know now using it. As a bone fide geek I have been following the development of Twitter for a while but haven't quite taken the plunge. Now it is really taking off I have decided to give it a go for a trial period. (Or a trail period - one of the groups in my maths skills class at Nottingham Trent wrote in their project plan they would approach the problem in the first instance by "trail and error". As my officemate quipped, "they've got the error part right").

So from now and for now as well as my website, blog, podcast and pages on Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and YouTube, I will now also be tweeting via twitter.com/peterrowlett.

Bristol

Last week I stayed in Bristol on my way back from Plymouth. As I was going to be there I contacted both Bristol Universities and am pleased to report that at embarrasingly short notice they were both able to arrange for me to give my careers talk. First I travelled to University of West of England (UWE) and gave a talk to a small group there. This was a nice, relaxed environment and my talk was well received - I have been asked to come back and give it (with more notice!) to a skills/careers module. The picture below is of the building where I gave my talk.


Next came the University of Bristol Department of Mathematics. I visited Bristol before earlier in 2008 and so was familiar with it. This helped, since the chap who had arranged the talk was unable to meet me. I was at the front of the lecture theatre with 40 or so students looking at me and no idea what to do! Thankfully, Dan Lindsay of Matrix was in the audience and shouted out advice on how to get the projection system working. The talk went well and seemed to be well received. The picture below is of the maths building.

Wandering the corridors I took the picture below. Bristol is a university with degrees approved under the IMA Programme Approval Scheme and the picture below shows that they are proudly displaying their certificates. I have also noticed that they are boasting their approval on their website. This is really good to see, since it helps increase the IMA'

Podcast Episode 17: History with Noel-Ann Bradshaw, al-Kharazmi

These are the show notes for episode 17 of the Travels in a Mathematical World podcast. 17 is prime, the only prime of the form p^q + q^p, where p and q are prime. More about the number 17 from Number Gossip.

In the regular Maths History series, Noel-Ann Bradshaw of the University of Greenwich and also Meetings Co-ordinator of the British Society for the History of Mathematics talks about the life of al-Kharazmi. You can read a biography of al-Kharazmi at the MacTutor History of Maths Archive, read more information on the al-Kharazmi page at Wikipedia and find out about the concept of Algorithms at Wikipedia and a history of algebra at algebra.com.

You can find out more about my work with the IMA by reading this blog and visiting www.ima.org.uk/student.

Most southerly maths careers

This week I went to the University of Plymouth for a Maths & Stats careers event. This took the form of 3 parallel sessions of 2 speakers each which repeated once, in which representatives of various employers (many Plymouth alumni) gave talks on their careers. Before the first session was a lunch and in between the sessions there was a tea break, during both of which I operated an IMA stall among a couple of others.


I took my usual approach, baiting mathematicians with interesting puzzles and then slipping careers advice into their hands and telling them about the IMA when they're drawn in. This had the usual selection of puzzles, plus a couple of others I bought or was bought over Christmas (thank you Scott!). I made sure everyone left the stall with a postcard advertising the Maths Careers website, an IMA Maths Careers Advice leaflet and a flyer advertising the Travels in a Mathematical World Podcast. I had a really enjoyable day and I think it was useful for the students and the IMA as well. I gave out 80 of these leaflets to students plus a couple to the careers staff and a couple to the maths staff so hoping that will do some good!

I didn't see very much of Plymouth, as I was only able to stay for about half an hour either side of the 4 hour careers event. Alas, I didn't find time to see the sea. I could at one point see that a couple of streets away the buildings stopped, a clear indication I have reached the edge of the world. I walked past a couple of interesting pubs, including one called The Fresher & Professor, which for some reason has Herbie The Love Bug sticking out of the top!

Circles, round and otherwise, and after-talk networking at Birmingham

Last week I attended an enjoyable talk by Dr. Chris Sangwin on some of the interesting results from his book with John Bryant, "How Round is Your Circle?" at the invitation of the University of Birmingham Mathsoc. This was followed by an after-talk networking session put on by the Mathsoc using an IMA University Liaison Grant, which was a nice atmosphere for students and staff to mingle.

You can watch a video of Chris demonstrating the property of solids of constant width on YouTube and there is further information in the book and through the website at www.howround.com.

Careers in Greenwich

Last week I visited the University of Greenwich and gave a lunchtime session on careers. I talked about careers for mathematicians, skills of maths graduates and an overview of the IMA. This was followed by a CV writing session to make it up to an hour and I think this combination of me giving a talk followed by a skills session was a strong one. Noel-Ann Bradshaw, who organised this session, was kind enough to write a nice piece on this over at the IMA RUMS blog. I have retrospectively written a title and abstract for this talk as I plan to give it several more times this month:

What do mathematics graduates do? And what skills do employers think they lack?

This talk will highlight some of the broad range of careers options for mathematics graduates and point to several sources of career inspiration. Following this is information on the skills a maths degree gives you and those it perhaps does not. Looking at what skills employers think mathematics graduates lack will help you in finding a job - when you sit down in a job interview, what skills is the person opposite you expecting that you lack? Being able to surprise them may just get you the job! The talk rounds off with a look at the benefits of professional membership and some information about the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications.

Podcast Episode 16 - Chris Bailey, Cutty Sark Restoration

These are the show notes for episode 16 of the Travels in a Mathematical World Podcast. 16 is the only number of the form x^y=y^x with x and y as different integers, being both 2^4 and 4^2. More about the number 16 from Number Gossip.

I visited the University of Greenwich last summer and spoke with Professor Chris Bailey, who is working on the conservation of the Cutty Sark project. You can read more about the Cutty Sark at the Cutty Sark website. There is an article about Chris' work on the Cutty Sark from the Independent, read "How Greenwich University is helping to rebuild the Cutty Sark". You can read a good introduction with plenty of suggestions for further readings on the Wikipedia page for Reliability engineering.

You can find out more about my work with the IMA by reading this blog and visiting www.ima.org.uk/student.

Podcast: Episode 15 - Maths news with Sarah Shepherd

These are the show notes for episode 15 of the Travels in a Mathematical World Podcast . 15 is the number of letters in the words "uncopyrightable" and "dermatoglyphics", which in English are the only two longest words there are without repeating a letter. This fact and more about the number 15 from Number Gossip.

This week on the podcast I met Sarah Shepherd, PhD student at the University of Nottingham and Editor of iSquared Magazine and we discussed some maths news. Links to all the articles we mentioned are below.

Professor Simon Baron-Cohen has expressed concerned at the prospect of a prenatal test for autism, that this could affect . Read "Autism test 'could hit maths skills'" from the BBC News website .

The government have launched a campaign which encourages people to improve their numeracy by playing darts. Read "Play darts to help improve your maths skills" from the Telegraph.

England's Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) have said that interest and recruitment in teaching are up in the global economic crisis. Read "Downturn 'boosts teacher numbers'" from the BBC.

The National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics have released a collection of video clips on their website showing maths being used in work context, "Maths in Work".

The BBC reported that some schools will being piloting a new "twinned" GCSE. Read "Maths piloted as 'twinned' GCSEs" from the BBC.

The New Scientist report on a study which has proposed a solution to the mystery of what happened to the Beagle 2 spacecraft. Read "Flaw may have sent Beagle 2 to a fiery doom" from the New Scientist.

Professor Martin Taylor has been awarded a knighthood in the New Year Honours List. Read "Honour for Royal Society luminary" from the BBC.

There is an interesting interview with the mathematician Marcus du Sautoy - described as "head cheerleader for British science" - in the Times. Read "News Review interview: Marcus Du Sautoy".

There are two stories covered elsewhere on this blog on the benefits of being a mathematician and the benefits of professional membership.

KPMG claim that children who are bad at maths at school end up costing the taxpayer up to £2.4bn a year. Read "UK maths failures 'cost £2.4bn'" from the BBC.

England pupils have risen in an international league table for mathematics, according to the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Read "English pupils get better at maths and science - but enjoy them less" from the Guardian.

The charity Sense about Science have warned against celebrities misleading claims about science, including Mariah Carey, Delia Smith and Tom Cruise. Read "Stars 'misleading' about science" from the BBC.

Finally, I recommended those who are interested in more maths content read Plus Magazine - where I mentioned the story "Automated mathematics" and the careers interview with mathematician and actor Victoria Gould - and iSquared Magazine, where Sarah told us what was in the current issue of iSquared - articles on turing machines, Einstein's theories of relativitity and a review of the BBC4 programme "The Story of Maths", now out on DVD. I said university students ought to be receiving an email copy of articles from the IMA members publication Mathematics Today and if they weren't they should email me.

You can find out more about my work with the IMA by reading this blog and visiting www.ima.org.uk/student.

Maths = A Good Job

I was pointed to a piece in the New York Times which says that being a mathematician is the best job in the U.S. A study evaluated 200 occupations against five criteria: environment, income, employment outlook, physical demands and stress. Being a mathematician - a career path that the New York Times says provides a "steady stream of lucrative, low-stress jobs" - came top of the list, followed by Actuary and Statistician. So all of the top three are jobs for mathematics graduates.