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ExCMS Events Log

2023

ExCMS successfully launched (12/06/2023)

On the 12th June we launched the Exeter Centre for Mathematical Sciences (ExCMS) at the South West Institute of Technology Building on the Streatham Campus. This event was attended by around 50 staff and students both from the Mathematics department and from other departments, including a contingent who made the journey from the Penryn campus, all brought together by their interest in the Mathematical Sciences. The event consisted of an introduction to the centre by the two directors, talks by Mathematicians from around the University, an Early Career Researcher poster session, stands from around the University and an “ExCMS” cake shown below.

ExCMS Data Hackathon (run by Dr John Bruun 19/10/2023)

The Department of Mathematics and Statistics and the Exeter Centre for Mathematical Sciences held a data hackathon in October led by Dr John Bruun. This was open to PGR students and staff from across the University who would like to gain awareness on how data science and data analysis can help in their topic areas. No programming was experience required and attendees got to use contemporary climate data examples (mostly in excel) to explore and discuss how to analyse data.

ExCMS Early Career Researcher Networking Event (1/11/2023)

This was an event for all the Early Career Researchers (ECRs) in the Mathematical Sciences. The Exeter Centre for the Mathematical Sciences organised a networking event to bring together the ECRs working in the Mathematical Sciences from across the University to network and to showcase their research. There will be networking, some talks by ECRs, a poster showcase and lunch. A particularly nice part was the ice-breaker where everyone had to draw a sketch of their research and use this to explain what they did to other attendees.

2024

ExCMS ECR Careers Event (22/3/2024)

The Exeter Centre of mathematical Sciences (ExCMS) with the leads of the ECR Network in Mathematics and Statistics organised a day-long careers event focusing on different possible paths your career in the Mathematical Sciences may take. In the morning, we looked at non-academic careers that a PhD in the Mathematical Sciences may lead you. Starting with a talk from the careers team at the doctoral college, we then had four speakers talk about their current careers and how a Mathematical Sciences PhD has helped them on their path.

In the afternoon we ran two panel discussions. The first was for current PhD students in the Mathematical Sciences giving them a chance to hear from current postdocs at Exeter about how they found their current role. We had a special focus on those who have moved fields to highlight how versatile a Mathematical Sciences PhD is! The second was for those thinking about applying for research fellowships where a number of current fellowship holders talked about the process they went through to get their fellowship and a chance for you to ask question.

ExCMS Ideas Exchange Meeting in Penryn (18/6/24)

A key goal of the centre is to link together Mathematicians from all across the campus. To help acheive this we organized a one-day day event for the Exeter Centre for Mathematical Sciences (ExCMS) at the University’s Penryn campus on Tuesday 18th June 2024. We plan to provide a mixture of talks and activities aimed at promoting exchange of ideas between Mathematical Sciences and other disciplines. Whether you are staff, or PhD student, we hope to offer something relevant to you. We plan to offer transport from Exeter to Penryn and back during the day.

ExCMS Data Hackathon 2 (run by Dr John Bruun 17/10/2024)

The Department of Mathematics and Statistics and the Exeter Centre for Mathematical Sciences held a data hackathon in October led by Dr John Bruun. This was focussed on building links with the data teams that work at the University to help build collaboration in data science and data analysis can help in their topic areas. Attendees got to use contemporary climate data examples (mostly in excel) to explore and discuss how to analyse data.

ExCMS event on Boundary Crossing (run by Dr Houry Melkonian 6/12/2024)

The aim of this workshop was to understand how disciplines can work together. The study uses the theoretical framing of boundary crossing as a way of thinking, to raise engagement through exploring concepts and understandings at the boundaries. The workshop was exploratory in its nature to help investigate relationships between communities and has the potential to lead to larger events in the future. We had five speakers and a dedicated discussion period.

An Eduexe blog on the event was published here.

2025

ExCMS ECR Careers Event (24/3/2025)

In this event we arranged talks and discussions by speakers with a broad range of experiences to support ECRs as they consider the next step in your career. First we had talks about career pathways a Mathematics PhD can take you outside of academia by Dr. Varun Bhaskar Kothamachu (Exeter Alumnus - Senior Manager of Product and AI Solutions at Lifebit Biotech), Dr. Paul Burns (UKMet), Dr. Jordan Moore (Exeter Alumnus - Senior Quantitative Researcher at Impossible Cloud) and Simon Kirby (Research Software Engineer). Followed by an overview on PhD and ECR careers support at the University of Exeter by Peter O' Rouke. Finally we had a panel discussion with those experienced with getting fellowships including Magdalena Strauss (Maths and Stats), Gareth Hawkes (Clinical and Biomedical Sciences), Olga Nev (Biosciences) & Andrew Hillier (Maths and Stats).

ExCMS Ideas Exchange Meeting in Penryn in collaboration with ADA and IDSAI (15/6/25)

On the 16th June a collaborative team of the Exeter Centre for Mathematical Sciences, the ADA project and IDSAI organised an event at Penryn campus to develop cross-campus collaborations in the areas of Mathematics and AI. Both the ADA project and IDSAI kindly provided financial support for this meeting.

We had nearly 30 people travel down to Penryn on the morning of the 16th where we met up with our Penryn colleagues. The event was kicked-off by a set of talks from representatives of ExCMS, IDSAI, ADA, the Data Science and Research Computing team, and Penryn so that we could begin to formulate areas and ideas for collaboration. We then held a networking event over lunch which was followed by dedicated discussion groups to scope out areas ripe for cross-campus collaboration and how this collaboration can be supported. These discussions included a group on Climate and Environmental impacts focussing on the validation and interpretation of physical model output using appropriate statistical and data science methods. There was also a group looking at AI and its applications to understand how AI researchers could connect with researchers who could apply these tools.

This was a vibrant event showing us that there is great potential for cross campus collaborations in the area of Mathematics and AI.

ExCMS/IDSAI Research event: numerical methods and data-driven algorithms (28/10/25)

This event aimed to bring together researchers across the university who work at the interface of numerical methods and data-driven algorithms, or who are interested in doing so in the future. We heard about research taking place in the departments of Engineering, Computer Science, and Mathematics and Statistics with applications to neuroscience, fluid dynamics, weather prediction and industrial product design. After lunch, Conor gave an overview of the Research Software and Analytics group and Nathan spoke about the Digital Research Infrastructure. This was followed by small group discussions on the benefits of formalising a Research Network in this topic and ideas for future events, training and collaborations.