Last week, 30 Year 10 mathematicians attended an inspirational virtual Maths in Action conference.

The girls heard from five experts who use maths in their chosen field including developing software, sport, cryptology and social media.  Dr Tom Crawford specialises in Applied Maths and completed his PhD in Fluid Dynamics at the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Prof. Paul Linden. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Maths from Oxford in 2012 where he studied at St John’s College.

Alex Bellos holds a degree in mathematics and philosophy from Oxford University. His bestselling books Here’s Looking at Euclid and The Grapes of Math have been translated into more than 20 languages and were both shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book prize.

Aimi Elias is an Associate Software Developer at Sky. Before that she was a Chartered Civil Engineer working on rail infrastructure such as Crossrail and London Underground station upgrades.

Primrose Kitten is an experienced science teacher with a passion for helping students to achieve their best. As well as teaching science at both GCSE and A Level she produces resources and videos to support students with revision and exam preparation.

The girls said: “Tom Crawford talked about how to calculate the best place to shoot a football. It was really interesting to see how he used over 3,000 pieces of data to find the optimum place to shoot a penalty.”

“I enjoyed learning about how maths can be used to solve unique problems. Learning about the people that worked on decrypting codes during the war was very enlightening. Especially learning about the inspirational women that have aided our advancement, due to their involvement in maths.”

“I enjoyed the puzzle section by Alex Bellos and that there was an interactive Q&A so we could all take part in answering the questions and seeing if we were right.”

“I have always been interested in the idea of computers potentially being cleverer than us, so it was interesting to hear Aimi Elias talk about machine learning.”

“I liked hearing Primrose Kitten speak, as I has seen her YouTube videos before and so it was interesting to see her speak live. Her examinations session was very useful and gave me tips to apply to my maths.”