Maths appeal - engineers inspiring students Print this article
Several hundred professional engineers recently visited their local secondary schools, to give students a taste of real-world calculations and interactive experiments.
This national initiative was undertaken as part of National Volunteers Day, which took place on Thursday, February 11, during Engineers Week (www.engineersweek.ie). The volunteers were aided by an astronomy-themed activity sheet, which was the result of a collaboration between STEPS to Engineering, NCE-MSTL and MACSI. MACSI (the Mathematics Applications Consortium for Science and Industry) is an Ireland-wide network of applied mathematical modellers, centred at the University of Limerick and funded by Science Foundation Ireland.
Strong links
MACSI was established in July 2006, as a hub for mathematical modelling research and education, with the aim of fostering strong links between applied mathematics and Irish industry. Similar groups exist across the world to promote industrial use of mathematics, through workshops, colloquia, study groups and joint projects, but MACSI is the first of its kind in Ireland.
MACSI has a broad base of expertise, and has worked on a wide variety of real problems, ranging from optimal solar reflector design, to estimating wind farm power yield using forecast data. Industrial partners already include several distinguished Irish companies, such as Analog Devices, Piper Systems, Diageo, Erin Energy, Bank of Ireland, and Bord Gáis. MACSI hopes that National Volunteers Day will be the first of many collaborations between it and Engineers Ireland.
Maths events in 2010
Younger engineers may be interested in the mathematics outreach lecture held to celebrate Maths Week in October every year. The annual MACSI
mathematical modelling summer school for leaving certificate students always proves very popular, while for undergraduates in numerate subjects, MACSI offer a summer internship scheme.
Professional engineers might be interested to participate in a ‘study group with industry’ – a set of week-long intensive workshops, where internationally-renowned mathematicians meet to tackle problems proposed by engineers.
For more details on MACSI please email macsi@ul.ie, or see www.macsi.ul.ie.