(above) Representatives of the 27 European Research Centres on Mathematics members gather at INI for the group's annual meeting on 29 March 2019.

INI NEWS BULLETIN
April 2019

Dear friends, associates and supporters of INI,

Welcome to the April 2019 edition of our monthly news bulletin. In this release you will find the following eight stories:

1. INTERVIEW: read Kirk Fellow Professor Claudia Sagastizabal's thoughts on renewable energy, the "science of betterment" and punting in circles.
2. PODCAST OF THE MONTH: Dr Frank King (Churchill) speaks to INI about his recent book "Sundials: Cutting Time".
3. BONUS PODCAST: In a recent talk, Professor Martin Buhmann told INI all about the "Mathematikum" centre in Giessen, Germany. Listen to some further thoughts in this extra podcast.
4. GALLERY: new chalkboards installed in INI's main seminar room.
5. VIDEO: the four organisers of the "Mathematical design of new materials" programme discuss their programme's subject, goals and challenges.
6. ROTHSCHILD LECTURE: a final reminder of Professor Eddie Anderson's talk: "What do we agree on when we disagree? Forward contracts with private forecasts" (TODAY @16:00).
7. KIRK LECTURE: a preview of Professor Irene Fonseca's talk: "Variational methods in image processing and in the mathematical analysis of novel advanced materials (10 May 2019).
8. FORTHCOMING WORKSHOPS/TALKS/EVENTS: a guide to the coming month at INI.

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Contact: communications@newton.ac.uk

1. INTERVIEW: Kirk Fellow Professor Claudia Sagastizabal on renewable energy, the "science of betterment" and punting in circles.

Launched in January 2019, the Isaac Newton Institute now proudly hosts the “Kirk Distinguished Visiting Fellowship” (KDVF) scheme. Designed to support and promote underrepresented groups in mathematics, the recipients so far are all female mathematicians of the highest regard.

In the second of a series of interviews, we spoke to the Kirk Fellow for "The mathematics of energy systems" programme Professor Claudia Sagastizabal (Campinas) about her mathematical specialism, the joys of attending an INI programme, the responsibilities of being a senior female figure and the challenges of piloting a Cambridge punt.

Links to a recording of Professor Sagastizabal's Kirk Fellow lecture and to interviews with other Kirk Fellowship figures can be found at the bottom of the article.

2. PODCAST OF THE MONTH: Dr Frank King (Churchill) speaks to INI about his recent book "Sundials: Cutting Time".

Launched in March 2019, the INI podcast series aims to highlight the diverse people and explore the many interconnected topics linked to the Institute's activities.

In this latest episode we spoke to Dr Frank King (Churchill College) about his recent book "Sundials: Cutting Time", the challenges and mathematics involved in designing such classical timepieces, and whether a young Sir Isaac Newton was himself the creator of a sundial. 

Dr King's own designs of sundial can be found across the world, including beside Cambridge Colleges, outside the House of Lords and atop the London Stock Exchange.

0:00 – Introduction to Dr Frank King
1:10 – Recent media attention
1:54 – Are sundials dying out?
02:55 – A passion for sundials: an eclectic history of time, religion, society and politics
04:30 – Sundials and the date of Easter
05:52 – The design and manufacture of Dr King’s sundials: from the London Stock Exchange to Pembroke College to “a bent piece of cardboard”
07:15 – Adjusting for leap years
09:46 – Locating a sundial expert…
11:30 – Exploring the mathematics of sundials
14:05 – The challenges of “implementation”
16:40 – Sundial experts across the UK and beyond
17:40 – The sundials of Sir Isaac Newton: fact or fiction?
18:46 – How can we save the art of sundials for future generations?

3. BONUS PODCAST: In a recent talk, Professor Martin Buhmann told INI all about Germany's "Mathematikum" centre. Listen to some further thoughts in this extra podcast.

On Monday 1 April ASC programme participant Professor Martin Buhmann (Giessen) delivered the talk "The Mathematikum in Giessen/Germany, a Science Centre for the Public".

For those that were unable to attend this exciting and informative event (and even for those that did), we are pleased to present a bonus podcast this month. In it, Professor Buhmann discusses the various merits of the Mathematikum centre, how a more "physical" approach to mathematics can help capture the imagination of the young and old alike, and how best to make learning fun.

0:00 – Introduction to Mathematikum and its motto “Hands on, Minds on”
02:05 – How can one tell if the audience are enjoying themselves?
03:40 – Is colour and tactility key to teaching maths to children?
04:25 – “What is mathematics for?”
06:00 – Painting a picture of Mathematikum’s most popular puzzles and activities
07:50 – “Form follows function”
08:42 – Capturing imagination, softly softly
10:15 – Unsolved mathematical problems in a public space (Goldbach Conjecture)
13:00 – Presenting difficult problems in a simple way
16:30 – Working with the ASC programme at INI

4. GALLERY: new chalkboards installed in INI's main seminar room.

As any previous visitor to INI will know, the Institute proudly boasts over 130 square metres of blackboard throughout the building (including in all shared working spaces, many offices, inside the lifts and within the ground floor toilets).

After more than a quarter of a century of constant use these boards can begin to look their age, hence the ones in the main seminar room have recently been fully replaced and refreshed.

See above and below for images of these pristine new boards, and to see the team from Teacher Boards enjoying the enviable task of "priming" them ready for their 25 year+ stint to come.

5. VIDEO: the four organisers of the "Mathematical design of new materials" programme discuss their programme's subject, goals and challenges.

For nearly two years, the organisers of each INI programme have each kindly agreed to film a video interview discussing the theme, challenges, objectives and potential outcomes of their projects.

In this latest example, Arghir Zarnescu, Xian Chen, Valeriy Slastikov and Miha Ravnik of the "Mathematical design of new materials" programme analyse what lies ahead in their six month programme.

6. ROTHSCHILD LECTURE: a final reminder of Professor Eddie Anderson's talk: "What do we agree on when we disagree? Forward contracts with private forecasts" (TODAY, 16:00-17:00).

Today at 16:00 in INI's main seminar room Professor Eddie Anderson (Sydney) will deliver the talk "What do we agree on when we disagree? Forward contracts with private forecasts". Professor Anderson is the Rothschild Fellow for the Mathematics of Energy Systems programme. This lecture is a public-facing keynote talk delivered as part of that role. All are welcome to attend, and those who can't make it in person can watch it streamed live via this link. A summary of its content follows below.

Forward contracts are used for hedging purposes when firms operate in a spot market. What will happen when firms have different views on the future distribution of prices and are risk averse? We discuss different ways in which two firms may agree on a bilateral forward contract: either through direct negotiation using the ideas of a Nash bargaining solution, or through a broker. We discuss a type of equilibrium in which each firm offers a supply function linking quantities and prices, and the clearing price and quantity for the forward contracts are determined from the intersection. Each firm may also be able to use the offer of the other firm to augment its own information about the future price.

Date: 29/04/19
Time: 16:00-17:00
Venue: INI Seminar Room 1

7. KIRK LECTURE: a preview of Professor Irene Fonseca's talk: "Variational methods in image processing and in the mathematical analysis of novel advanced materials (10 May 2019).

The second Kirk Fellowship lecture of 2019 comes courtesy of Professor Irene Fonseca (Carnegie Mellon) of the "Mathematical design of new materials" programme. All are welcome and encouraged to attend. The talk's abstract follows below:

In this talk we will use variational models involving density measures of different dimensionality to study training/learning schemes for a novel class of image-processing operators that provides a unified approach to the standard regularizers and PDE-based approaches to image denoising. To illustrate the relevance of similar bulk-surface energy models in the study of novel materials, we will analyze the onset of man-made nanocrystals of semiconducting materials (quantum dots). Their formation and assembly patterns play a central role in nanotechnology, and in particular in the optoelectronic properties of semiconductors. Changing the dots' size and shape gives rise to many applications that permeate our daily lives. As the creation of quantum dots evolves with time, materials defects appear and these may strongly influence material properties, including rigidity and conductivity. The regularity and evolution of the quantum dots shapes, and the nucleation and motion of dislocations will be addressed.

Date: 10/05/19
Time: 16:00-17:00
Venue: INI Seminar Room 1

8. FORTHCOMING WORKSHOPS/TALKS/EVENTS: your guide to the coming month at INI.

> Workshop: Managing Next Generation Energy Systems 1st May 2019

> Workshop: Optimal design of soft matter - including a celebration of Women in Materials Science (WMS) 13th May 2019 to 17th May 2019

> Programme: The fickle heart 13th May 2019 to 7th June 2019

> Workshop: Soft Matter Materials - Mathematical Design Innovations 20th May 2019

> Workshop: The Mathematics of Deep Learning and Data Science 23rd May 2019

> Satellite Workshop: Big Proof Follow on 27th May 2019 to 31st May 2019

> Satellite Workshop: Mathematics of data: structured representations for sensing, approximation and learning 28th May 2019 to 31st May 2019
 

See all forthcoming INI events here: https://www.newton.ac.uk/events/calendar

See all forthcoming INI seminars here: https://www.newton.ac.uk/events/seminars