The School of Mathematics and Statistics at UNSW runs a series of annual workshops called "Girls Do The Maths". These aim to provide an overview to female students near the end of their high school studies (years 11 and 12) who are interested in mathematics and want information about possible career directions involving mathematics.

Mathematics is a dynamic area of research in numerous fields such as biomedical research, statistical analysis and financial markets. Mathematics reveals hidden patterns that help us understand the world around us. It is a diverse discipline that deals with data, measurements, and observations from science; with inference, deduction, and proof; and with mathematical models of natural phenomena, of human behaviour and social systems. What’s more, the muscles required for mathematics are of the intellectual kind! Want to know some more? The University of New South Wales holds this special workshop annually, to highlight some of the unique career and study opportunities mathematics can offer.

Read about one student's experience of the workshop, the Girls Do The Maths Scholarship recipient (2011), Dorothy Cheung.

2013 Girls Do The Maths workshop

This year's workshop was held on Friday 24 May 2013. The participants enjoyed a day packed full of information sessions and presentations. They also had a mini-tour of the School's facilities and were given the opportunity to socialise with speakers, current students and staff during lunch. Dr Katarina Mele from CSIRO and Ms Jessica Egan from Taylor Fry were the guest speakers, and the first and last talks of the day were "Glimpses of University Mathematics" presented by Dr Adelle Coster and Randell Heyman. The participants received a lot of information from A/Prof Robert Womersley's presentation on courses, degrees and careers, and Dr Frances Kuo's session on scholarships.

We hope that participants now feel more confident about their potential career and university choices.

See the Girls Do The Maths poster and the 2013 Program.

Previous workshops

We have had some great talks from our invited speakers in past workshops, including:

• Ms Sharon Wang from MLC - National Australia Bank.
• Lisa Alexander from UNSW's Climate Change Research Centre (CCRC);
• Deborah Cromer from UNSW's Centre for Vascular Research;
  
• Katarina Mele from CSIRO;
• Leanne Bischof from CSIRO;
• Dr Moninya Roughan, an oceanographer from UNSW;
• Christine O'Keefe, of CSIRO;
• Ann Eyland, of the Law Foundation of NSW;
• Clio Cresswell, then a lecturer at UNSW and author of the book "Mathematics and Sex";
• Josi Mazaraki, a UNSW graduate who studied Law/Science and now works in the world of corporate finance;
• Merryn Horrocks, an electrical engineer who has worked with control systems in areas as disparate as manufacturing and medicine;
• Natashia Boland, an Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne who also runs a consultancy service, solving real-life problems using Operations Research;
• Matthew England, now a Federation Fellow, talked about how mathematics is used in Oceanography research.

Contact:
Yanan Fan (Coordinator)
Girls Do The Maths
School of Mathematics and Statistics, UNSW
DoTheMaths@unsw.edu.au