| | | | 2023 Entrepreneurship Programme at AIMS |
| | AIMS South Africa is proud to announce the successful conclusion of its groundbreaking student entrepreneurship program, which engaged 55 talented Master’s students in tackling real-world challenges. The programme, focused on food, energy, and water systems, witnessed seven groups passionately working towards innovative solutions. |
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| | | What it is like to teach at AIMS |
| | The January intake completed the following courses: Information Theory (Stéphane Ouvry, Université Paris Saclay) and Probabilities and Statistics (Theresa Gebert, Carnegie Mellon University). |
| | Ms Gebert shared her thoughts on teaching at AIMS. "I recently had the privilege of teaching an Applied Statistics course at AIMS South Africa, an institution renowned for nurturing some of the brightest minds on the continent The core purpose of teaching at AIMS is to empower these promising students with essential skills and knowledge that will enable them to tackle real-world challenges and contribute to the growth and development of Africa. As an educator, I am constantly inspired by the passion and commitment of my colleagues who, like myself, love the opportunity to share our expertise and witness the transformative impact of education. The students in the Master's program at AIMS exhibit a strong sense of curiosity and intellectual rigor, making the teaching experience exceptionally rewarding." |
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Admissions at AIMS: the search for talented students |
| | In January, AIMS South Africa launched a new applications portal for our AI for Science stream at apply.aims.ac.za. This was an experiment. We wanted to assess students' mathematical, problem solving and coding ability uniformly. There were easy questions and hard questions, and the way students answered them gave us valuable data on how mathematical challenges are approached across Africa. The data also gives us a clear picture of which areas of mathematics and the computational sciences require more targeted investment across our beautiful continent. The results are immensely insightful, and we hope to share them with you during the next few newsletters and through reports. We are a data-driven organization! |
| | But first, as a teaser, here is one of the shorter admissions questions. Can you solve it? |
| | 40 identical balls are rolling along a straight line. They all have speed equal to v, but some of them might move in opposite directions. When two of them collide they immediately switch their direction and keep the speed v. What is the maximal number of collisions that can happen? |
| | Readers can email their solutions to newsl...@aims.ac.za. We will publish the solution, as well as the name of the first reader to provide a correct answer, in next month's newsletter. |
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| | | | | The AIMS South Africa Research Centre welcomed a new postdoctoral fellow, Dr Joel Lontsi, who started on 7 April 2023. He graduated with a PhD in physics from Rhodes University in 2022 and immediately joined AIMS thereafter as a tutor. His research interest is in computing and interdisciplinary research, and he is being supervised by Dr Ulrich Paquet. He has joined the Machine Learning for Ecology Group where his main research objective is the development of unsupervised learning techniques for acoustic monitoring. |
| | | | Mr Mafoya Landry Dassoundo, who is currently a Tutor at AIMS South Africa gave a talk titled ‘What is non-associative Lie theory?’ at the University of the Western Cape on 21 April 2023. |
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Rockefeller, a PhD student in the AIMS Research Centre attended the joint Climate Modelling workshop and Gender training workshop at AIMS Kigali from the 1 to 6 April 2023. He also took part in the IFAM-AIMS PhD Seminar online where he gave a presentation titled: ‘An Approach to Modeling Dynamical Systems with Temporally Consistent State Spaces’. |
| | | | Mr Joseph Muthui Wacira, a Research Master’s student participated in the ‘Foundational Methods in Data Science Training School 2023 in Kigali. The training was organised by Quantum Leap Africa in collaboration with AIMS Rwanda. It brought together renowned international and national academics, researchers, and graduate students, working on topics relevant to modern data science, including machine learning and artificial intelligence, their mathematical theories, and numerical implementations, using methods from statistics, optimization, functional analysis, topology, geometry, and probability theory. The training school provided a platform for researchers and data scientists to interact in an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary environment. |
| | Dr Bubacarr Bah was appointed as an AIMS Associate Research Fellow. |
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| | | On 11 April 2023, Rockefeller, PhD student in the AIMS Research Centre, gave a talk titled: ‘Modelling chaotic dynamical systems with Historical Consistent Neural Networks: Temporal Consistency is all you need!!’ |
| | On 25 April 2023, Dr Stéphane Ouvry, from the French National Centre for Scientific Research. The title of his talk was, ‘Inclusion statistics and particle condensation in 2 dimensions.’ |
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| AIMSSEC hosts IMO delegates |
| | AIMSSEC offered a helping hand to one of its stakeholders, SAMF (South Africa Mathematics Foundation). The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is the World Championship Mathematics Competition for High School students held annually in different countries. The Olympiad has expanded to over 100 countries from seven continents, and South Africa is a member. |
| | A group of 22 IMO delegates were hosted by AIMSSEC in Muizenberg, Cape Town, for the purpose of providing rigorous training to a group of students who had to undergo an intensive training workshop. |
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| | | | An IMO trainee student delivers her presentation on the given task on ‘Loci and fixed points’ to the fellow students. |
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| AIMSSEC Teacher Training Programmes |
| | The two online courses, Mathematical Thinking Online (MT4), and Mathematical Communication and Language (MCL3), are running from February to June, with altogether 150 students. These two courses in a seven-course sequence of subject leader training are going smoothly as planned despite the challenges encountered. AIMSSEC provides data for the students and recordings of the webinars for those who cannot attend the live webinars due to load shedding. |
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In school, students try out the new teaching methods that they learn on the course. |
| | They share ideas about good teaching with each other and work together in groups on WhatsApp. They are supported in small tutor groups by their tutors and fellow students when they are struggling with the demands of the course or faced by mounting pressure at school and little time to work on the Study Modules after hours. |
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| AIMSSEC Outreach Programmes |
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AIMSSEC runs monthly online Global Teacher Empowerment Network (GTEN) workshops for alumni, current students and primary and secondary teachers around the world. In April Mrs Toni Beardon, Ms Caroline Ainslie, and Mr Kwethemba Moyo presented work on Probability and Statistics, with focus on calculating probabilities using Tree diagrams, |
| | Mrs Toni Beardon (Founder of NRICH and AIMSSEC), Ms Caroline Ainslie (Bubbly Maths) and Ms Cynthia Fries once again raised the AIMSSEC flag at the UK Joint Mathematical Conference in April |
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| Upgrading of AIMS facilities |
| | We are currently busy renovating and upgrading AIMS facilities. This is long overdue and we need to optimise available space for the additional students starting the AI programme in September. Planning and appointment of contractors for the renovations were completed in the first quarter of 2023. The renovations of AIMS properties will be a phased process. Phase 1 commenced on 17 April and the approximate completion date is end of August 2023. |
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| | The front facade of 14 Watson street where renovations are currently underway. |
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| | | | | Postdoctoral Research Fellowship: Deep Learning and Bioacoustics |
| | A recent report issued by the WWF states that there has been a catastrophic decline in wildlife population in recent years. A large number of species are threatened with extinction due to a number of factors. Further conservation efforts are still urgently required to ensure the survival of the remaining individuals. AIMS and Stellenbosch University are looking to appoint a postdoctoral fellow to work in the area of deep learning and bioacoustics. |
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Resident Researcher in Machine Learning |
| | AIMS South Africa is looking to hire a resident researcher to join its vibrant research centre. As a Resident Researcher, you will develop innovative machine learning techniques and advance scientific research. You will have the chance to collaborate with peers within AIMS and foster your own national and international network. We’re looking for an enthusiastic and ambitious researcher with a passion to advance interdisciplinary machine learning research, be it theoretical or applied. |
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| | | The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences Schools Enrichment Centre (AIMSSEC), in Muizenberg, Cape Town, invites applications from suitably qualified and experienced candidates for the position of an Academic Manager. This is a full-time, two-year contract, with a possibility of extension, depending on performance and availability of outside funding. |
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Mathematics Education Lecturer (Intermediate Phase) at AIMSSEC |
| | The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences Schools Enrichment Centre (AIMSSEC), in Muizenberg, Cape Town, invites applications from suitably qualified and experienced candidates for the position of Mathematics Education Lecturer (Intermediate Phase). This is a part-time, two – year contract, with a possibility of extension, depending on performance and availability of outside funding. |
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