Event introduces school children to maths in the workplace
A recent activity day showing school children examples of how maths can be beneficial in the workplace has been deemed a success.
75 children from a variety of local schools attended the ‘Maths at work’ day and had the opportunity to hear three large companies, the Automobile Association, British Airways and Eaton aerospace, talk about the exciting ways in which maths can be used in the work place.
The speaker for the AA gave an overview of the AA's business and talked about industrial optimization problems, such as how best to allocate work shifts to their staff. The speakers from BA gave an interactive session also on an optimization theme, focusing on how to decide on the best planes to fly different routes.
Eaton aerospace gave an overview of their business and applications of ‘engineering’ mathematics to problems in aircraft components design.
Staff from the Maths outreach team,
Ben MacArthur,
Nick Wright
and
Tim Sluckin
led the event with the support of
Ruth Edwards
(Southampton Education School) and Kate Bartlett (Outreach Strand Leader (Medicine, Health Sciences, Social, Human and Mathematical Sciences).
Ben Macarthur comments, "It was great to see the schoolchildren come and learn about some of the exciting ways in which mathematics can be practically used in the workplace, as well as learn a little more about life at the University".