Maths Fest 2017 was an absolute success this year with hundreds of students coming from all over England to enjoy a day full of ‘mathsy-goodness’. Audiences were inspired by several maths celebrities that came to give talks about their favourite mathematical topics. Speakers featured were, best-selling maths author, Simon Singh, award-winning maths speaker, Katie Steckles and Visual effects artist ,Eugenie von Tunzelmann to name a few.

Katie Steckles entertained us with a mixture of easy and tricky maths problems which either perplexed or pleased many of the audience. Having explained that some of the world’s most complex, unsolved maths problem’s proofs are up for prizes worth millions of pounds, some of the students were amazed and in most cases even more eager to pursue a career down mathematics.

The visual effects artist, Eugenie von Tunzelmann, talked about her involvement in producing the CGI for the movie ‘Intersteller’ and how that led her and her team to writing a research paper on Black Holes in a physics journal. The creation of and programming of an entirely new computer graphics ray tracer was needed to accurately chart and present the appearance of a realistic black hole in the movie. This required the use of mathematics to decipher and translate the complicated physics equations involved. This eventually led her team to write up their research and publish it in official journals. Her talk was a real eye opener for the audience about just how far and creatively mathematics branches into careers in the future even when one does not expect it to.

Famous maths author, Simon Singh, thoroughly entertained us by exploring the maths behind the ‘Simpsons’.  After revealing to us that many of the producers of the ‘Simpsons’ had degrees in Mathematics, he went on to expose some of the hidden maths jokes in different episodes.  Ranging from pseudo-solutions to Fermat’s Last Theorem to featuring Narcissistic Numbers on whiteboards, some of the freeze frame maths jokes from the ‘Simpsons’ provided hidden entertainment to those mathematicians watching the show.

Overall, all the speakers were very passionate and engaging which both entertained and inspired the audience. Having really enjoyed the day at Maths Fest 2017, many of the students left the event feeling even more eager to pursue careers in mathematics and showcase their talents in the future.

By Nabihah Rahman, Woodford County High School