Cardiff Mathematicians present in Parliament

Three postgraduate students from the School of Mathematics were invited to Parliament recently as part of the annual STEM for Britain poster competition.

Danny Groves, Scott Morgan and Geraint Palmer were shortlisted from hundreds of applicants to present their mathematical sciences research to a range of politicians and a panel of expert judges, in a bid to win highly reputable cash prizes.

The nationwide contest provides an excellent opportunity for young researchers to communicate the importance of their scientific research to the government, and is an important date on the parliamentary calendar.

“This annual competition gives MPs an opportunity to speak to a wide range of the country’s best young researchers,” said Stephen Metcalfe MP, Chairman of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee.

“These early career engineers, mathematicians and scientists are the architects of our future and STEM for BRITAIN is politicians’ best opportunity to meet them and understand their work.”

Our students showcased their various research interests:

• Danny’s poster detailed his investigation of the physics behind droplet spreading over chemically treated surfaces by using mathematical methods and computing;
• Geraint’s covered his work on modelling and detecting deadlock in queueing networks, with applications to hospital bed blocking;
• Scott’s poster showcased his research about turbulence, rotating disks and aeroplane wings.

Danny said: “I felt honoured to be selected to attend this session in Parliament, a feeling I know is shared with both Scott and Geraint.

“The posters we viewed were of extremely high calibre, and I can only imagine how difficult it was for the judges to reach a verdict.

“The event was a very fun day, and a fantastic opportunity to network and socialise with other early career researchers.”

We hope to see many more of our students attending this prestigious event in the future!