Mathematics and computer science in a way you never imagined
For more than twenty years, the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science of the UB has organized Matefest-Infofest, an event aiming to show -specially to secondary education students- that mathematics and computer science are not boring but they can have many applications. This year, although the current situation does not allow us to conduct this activity in the Sciences Courtyard of the Historical Building, lovers of these disciplines can enjoy this activity online on May 27. The organization is carried out by bachelor degree students together with collaboration grantholders Roger Asensi and Martí Jané. Talks and didactic units part of the activity are very diverse but they share a goal: explaining mathematic and computer concepts in a educational way.
“We want to show mathematics and computer science are not the abstract thing some secondary schools teach”, notes Asensi, who remembers Marshall McLuhanʼs words: “Anyone who thinks there is a difference between education and entertainment does not know the first thing about either”. Moreover, the rectorʼs delegate for students and international relations at the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, Antoni Benseny, notes “there are more interesting mathematics than those appearing in the high school syllabus, and the stands in Matefest-Infofest show it”. Also, one of the benefits of this event taking place online is that the content will remain published so people can see it anytime they want.
For more than twenty years, the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science of the UB has organized Matefest-Infofest, an event aiming to show -specially to secondary education students- that mathematics and computer science are not boring but they can have many applications. This year, although the current situation does not allow us to conduct this activity in the Sciences Courtyard of the Historical Building, lovers of these disciplines can enjoy this activity online on May 27. The organization is carried out by bachelor degree students together with collaboration grantholders Roger Asensi and Martí Jané. Talks and didactic units part of the activity are very diverse but they share a goal: explaining mathematic and computer concepts in a educational way.
“We want to show mathematics and computer science are not the abstract thing some secondary schools teach”, notes Asensi, who remembers Marshall McLuhanʼs words: “Anyone who thinks there is a difference between education and entertainment does not know the first thing about either”. Moreover, the rectorʼs delegate for students and international relations at the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, Antoni Benseny, notes “there are more interesting mathematics than those appearing in the high school syllabus, and the stands in Matefest-Infofest show it”. Also, one of the benefits of this event taking place online is that the content will remain published so people can see it anytime they want.
Conventional conferences and interactive didactic workshops
There are two conventional conferences: the first, “La rosa de Nightingale”, by the retired lecturer Olga Julià, which will treat the Florence Nightingale graphic, which helped to see the causes of the soldiersʼ mortality in the nineteenth century and raise awareness on the seriousness of the problem. The second, titled “Percebre melodia i harmonia en alters temps”, by Enric Guaus, expert on interaction between music and technology, and the composer Fèlix Pastor. By using an example by Webern, Guaus and Pastor present a way to listen to certain types of music in an expanded period of time, to get the pieces in a different way.
Matefest-Infofest 2020 includes a presentation by the lecturer Núria Fagella on basic concepts and properties of fractals, mathematic objects that attract our attention due to their aesthetics and similarity to natural phenomena. Lecturer David Màrquez will go over the results and examples in the game of luck regarding card games, dice, lottery and bets.
From graphs to logical paradoxes, going through quantum science and topology
The stands that were organized by the students to fill the Sciences Courtyard have been adapted to take place online and have become interactive workshops challenging the users. The topics will be diverse, ranging from topology and representations, to graphs and their use to model, through quantum, and examples of relevant women in the evolution of mathematics, logical paradoxes, games with mathematics behind, and phone devices on mathematics.
The Museum of Mathematics of Catalonia will present different experiments and activities related to geometry, which can be reproduced with material we have at home. Also, the visitors will see the magic of mathematics through the Geogebra applications that reproduce magic tricks about mathematics.
A questionnaire about the workshops will replace the gymkhana, and visitors can see the exhibition “El nombre dʼor: la proporció de la bellesa”, from the CRAI library of the Faculty.
Moreover, there is room so that secondary schools register in the website to receive information about future activities of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science.
Open Day at the Faculty, on May 27
Coinciding with the Matefest-Infofest, the Faculty is organizing online, on May 27 too, its Open Day, an opportunity for secondary education students to receive the information they need about the studies offered at the centre, as well as professional careers, university services and student activities. You can register here.
Link to Matefest-Infofest