Maths

Apart from a couple of years at Oxford the remainder of my mathematical career has been at the University of Warwick in Coventry, UK. I am currently the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the department and sit on various committees within the University, many involved with teaching and learning. My mathematical interests are summarised below and within the links to other pages on this site.

Bifurcations with Symmetry

My main area of research leading on from the work I did for my PhD thesis, also known as Equivariant Bifurcation Theory, I am interested in both the theory (in particular of coupled networks of cells) and interesting applications (such as arrays of hydrophones and insect locomotion). Read more here.

Insect Locomotion

A topic I have been interested in since the final year of my undergraduate degree, and the topic of my MSc. dissertation. Research into how insects walk has applications in robotics but is also of great interest to biologists since the mathematics can try to unravel how the so called Central Pattern Generator may be wired up, and how it may have evolved over time. Read more here.

Mathematics in Industry

I have also been involved in the use of mathematics in solving industrial problems, most recently through the European Study Groups with Industry. Problems have been from a wide range of diverse topics such as chlorination of swimming pools to scheduling of plane departures at Heathrow Airport. Read more here.

Gifted and Talented

Involvement in Gifted and Talented going back over 10 years, mostly through the University’s G&T organisations NAGTY (National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth) and now IGGY (International Gateway for Gifted Youth). Involvement has been though running summer school courses in both the UK and abroad, blended and online provision, workshops and consultations. Read more here.

Education in Second Life

There is a large and vibrant educational community in Second Life and other virtual worlds which I have been part of for a number of years. As part of this I maintain an island for the Mathematics Department with a mixture of mathematical sculptures and tutorials, and an active sandbox. The beauty of Second Life is the ability for students to explore three-dimensional objects in an immersive environment that is both flexible, and free. Read more here.

Lecture Modules

Within the department I have been teaching several large (up to 350 plus students) core undergraduate modules as well as a 2nd/3rd year module covering basic techniques in systems of nonlinear ODEs from an application driven point of view.  Read more here.

Related posts:

• Episode IV: A New Home OK, actually the third post but the pun wouldn't work otherwise! The larger stick insects have now been moved into a BSP cage (Small-Life Supplies) to give them more room to grow and a better environment, so that's 15 moved into the BSP and a couple of fi...
• Stick Insects Update (1 month) Follow up to my first post on stick insects. Most of the insects are approximately a month old or so now and have gone through a couple of moults. As can be seen from the photo below they are growing (couldn't find a 5p coin today, so a 20p was used, dia...
• Stick Insects We've had some stick insects (Carausius morosus) at home for a while, and it's easy to see why they are the favoured species for laboratory tests on insects (along with the American Cockroach Periplaneta americana) since they are so easy to breed and car...
• Litro & IGGY Young Person's Short Story Competition 2011 Last Wednesday (12th October 2011) I had the pleasure of attending the award ceremony for the 2011 Litro and IGGY Young Person's Short Story Competition 2011 held at the 3i offices in London. This is the second year this competition has run, and the prize...
• XBugs Received one of these as a gift fom a graduating tutee, and thought it was so cool it was worth a blog!  These bugs come as a flat disc of aluminium, you twist out the pieces, fold and arrange them and then hold it all in place witha single nut and bolt ...
• Second Life Maths Sculptures This post is to highlight the various sculptures scattered around the Second Life "Warwick University Maths" island, which can be accessed at this SLURL. There is always a lot of discussion over the impact of education using Virtual Worlds (usually agains...
• Revision Class Prezi Tried out my first proper Prezi presentation today, revision class for my Differential Equations module plus general exam advice. Think it went well, although something odd happened half way through (think I managed to recover quite well though). There is...
• AntWeb For someone as obsessed about insects as I seem to be, the AntWeb project (http://www.antweb.org) is a fascinating collection of information and photographs. The idea is to catalogue all 12,000 species of ants around the world, gleaned from museum collect...
• Detexify Came across a link to this project yesterday and thought it was so good it was worth putting together a quick blog entry. As the screenshot to the left suggests, there is a big box, you draw the LaTeX symbol you w...
• Visit to the Oxford Natural History Museum Having a couple of hours to waste whilst in Oxford decided to visit the Natural History Museum for the first time in years to get some inspiration for my insect gait studies (I don't think I've been there since I was a post-doc). I remembered the museum ...