women in mathematics – ��ճԹ� I Championing Mathematical Sciences for Australia’s Advancement

MATRIX Online Seminar in March with Associate Professor Emily Riehl

Michael — Thu, 25 Feb 2021 05:29:08 +0000

In this 45 minutes seminar, Associate Professor Emily Riehl presents a new point of view on the foundations of ∞-category theory, which allows us to develop the basic theory of ∞-categories — adjunctions, limits and colimits, co/cartesian fibrations, and pointwise Kan extensions — “synthetically” starting from axioms that describe an ∞-cosmos, the infinite-dimensional category in which ∞-categories live as objects.

“We need to shift our perspective on maths”: Associate Professor Katherine Seaton from La Trobe University

Michael — Thu, 10 Dec 2020 01:17:27 +0000

“The practical nature of maths often drowns out the other message: that maths is also beautiful and creative, and it can feed the soul.” Read more at .

‘Mathematics Underpins Everything We Do’

Michael — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 03:12:28 +0000

RMIT’s Professor Asha Rao profiled in the .

��ճԹ� congratulates Professor Robyn Owens on her election as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Sciences

Michael — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 06:47:27 +0000

Professor Robyn Owens

Educated at the University of Western Australia and at Oxford, Professor Robyn Owens’ academic focus and research interests span computer vision, robotics, discrete structures, and scientific communication. She has supervised over 20 PhD students, developed new subject areas and degree courses, and been involved in multiple curriculum reviews. An ��ճԹ� board member and well known as a former Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) at UWA, Professor Owens is currently also a board member of the Australian Astronomical Observatory.

“I am truly delighted and honoured to have been elected to the Australian Academy of Sciences and consider it a great privilege to be able to continue working for, and promoting, Australian science”, said Professor Owens. “Mathematics is the language of science and science, though the discovery of knowledge that can be repeatably demonstrated, has the power to literally make the world a better place.”

“We are delighted to have two mathematicians and a statistician elected as Academy Fellows”, added ��ճԹ� Director, Professor Tim Brown. “This very public recognition of an outstanding contribution to the advancement of the mathematical sciences by Robyn Owens is warmly welcomed and shared across our ��ճԹ� academic and research community, as is the Academy’s acknowledgement of the place of Aurore Delaigle and Gary Froyland amongst Australia’s top scientists.”

ACEMS Mathematician Sarah Belet in national Fame Lab final

Michael — Mon, 18 May 2020 22:30:32 +0000

A participant in the British Council’s 2020 Fame Lab national final for Australia, mathematician Sarah Belet from Monash University recounts her experience in the global science competition to ACEMS.

ACEMS Celebrates ‘Women in Maths’ Day

Michael — Tue, 12 May 2020 01:13:51 +0000

The ARC Centre of Excellence for Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers is celebrating the global 12 May ‘Women in Maths’ Day with a huge array of 70 videos delivering inspiring messages from many of Australia’s most amazing women in mathematics and statistics.

Gender imbalance in maths threatens pandemic recovery and future crisis response

Michael — Mon, 11 May 2020 07:17:08 +0000

Latest research by the ��ճԹ� (��ճԹ�) reveals gender imbalance and inequity continue to negatively impact the nation’s intellectual capability, compromising post- coronavirus recovery effort and response to future pandemics.

Released to coincide with 2020 International Women in Mathematics Day (Tuesday 12th May), latest ��ճԹ� data provides a snapshot of the participation of girls across Australia’s mathematical pipeline from the classroom and higher education to research and the workforce.

Addressing this gender imbalance is critical to ensuring skills are in place enabling data modelling during pandemics and to guide recovery.

“The work of Australia’s epidemiologists is decisive in informing governmental response to the current crisis and guiding the nation’s recovery”, said ��ճԹ�’s ChooseMATHS project director, Janine Sprakel. “Experts like Professor Jodie McVernon at the Doherty Institute and Professor Raina MacIntyre are applying cross-disciplinary approaches including mathematical and computational models in synthesising insights from biological, epidemiological and sociological data”, Ms Sprakel said.

“So many talented women are at the forefront of modelling enabling government, policy experts and Australia’s people in general, enhancing understanding of infectious diseases and determining optimal interventions for pandemic control. Restrictions will be eased based upon mathematically-based advice from these scientists.”

According to report author Maaike Wienk, this report card for Year 12 participation in mathematics is a cause for concern, threatening capacity to build the STEM workforce needed for Australia’s post-pandemic recovery. In 2018, only 7.2 per cent of Year 12 girl students took higher maths compared to 12.2 per cent of boy students.

“This risk is compounded by gender distribution between employment divisions and occupations”, Ms Wienk said. “Women form the majority of the professional workforce within the healthcare and social assistance sectors, but the number of girls entering tertiary education in maths disciplines is far less than boys, accounting for an estimated 38 per cent of undergraduate mathematics students. This percentage remains static despite the promotion of STEM subjects in schools, compromising future trained workforce capability.”

A positive trend is growth in the number of PhDs in mathematical sciences completed by women over the past 15 years, largely attributable to a rising influx of international students. However, domestic participation in PhD programs in the mathematical sciences by women has remained largely stagnant, placing Australia’s sustainable, long-term recovery at risk.

The goal of International Women in Mathematics Day is to inspire women everywhere to celebrate their achievements in mathematics. ��ճԹ� is working to redress this gender inequity, recognising the potential of women in enhancing the innovation, science and technology needed by all Australians in pandemic control and recovery.

FURTHER INFORMATION
The complete 2020 ��ճԹ� State of Mathematical Sciences: Discipline profile for mathematics and statistics is available for download online at: amsi.org.au/media-releases/
Information on the international 12th May initiative – Celebrating Women in Maths is available at:

INTERVIEW
Report author Maaike Wienk, ��ճԹ� ChooseMATHS project director Janine Sprakel (quoted), and ��ճԹ� Director Professor Tim Brown are available for media interview.

CONTACT
Clint Rodgers; ��ճԹ� Media [24 hours] 0428587350 / clint.rodgers@amsi.org.au

[PDF of Media release]

Mentoring Girls in Maths

Michael — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 05:56:42 +0000

In this Teacher magazine interview podcast, 2019 ChooseMATHS Award winner Louise Puslednik discusses initiatives implemented to empower girls highlighting the relevance of mathematics to the real world, and careers in maths or science. With Dominique Russell.

2019 ChooseMATHS Award winner Louise Puslednik

Lateral thinking helps bring women into tech sector

��ճԹ� — Tue, 25 Aug 2015 22:25:52 +0000

Article by , , 24 August, 2015.

While Australian women are underrepresented in STEM fields, that isn’t stopping women from excelling in tech startups, according to a new survey of Australian girl tech entrepreneurs.

The survey, conducted by , included qualitative responses from nearly 50 Australian girl tech entrepreneurs , which pointed to a host of barriers contributing to inequality in the industry

It found that while the government and various groups are working to make STEM education more accessible and suited to women, with women entrepreneurs finding “lateral” ways to become involved with tech companies.

“The current generation of women are finding a lateral way to enter this men-dominated field, using their domain experience and leadership skills to solve problems with unique products,” the study says.

“They will be role models and, it is to be hoped, become mentors to other women with technical ideas to be realised.”

Finding other ways into the tech industry

Only 19 per cent of the women entrepreneurs surveyed had a background in STEM, while only 4 per cent had a computer science background. In contrast, nearly half had a degree in business, commerce or economics.

The survey found the majority of women entrepreneurs are managing tech teams, with 50 per cent in outsourcing roles, 32 per cent finding a tech-based co-founder, and 14 per cent employing technical staff.

Founder and director of Alexandra Kinloch says you don’t need to have a background in STEM to be involved in a tech startup.

“There is a perception, or at least has been a perception in the past, that you needed to have technical skills in order to run a startup,” Kinloch says.

“I don’t believe that is the case and not all startups require cutting edge technology. I believe that the number of women-led startups in Australia will increase dramatically in the next five years.”

According to an only 28 per cent of employed STEM-qualified Australians were women in 2011, and this number fell to 14 per cent when looking at engineering.

Many barriers in place

According to the , the number of women tech entrepreneurs in Australia is rising slowly, from 16 per cent in 2011 to 19 per cent in 2013. Responses to Terem Technologies latest survey shed some light on the barriers facing women in the tech industry.

More than a third of those surveyed named a perceived lack of expertise and confidence as factors preventing women from being involved with tech startups, while 27 per cent pointed to negative attitudes playing a role.

Nearly 30 per cent of those surveyed said they felt they didn’t have the same access to network advantages as their man counterparts.

Terem Technologies CEO Scott Middleton says he hopes this study will highlight these disadvantages and barriers, and help people to work to remove them.

“Hopefully this survey highlights to those thinking about jumping in that they can: the women we surveyed are overcoming all kinds of hurdles to succeed and thrive,” he says.

“We hope that they will inspire many more like them and that the numbers of women entrepreneurs will climb rapidly as role models become more visible.”

Welcome Inge Koch: Choose Maths Executive Director

��ճԹ� — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 03:27:49 +0000

Associate Professor Inge Koch completed an MSc at the University of Oxford, and a research MPhil at the University of London, and then worked for industry and the University of Aberdeen in the UK, and for the CSIRO in Canberra. She completed a PhD in statistics at the ANU in 1991 on theoretical problems in image analysis. Inge has joined ��ճԹ� as Executive Director and will head the Choose Maths initiative.

We caught up with Inge to find out about her maths, her stats, her life and her goals for the secondment with us.

1) Why did you become a mathematician?

Mathematics was fun and a challenge all through my school years. Partly because of the widespread folklore that girls can’t do maths it was not until late in high school that I considered mathematics as a serious career option. By then I enjoyed mathematics more and took it more seriously than other subjects, and I was eager to learn more mathematics.

2) What are some areas of mathematics/statistics that you find particularly interesting?

I enjoy the interplay between theory, data analysis and solving real problems. I feel passionate about developing new statistical methods and theory in statistical learning or machine learning, dimension reduction and selection, and I am keen to apply and adapt these new methods to complex high-dimensional data in proteomics, other biotechnology applications and, more generally, in areas that deal with data with very many and typically too many variables.

3) Do you have any advice that may make more students choose maths as a future career path?

There are many branches of mathematics ranging from the purest pure, to applications in biology, medicine, sport, marketing, climate and the environment, television and finance to name just a few. Each part is important, and you need to work out which part of mathematics speaks to you, and what you like about it.

Go for the part of mathematics that you enjoy most.

Knowledge of mathematics does not have to be an end in itself, but can open doors to new areas and fascinating careers. If you are adaptable, the rigour and insight you learn in mathematics are transferable to other areas that require analytical and thinking skills.

When looking for a job or career, don’t just search under ‘mathematician’, there is a big world out there that needs your skills and enthusiasm; convince them that you will be a good asset to them.

4) Biggest maths/stats regret?

I wish I had realised earlier how wonderful and exciting statistics can be. It is so much more than what you learn in school or in your early university education as ‘statistics’. It integrates areas of pure mathematics, statistical ways of thinking, computing and having to find efficient and workable solutions for real and diverse data and problems.

5) Biggest maths/stats success?

Classical multivariate statistical theory does not meet the needs of big data and problems arising in machine learning or data science. In the last few decades the often-ignored multivariate Gaussian theory has become increasing relevant again – driven by the demands of complex high-dimensional data and data experts who require answers to their problems. The combined research effort of statisticians such as Peter Hall, Iain Johnstone and Steve Marron and many others has led to new frameworks for principal component analysis and discriminant analysis which are suitable for the analysis of modern data with many more variables than observations. My own research in dimension-reduction methods and my research and graduate text Analysis of Multivariate and High-Dimensional Data are both contributions to integrating the classical with the recent theory and bridging the gap between theory, data analysis and computing for our modern big-data era.

6) What do you hope to achieve as the Executive Director of the Choose Maths program?

Promoting and enhancing an environment in which girls and young women can keenly embrace mathematics in their education and career choices is what makes the Choose Maths program exciting and worthwhile for me. I hope to make progress towards this goal by breaking down barriers, and by actively promoting and working towards change at educational and government levels and in the workplace. This will help to encourage girls and young women to pursue mathematical areas and applications with the passion that I feel for mathematics.

women in mathematics – ���ճԹ� I Championing Mathematical Sciences for Australia’s Advancement