Mailed on 21 May 2019.

Educational Newsletter AM

A collaboration between the study programme and Abacus

Edition: May 2019

 

Introduction

Due to several circumstances it has been a while since the Educational Newsletter appeared. In this Newsletter six ‘new’ lecturers introduce themselves. Furthermore, there is a report from the student delegation of the Programme Committee.

 

Modules 1 & 5 

Module 1.

What did you do differently from last year, in particular, what did you change due to last year’s feedback by the students?

Programming (based on last complaints from last year): students write their name on the white board when ready to be checked (last year they had to raise their hand!)
Project: this year there were no pitches during the final meeting. There were posters and this worked fine.

 

Did everything run as planned?

Almost. Exception: modelling groups were formed too soon (Wednesday of week 1), at a time when the list of students was not yet complete (and several lists were contradictory). Next year groups will be formed on Friday of week 1.

 

Did the students always address you in English?

Yes.

 

Module 5.

Looking as a whole, the module went smoothly without any hiccups. Students actually appreciated the module-part "Presenting a Mathematical Subject".  In earlier years, this was a contentious issue.  Unfortunately, this will not be a part of this module from next year.  This year was the second time that medium of teaching was English.  Students did address the teacher in English but among themselves mostly talked in Dutch, unless there was an international student in the conversation/group, then they would use English.  Though it was not the goal of this module, I noticed international students trying to get in to the Dutch culture by picking up some Dutch phrases -- "Kijk, ik kan nu vloeibaar Nederlands spreken"! 

 

Adjustments based on last year's evaluation:

Last year the reader for statistics was adjusted in the sense that instead of one main reader supplemented by few separate handouts, one "complete" reader was made. However, students were not happy about the reader, especially about the use of language (English).  As a result, we had revisited the reader and improved it.  

Another recurring complaint is that the "Project" is not really a project, as in its usual sense.  Though this criticism is justified, the set-up had its root for historical reason. Project was indeed more like a course about regression analysis, learned by the students in a guided self-study style with the help of concretely formulated tasks. To break this impasse, we have changed the structure a bit, by incorporating the introductory theory of regression analysis as part of "Mathematical Statistics" (and thereby changing the EC from 5 to 6).  At the same time, we reduced the size of the "Project" to 2 EC (from 3 EC), by restricting it to be about an open problem (only), where the students have to develop/learn advanced regression analysis to execute the project. 

Another grievance of the students (carrying on from the year before) was that they did not have any feedback moment about how to write solutions for Analysis questions. This was solved this year, by scheduling two extra sessions where the students were trained and given feedback on how to write Analysis-solutions.

There was another comment last year about having peak study-load in the 10th week, because the repair exams were scheduled in two consecutive days.  This, however, is difficult to change, given the current boundary conditions of the "Twente educational model", namely that all repairs must take place within the module and students must have at least one week between knowing the result of a test and its repair possibility.

 

The evaluations of this year are, in general, good.  We recognize the comments that the "Project" is still not optimal.  Next year, this module will go through quite a bit of change.  First of all, as already mentioned earlier, "Presenting a Mathematical Subject" will not be there.  A new "reflection"-type part will be included in the module. Also, new teaching staff will be involved in the module (definitely in "Mathematical Statistics, most probably for "Analysis-II" as well).

 

New lecturers

Tracy Craig

I joined the University of Twente in January 2018. My role in the department is primarily to teach in the Mathematics Line, namely calculus and linear algebra. Before coming to the UT I was at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. I was a student there first and later staff, teaching for twenty years in the science and engineering faculties. I really love teaching; helping students to understand this beautiful subject and sharing my enthusiasm with them.

 At UCT I was for a time the Director of the Centre for Engineering Education and just before leaving UCT I was promoted to Associate Professor. My area of research is mathematics education, ranging through problem solving, language and mathematics, academic development and, most recently, students’ understanding of vectors. My PhD was on getting students to be more reflective problem solvers by writing about their problem solving processes. My research has always been practice-driven as I endeavour to improve my teaching practice in theoretically grounded ways. At the UT I hope to continue my research into the teaching and learning of vectors as well as to carry out research related to the Twente Educational Model.

 

Kathrin Smetana has joined the Department of Applied Mathematics at the University of Twente as an Assistant Professor in May 2017. She enjoys very much being responsible for the course Scientific Computing as it allows her to get to know all the students in the Applied Mathematics Master Program and show/learn what her colleagues in the Department work on.

Before joining UT Kathrin worked as a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Applied Mathematics at the University of Münster, Germany and in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States. Kathrin Smetana holds a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Münster and got a diploma in Mathematics from the University of Freiburg, Germany.

The main focus of her research is enabling real-time prediction of engineering or environmental problems by reducing the complexity of the respective model and randomized algorithms for numerical simulations. Among her teaching activities is the course Scientific Computing.

 

Johannes Schmidt-Hieber is the new professor for statistics. He grew up in Germany and studied mathematics with minor theoretical physics in Freiburg, Göttingen and the University of California in Davis. He received a PhD in 2010 from University of Göttingen and University of Bern. Afterwards, he was a postdoc at the VU in Amsterdam and in Paris. In 2014, he became assistant professor in Leiden. 

Johannes’ research is in mathematical statistics. Statistics is concerned with the reconstruction of objects from data. In the mathematical theory, the main problem is to find and to analyze reconstruction methods that are in a certain sense optimal. Recently, Johannes has been starting to work on the mathematical analysis of deep neural networks. Deep learning is applied successfully to many complex tasks but poorly understood. It is unclear how these methods learn. The statistical analysis helps to understand how the signal is processed in the network and can lead to recommendations regarding favorable network architectures and other hyperparameters.  

Feel free to contact him via email (a.j.schmidt-hieber@utwente.nl) or to visit him (4th floor in the Zilverling building). 

 

Alexander Skopalik started as new staff member in the DMMP group as of July 2018. Alexander is a well-known expert in algorithmic game theory. He did his Diploma and PhD at the RWTH Aachen University and was a PostDoc at NTU Singapore and TU Dortmund. Before coming to Enschede he was a Junior professor at the University of Paderborn. He will - among other things - help developing new methods and mechanisms for the optimization and the matching of supply and demand in smart energy grids.  

 

 

Dietmar Gallistl. I am an assistant professor in the workgroup for Mathematics of Computational Science (MACS). My area of research is numerical analysis, more precisely the discretization of partial differential equations (PDE). The focus of my work lies on finite element methods for the approximation of nonlinear operators, on the convergence of self-adaptive mesh-refining algorithms driven by a posteriori error estimators, and on multiscale methods related to numerical homogenization and wave propagation. I obtained my doctoral degree from the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin with a thesis on the adaptive resolution of PDE eigenvalue problems. Before joining UT, I was head of the junior research group "Numerical Multiscale Methods" at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). At the same institute I accomplished my habilitation thesis on numerical methods for problems including high-order derivatives and fully nonlinear equations.

Having joined UT in last April, I am still in the process of becoming acquainted with the various processes at this university. Teaching courses is naturally the best way to get in touch with students, and I am very much looking forward to meet many of you during the next semesters.

 

Tugce Akkaya

When I was asked to write for the AM Newsletter, I thought that might be a good opportunity to introduce myself since I am new in the Math team. My name is Tugce Akkaya and I have been working as a lecturer at UTwente since November, 2017. I completed my MSc program in Turkey in 2011, and I have recently received my Dr. degree in the Mathematical Physics group in the Delft Institute of Applied Mathematics at TU Delft, The Netherlands, 2017. I worked on the project “Rain-wind induced oscillations of cables” under the supervision of Dr. W.T. van Horssen. During my PhD, I presented my research in national and international conferences/workshops such places as Vienna (ENOC2014), Frankfurt (IUTAM2015), Houston (ASME-IMECE2015). If you are interested in the subject of my PhD project, you are always welcome to visit my office Zilverling 3013. We can grab a cup of tea/coffee and chat on it  (we can also chat on other things: travelling, salsa, rowing…). Phd has a long-term deadline. Being patient and staying motivated are key essentials in order to successfully complete your Phd. I always think that PhD is like a boot camping to become an independent researcher. Besides the difficulties, I am happy to have those experiences. Now as a new Math team member, I would like to take responsibility and to work as part of a team. I am eager to gain new experience on an education and in my opinion UTwente is the best place to achieve all of it.

 

From the Programme Committee

Hello readers! We are Lotte Weedage, Linda ten Klooster, Femke Boelens and Dieuwertje Alblas. In this educational newsletter, we would like to introduce ourselves as the student members of the programme committee of Applied Mathematics. Linda and Femke are bachelor students and are in their second and third year respectively. Dieuwertje and Lotte are master students in SACS and OR. Together we feel like we are a good representation of the students.

So what do we do? The programme committee does not only consist of the four of us, but also of some staff members. We meet six times per year. During these meetings we discuss a lot of things regarding both the masters and the bachelors programme. We write advices if we feel aspects in the programme could be improved. We also receive the minutes of the panel discussions, as well as the outcomes of the SEQ evaluations. These inputs are vital to us, because this is direct feedback from the students. From the outcomes of the panel discussions and the SEQ we investigate improvements that could be implemented next year. However, if you feel like something can be improved and you do not want to wait until the SEQ evaluations, feel free to talk to one of us!

Starting now, we as student members will write a short update every educational newsletter about our tasks the last quartile.

Kind regards, Lotte Weedage, Linda ten Klooster, Femke Boelens and Dieuwertje Alblas.

 

BIG Challenges

Text: Diana Dalenoord, published in Abacus’ magazine Ideaal! in November 2018

During the opening of the academic year, a number of prizes were awarded. Brigit Geveling received the Brinksma Innovation Grant. She wrote a proposal to innovate education through Team-based Learning. Her proposal focuses on the mathematics line and she will soon start a pilot at Civil Engineering.

 

What is the plan about?

Every mathematics student knows that during exams you have to provide answers with an explanation, say proof. However, this doesn't happen by itself. Brigit's plan tackles this problem. The intention is that you always give an explanation for what you write down. At examinations you give proof of the answer you put down. In an e-mail you not only describe your wish, but also explain why it exists and what you want to achieve. You make it your own to give an 'explanation' for everything.

 

Why is this so important?

Finding a solution is one thing, but you also have to be able to explain it to third parties, who may not be very familiar with the subject, why you choose this solution. By structuring the description of subjects, reporting will also be easier for you. It is not about learning proofs and formulas by heart, but about learning to think by yourself. This has never been done before in education and this innovation is the reason why Brigit won the BIG.

 

How does it work?

It is based on Team-based Learning. There are no lectures, you get your knowledge from books, you make assignments and you prepare for exams. Question Hours are organized where teachers answer questions and give tips. Students can choose to work together, but will have to organize this themselves. This will not be scheduled, as is the case with the current education system.

 

How does the research progress?

The research starts in February and focuses on first year Civil Engineering students. They will actively work with this program during the course Linear Algebra with extra attention for proofs/explanations.  The examination Linear Algebra is suitable for all disciplines with LA in the program. The CE students give answers according to what they learned from Brigit. The other students give answers as always. This way you can see what the difference is.  With successful outcomes, teachers are trained through a workshop to cause a snowball effect. In the future, you can start in the first quartile.

 

What is the benefit to the student?

Students learn to give better solution-oriented explanations. They can also inform third parties - without specific professional knowledge - to let them understand why they came up with this solution or advice. You become better scientists because you can explain better what it is all about, which makes you more valuable to society: you are a perfect project leader. Managing a team, explaining why a solution needs to be found for a certain problem and how that solution can be explained, is your expertise.

 

AMEP

On Thursday the 14th of February the Applied Mathematics Education Prize (AMEP) has been awarded and we proudly announce that Jasper de Jong, through his enthusiasm and the relevance of his subject for students, has won! The theme for the presentations of this AMEP was ‘Mathematics of the Future’. With his presentation on how best to find your soulmate, Jasper de Jong narrowly won against Pranab Mandal and Gjerrit Meinsma; the difference between the three nominees was only 5 votes. Pranab Mandal gave a presentation to explain why mathematics is the future, and Gjerrit Meinsma proved that everyone is already bald somewhere on their head. Unfortunately at the time of writing it has been confirmed that Jasper de Jong will not be competing in the final of the University of Twente Education Award (UTEA).

 

Abacus Lustrum Announcement

On the 19th of November 2019 Abacus will celebrate her 50th birthday. Therefore, we will have a whole week of fun activities, which you are also invited for. The activity on the 18th of November is the opening of the lustrum, where we invite all alumni, staff members and students. This reception will start at 17:00 and is with dinner, speeches and some cultural performances. The rest of the lustrum activities and details about the lustrum reception will be announced later. Make sure to save the date!