MathSoc Update - April 2016

We kicked of the Spring Term with our annual MathSoc on Tour, this time heading to Dublin. We spent three days in the beautiful city, taking in local culture, with visits to the Guinness Storehouse, Old Jameson Distillery and even Dublin Zoo! These were of course paired with two of MathSoc’s legendary nights out, one of which being a bar crawl around Temple Bar.

Then, as term started, we were approached by the Economics Society to create a brand new event: Maths vs Econ pub golf.  We toured through the pubs of Selly Oak, with MathSoc being crowned victorious. We then headed to Stupid Tuesday’s in the city centre to celebrate our victory.

Then came Fundraising February. We had signed up to Carnival RAG’s Adopt a Charity Week, which conveniently fell in February, so we decided to extend this to the whole month. First, we hosted the EPS University Challenge. 16 teams from across the 9 Engineering and Physical Sciences disciplines competed in several head-to-head rounds of general knowledge questions. The final was a close fought battle between MathSoc A and ChemSoc B, but unfortunately ChemSoc just beat us.  Very worthy winners but we will do better next time as we hope this becomes will become annual event occurrence. We also went bowling and held a bake sale to raise money for our charity of the year, Teenage Cancer Trust. Then to finish an extremely successful month 15 members of MathSoc ran the Coventry Half Marathon. Massive shout out to Oli Cox for finishing in an incredible time of 1 hour 31 minutes, and to Emma Nield who broke her leg after the first mile but  powered through to finish the whole race in a very respectable 2 hours 16 minutes. Overall, Fundraising February raised over £1,800 with donations still coming in!

Also in February we ran a trip to Bletchley Park, the British codebreaking site during World War 2 and the setting of the Imitation Game film. A great day out was had by all and special thanks to the Guild and the EPS Culture Fund for providing free transport and discounted tickets.

Then came the much anticipated MathSoc Monochrome Spring Ball, held at the Paragon Hotel. Everyone looked stunning, dressed up in Black Tie and we all enjoyed a drinks reception, three course dinner and after-party. Awards were given to those for exceptional commitment and contribution and it was a great celebration of the last year.

We are now counting down to the end of term and annual EPS Societies’ Awards. With the tremendous year we’ve had we’re hoping to get on our hands on one of the prestigious Awards on offer.  We won Society of the Year 2013-14 and we want the trophy back! If you are or have been part of MathSoc, or have enjoyed reading about our activities this year please nominate us!

Best wishes,

Sarah Graves

President, 2015-16