The London Mathematical Society (LMS) is the UK’s learned society for mathematics. The Society received its royal charter in its centenary year in 1965 and will be celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2015. To mark this occasion, the LMS will be hosting a year-long programme of events aimed at promoting mathematics and recognising the field’s its contributions to modern UK technology and culture. As part of this programme the Society will be collaborating with the Science Museum in the creation of a Mathematics Footfall Festival running from the 25th to the 29th of November, 2015 at the Science Museum.
For the Footfall Festival the LMS wishes to recruit ten research groups from universities in and around London. These groups will have the opportunity to exhibit their work to the general public during the Festival.
The Festival: The Mathematics Footfall Festival will launch with a Late Night event on Wednesday the 25th of November, and will last until Sunday the 29th, excluding Thursday the 26th. The programme will include live demonstrations, interactive exhibits, displays, and activities centred on mathematics.
The Festival at the Science Museum aims to:
- Work with mathematicians to develop a range of activities and events that explore what mathematics is and how it is used.
- Provide Science Museum audiences with a chance to meet mathematicians whose research relates to everyday life, and enable these audience members to discuss mathematics and its importance. The specific target audiences are non-specialist adults, school children, and families.
- Provide participating mathematicians with training and practical experience of public engagement activities, allowing them to share their knowledge and experience, and to support them in developing creative activities and events that communicate their work in new ways to new audiences.
The Mathematics Footfall Festival will run over four days with an anticipated 10,000 attendees. Each day will target a different audience, as follows:
Wednesday Night: Adults
Friday: School groups (Key Stages 3 and 4 (11 – 16 year olds)
Saturday and Sunday: Families and independent adults
Research Group Involvement: Research Groups will attend all four days of the Festival including the Late Night event. In the lead up to this event, these groups will work closely with the Science Museum’s contemporary science team to develop and refine ideas on activities and events related to their research area. The Science Museum will work with the Groups to shape these activities and demonstrations into an overall experience for visitors.
Participating Research Groups will be required to attend seven days of development over the five months prior to the opening of the Mathematics Festival. These development days will include a training day to provide guidance on communication with non-academic audiences and at the end of this period it is expected that the research groups will have developed a self-contained outreach demonstration. These demonstrations will be independent of the Festival, and will be appropriate for further outreach sessions following the close of the Festival should the research groups wish to use them.
No funding will be provided for travel to and from training days, so it is advisable that applying research groups be within easy commuting distance of the Science Museum.
Research groups wishing to be involved in this project are invited to send proposals to the Society. These proposals should include their institution name, their position within their institution, the name of their project leader, a brief summary of their work, and a paragraph on how they believe their project relates to everyday life. If relevant, the proposal should also include any collaborative ties to other research groups in the field. A proposal form template may be downloaded at the bottom of this page. It is not necessary that research groups use this form, however.
Due to the time commitment necessary, those groups invited to participate in this event will require the permission of their Head of Department.
Initial expressions of interest detailing the group’s institution and primary research topic should be emailed to Ann Thresher at ann.thresher@lms.ac.uk by the end of September. The deadline for full proposals is 5pm, October 31st to the same address.