Australian 2008 IMO results

The Australian Mathematics Trust reports that Australian IMO team has just won 5 silver medals and one bronze medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad in Madrid, with a country ranking of 19th out of 97; this is Australia’s best showing in a few years.  Congrats to the Aussie team for their efforts (and for the Ashes victory!).

[The Olympiad problems can, of course, be downloaded from the official IMO site.]

(Thanks to Peter Taylor for the news.)

2008 Mathematics Ashes won by Australia

The Australian Mathematics Trust reports that the inaugural Mathematics Ashes has been won by the Australian IMO team.  (Thanks to Peter Taylor for the news.)

Interview with Clio Cresswell

There was a nice extended interview (almost an hour in length) on ABC classic FM on Monday by Margaret Throsby with Clio Cresswell (a senior lecturer in mathematics at the University of Sydney), being a light conversation about music, maths, and what the latter can offer to the layperson.  The audio for that interview can be found here.  I particularly liked Clio’s description of algebra, trigonometry, and mathematical abstraction in very accessible terms.

(Thanks to Phillip Brooker and Jan Thomas for the item.)

National Numeracy Review

The Australian is reporting today that the National Numeracy Review, commissioned two years ago by the Council of Australian Governments, has finished its final report (a background paper to the review can be found here, and a discussion paper with terms of reference can be found here.  Here is AMSI’s submission to the review).  The report raises concerns that the minimum standards for maths and numeracy skills at the primary and high school levels are too low, and recommends that teachers devote more time to these topics than is currently required.

The Australian is also running a statement by the education minister, Julia Gillard, on the importance of increasing achievement levels in literacy and numeracy, as well as a dissenting opinion by Kevin Donnelly, who warns of the dangers of forcing teachers who are inexperienced with mathematics into teaching more maths and numeracy skills to students.

Coincidentally, a similar report has been released in the U.S. by the National Council on Teacher Quality, entitled “No common denominator: The Preparation of Elementary Teachers in Mathematics by America’s Education Schools“.  (See also a recent recommendations on maths education by the U.S. National Mathematics Advisory Panel.)

[Update, July 16: additional links added; thanks to Jan Thomas for the references.]

7:30 report on Tuesday

I’ve just been informed by Peter Taylor from the AMT that there should be a piece airing in tonight’s Tuesday’s 7:30 report on the Australian IMO team that is flying out to Lisbon today.  The transcript (and video) is now available here.

One of the members of that team, Max Menzies (who was also on last year’s team) was also interviewed this morning on Adam Spencer’s ABC Radio breakfast show; a transcript (courtesy of Peter) can be found here.

[Update, July 7: the 7:30 report item has been moved back from Monday to Tuesday.  Sorry!]

[Update, July 8: A transcript of the 7:30 report item is now available.]

Citation statistics

There is an interesting new report “Citation statistics“, jointly produced by the International Mathematical Union (IMU), International Council of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM), and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS), on the use and abuse of various citation statistics (such as impact factors and h-indices) as proxies for research quality.  (One of the authors, incidentally, is Peter Taylor from the University of Melbourne, not to be confused with Peter Taylor from the Australian Mathematics Trust.)  The press release for the report is available here. The basic message is that these statistics can supplement expert judgement of the quality of one’s research, but cannot substitute for that judgement, despite being more a “objective” metric, as they are subject to various artificial distortions.  (For instance, a typical paper in the life sciences is cited six times more frequently than one in maths or computer science, due to a variety of factors, including the different academic cultures of these disciplines.)

Of course, expert evaluation by someone knowledgeable in the subject matter is a scarce resource, and it is still very tempting to rely on these statistics in the absence of such judgment.  I once was involved in applying for a large Australian grant that was open to all sciences.  One of the reviewers commented that the proposers (who were all mathematicians) had significantly fewer publications than those from competing proposals, particularly those in the life sciences (though my own publication count of 150 or so papers was deemed “acceptable”).   While statistics such as impact factors are intended to remove some of the distortions coming from using raw publication count as a measure of research quality and output, they are still far from perfect, especially when it comes to comparisons across disciplines.  (For the record, our proposal was not funded, though this was probably a result of many other factors than the above comment.)

[Via The Funneled Web and the Australian Mathematical Society.]

2009 / 2010 Fulbright CSIRO Postgraduate Scholarship to Australia

[This announcement was forwarded to me from the Australian-American Fulbright Commission, who supported me as a Fulbright scholar for my post-graduate study at Princeton. I recommend the Fulbright programs, especially for students who plan to maintain close ties to their home country while also enjoying the benefits of studying abroad. - T.]

A partnership of the Australian-American Fulbright Commission and the CSIRO National Research Flagships program.

Work in Australia on major challenges and opportunities in climate, energy, water, health and more. Gain international experience and build collaborations in Australia as part of your American Postgraduate studies in science working with Australia’s most ambitious scientific research program, the CSIRO National Research Flagships.

Australia’s leading and largest science research organisation, the Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), is offering Fulbright scholars the opportunity to work in Australia as part of your American PhD program.

Applications are now open for the 2009 / 2010 Fulbright CSIRO Postgraduate Scholarship to Australia. Valued at up to A$34,000, this scholarship supports an American citizen to undertake 8-12 months postgraduate research in Australia related to their American PhD with one of the nine CSIRO National Research Flagships.

The 2009 / 2010 scholarship may be started anytime between 1 July 2009 and 30 June 2010. Applicants will be assessed by their academic and professional merit; clearly defined and achievable projects; and the potential for their projects to add value and build collaborations between Australia and the U.S.

Background information on CSIRO, areas of potential research focus on which Fulbright Scholars can work, and contacts at CSIRO with whom you can explore your research options can be found at http://www.csiro.au/org/FulbrightCSIROscholarship.html. Information on the Fulbright Scholarship Program in Australia and scholar’s experiences can be found at http://www.fulbright.com.au.

Applications for this scholarship are through the normal U.S. Postgraduate application process via your U.S. university, or direct to the Institute for International Education (IIE).

Applications close in the U.S between early September to late October (check with your U.S. university or IIE).

Mathematics at Flinders

In the last two decades at Australian universities, departments have primarily been funded using formulae that are based to a large extent on the number of Australian and foreign students that are enrolled in their majors, or are taught by their service courses. As such, there is a tremendous pressure on administrations and departments to increase enrollments at any cost - for instance by lowering course requirements, or removing requirements involving other departments and replacing them with in-house substitutes. As one consequence on this focus on enrollments, other factors such as research and teaching quality, or the needs of industry or the community, are considered secondary or are neglected altogether. Another effect is that department funding is subject to short-term fluctuations based on changes in student demand. [In contrast, in other countries such as the US, funding is usually not determined by rigid formulae, but instead changes slowly from historical levels in response to a combination of all the factors listed above.]

These factors have played a significant role in the recent USQ crisis, and as indicated in a letter to the most recent issue of the Gazette, have also had a detrimental effect on mathematics at the University of New England. In this post I would like to describe how this structure had largely destroyed mathematics at my old alma mater, Flinders University, in which the number of full time mathematics staff has dwindled from 19 during my time there in 1989-1992 to just three today, although a rebuilding effort is now being planned there, as reported last week in the Australian.

Mathematics Ashes

The Australian and UK mathematics trusts have set up a “Mathematics Ashes“, in analogy with the well-known cricketing counterpart, for the Australian and British IMO teams to compete for each year, as part of their planned joint training sessions, thus injecting the traditional Aussie values of sport and rivalry with the Poms into the competition. The scripts of the losing team are to be burned, with the ashes sealed into the urn that is retained by the winning team.

The Australian Mathematics Trust has also announced this weekend that its BH Neumann award will be awarded this year to Ben Burton, the third Australian to win a gold medal at the IMO, and now director of training for the IOI, and also a researcher in the finance industry. Congratulations to Ben!

(Thanks to Peter Taylor for the news.)

Maths in the UK

Student numbers are consistently drifting from high- to medium-level mathematics courses, and migrating from there to the lowest level.  The nation needs mathematics, and mathematicians, to keep up with its traditional commercial rivals, and also with newer competitors such as China and India; yet the mathematics economy is losing out.  It’s cool to drop out of mathematics at school, but no-one would be proud of being unable to read.

Sound familiar?  Yes, it could easily be a paraphrasing of current concerns in Australia, but it’s actually a precis of a recently released report on mathematics in the UK, “The value of mathematics“, written for the UK think-tank Reform by Laura Kounine, John Marks and Elizabeth Truss.  Started by a current Conservative MP and a former head of the Political Section in the Conservative Research Department, Reform includes among its executives and advisors the Rector of Imperial College, London, a British Liberal Democrat politician, and the former CEO of Vodafone.

The report lays the blame at the door of declining academic standards in schools, and a drift away from rigorous approaches to teaching mathematics.