Bulletin

Issue: September 2005

News

It all adds up to better teaching and research

La Trobe University is playing a pivotal role in the new Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute (AMSI) dedicated to improved mathematics and statistics teaching, research and co-operation with industry.

La Trobe is one of only eight universities which are full members of the organisation. Another 20, and other organisations, such as CSIRO and the Australian Bureau of Statistics, are associate members.

Dr Geoff Prince, Reader and Associate Professor in La Trobe's Department of Mathematics, is AMSI's Executive Director. He says La Trobe has also contributed in other ways.

The recently published AMSI booklet entitled Maths Ad(d)s - an annotated sample of advertisements in Australian newspapers to show students that Australian employers seek people with strong mathematical skills - grew out of a La Trobe Department of Mathematics booklet.

AMSI received initial funding in 2002 of $1 million from the Victorian Government's Science, Technology and Innovation Infrastructure Grants Program and matching funds from member organisations to help improve the international competitiveness of Australian industry and commerce and establish national industry-linked research in areas such as security, bioinformatics, optimisation and financial mathematics.

It also offers vacation scholarships. La Trobe winners this year were Sarah Myers, David van Golstein Brouwers, Jingdong Xu, Davide Farchione and Callum McLean. The students are working on research projects ranging from biological studies and numerical simulation of the outer solar system to credit risk modelling.

AMSI, says Dr Prince, now also provides for the installation of 'Access Grid Rooms' in member institutions - advanced national teleconferencing facilities for shared teaching and research programs in the mathematical sciences.