Thursday, 26 January 2023 Record attendance of Gimnazija Koper high school students at the Mathematics Day
On Wednesday 25 January 2023, UP FAMNIT hosted the traditional Mathematics Day, which was organized for third-year students of the Gimnazija Koper by professors of Mathematics at UP FAMNIT.
This year the event was attended by more than 100 students, accompanied by mathematics teachers. The students were divided into three groups and listened to lectures on the applicability of mathematics in everyday life.
The programme started with the introductory greetings by Dr. Ademir Hujdurović, dean of UP FAMNIT, Dr. Bojan Kuzma, the Head of the Department of Mathematics of UP FAMNIT and Dr. Marko Orel, Coordinator of the study programme Mathematics.
Dr. Ademir Hujdurović
In his lecture, Dr. Ted Dobson presented the graph, which is a relatively simple object. He relied on the key question of when two graphs are really "the same'' and what this means. Mathematics is often used in the field of Sports, which was presented by Dr. Boštjan Frelih, who gave interesting examples that were not limited to counting results. Dr. Karla Ferjančič presented Bézier curves, which have become incredibly useful with the development of computers. The curves themselves are considered indispensable in the automotive, aircraft and ship industries for robot control, modelling, animation and other fields.
Students also went through the history of cryptographic methods and procedures, as Dr. Štefko Miklavič explained the role of mathematics in cryptography, where students tried to "crack" some simple codes. Dr. Nino Bašić also introduced the basics of the Python programming language.
Lecturer, Dr. Nino Bašić
Dr. Rado Pezdir explained about the vicissitudes of the stock market, basic financial concepts (risk, return, stock market) and also how mathematics can help us understand complex environments such as financial markets.
"When teaching mathematics at school, students mostly calculate and use formulas that they have to learn by heart, sometimes it is difficult to imagine the usefulness of mathematics in real life," says Neva Ećimović, professor of mathematics at Gimnazija Koper.
"Theory and good basics are important, so students can upgrade their knowledge, but at the Mathematics Day, which is prepared every year by FAMNIT, they have a very good opportunity to learn mathematics differently and get the additional motivation to learn, which is sometimes lacking in learning about theory." She summed up, that students are enthusiastic about Mathematics Day every year because in this way they learn about the usefulness of mathematics.
The Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies of the University of Primorska offer six undergraduate study programs, including Mathematics and Mathematics in Economics and Finance. More information about study programs and studying at Famnit can also be found at the upcoming Information Days, which will take place on 17 and 18 February 2023.
