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MATHS AND SCIENCES 3
Senior Mathematics Challenge
In November 2016, the annual UKMT Senior
Mathematics Challenge took place.
Over 100,000 students from all over the UK and beyond did battle
with an extremely demanding set of problems. Eighty seven of our
students in the top three years chose to take up the challenge and
all of them achieved a Gold, Silver or Bronze award, with twenty four
of them coming in the top 10% and achieving a Gold award. Special
mention must go to Sayon Uthayakumar who scored an impressive
full marks. Well done to everyone who took part and who, without
exception, came away with a certificate.
Of the 100,000 students who enter the challenge 1,000 are invited to
take part in the British Maths Olympiad Round 1. Congratulations to
Sayon Uthaykumar, Arun Soor, Ilalya Prabhakar and Matthew Davies
(U6), Dharshan Balasirishwaron, (L6) and Himaani Yogendran and
Soumya Krishna Kumar (5th Form) who
all qualified for this prestigious round. Particular mention must
go to Dharshan who scored highly enough to go on to the last
and final round of the competition where the top 500
mathematicians in the UK challenge themselves against the
most demanding problems.
With our mathematics team
still in the Hans
Woyda knock out
competition it has
been a good year
so far for senior
mathematics at
Bancroft’s. We wish
all the students
the best of luck in
their coming public
examinations.
Bio-Inspired Flying
Robots For Future
Cities
Simone Luis, 5W
On Thursday 8 December, twenty eight students
from the U4 and Fifth Form along with Mrs Graham
from the biology department and and Mr Ceeraz
and Mr Busch from physics, attended a talk entitled
‘Bio-inspired flying robots for future cities’ at
Imperial College.
The newly appointed Vice Provost of the University, Simone
Buitendijk, welcomed us. He was followed by a very captivating
and inspiring talk by Dr Mirko Kovac, Director of the Aerial
Robotics Laboratory, about the University’s new innovation - the
biologically inspired aerial robots. This product needed combined
efforts from the fields of biology, physics and engineering. He
introduced us to this new found idea, about which not many
people had previously had an insight. Then he went on to tell us
about some of the new research the University had undertaken.
He explained hybrid locomotion for robots. On one type of robot
they had mimicked the flight of a bird, then further developed
its features to be able to dive underwater. Dr Kovac explained
the uses of this drone other than entertainment, although he did
admit, they are very useful for entertainment! He showed us how
they could be programmed to repair and bind broken structures
in areas like at the top of an oil rig and inside a nuclear fusion
reactor, which could be useful in the future. Recently Dr Kovac and
his team have been working on robots that can “perch” on trees
and other objects, enabling drones to become “mobile networks
of sensors”, this could bring aid to rural areas in Africa, hopefully
these bio-inspired flying robots could function harmoniously in
cities. We were able to witness one of the Imperial College’s pet
robots in action as it ran around the stage and followed Dr Kovac’s
commands, ultimately jumping into his arms, which wowed us all.
This was followed by a demonstration of one of the drones.
This lecture definitely inspired some of us to look into the idea of
a STEM career. We all really enjoyed the lecture and, at the end of
a long day, we also enjoyed the refreshments of juices, chocolate
brownies and mince pies afterwards!
Senior Mathematics
Mrs Pat Morton
Mathematical Olympiad for Girls
In October 2016, 3,000 of the top UK female
mathematicians from years 11-13 took part in the
Mathematical Olympiad for Girls.
This is a very challenging competition where students face three
hours of the hardest problems in mathematics. Six students from
Bancroft’s took part: Daffodil Dhayaa (L6), Soumya Krishna Kumar (5th
Form), Oviya Kumanan (U6), Lana Mawlood (L6), Lily Meech (L6), and
Himaani Yogendran (5th Form). All of the girls scored well, achieving
scores above the average for the competition, with Soumya, Daffodil
and Oviya achieving highly sought after Distinctions.