PROGRAM EXTRAS
In addition to lectures and classes, AMSI Summer School offers a range of social and extra-curricular activities to help you see your research in a new light, make friends and get the most out of your Summer School experience.
Opening Ceremony
Welcome to Day 1 of your Summer School! Come to the Australian National University or log in online and meet the team who will be your hosts and guides for the next four weeks. Grab a seat and hear from our Keynote Speaker, Distinguished Professor Susan Scott
Where: China in the World, Building 188, Fellows Lane, The Australian National University, Acton Campus
and online (Zoom link will be posted on Wattler prior to the event)
When: Monday 8 January
Time: 9.00am – 10.30am (AEDT) (Please make note of the time in your local time zone if attending virtually)
Campus Tour
For those of you attending on-campus at ANU, let us show you around, so you feel more at home.
Where: China in the World, Building 188, Fellows Lane, The Australian National University, Acton Campus
When: Monday 8 January
Time: 10.30am – 11am
Welcome Lunch
With the morning formalities done and dusted, come along, grab some lunch and a cold drink, and meet other Summer School attendees in a relaxed environment.
Where: Hanna Neumann Building 145, Science Road, The Australian National University, Acton Campus
When: Monday 8 January
Time: 12pm – 1.30pm
Participant Talks
(proudly sponsored by Optiver)
Exchange ideas, build networks and explore how others are using mathematics to solve real world problems and further the discipline.
Participants will take turns to give a ten-minute presentation to AMSI Summer School peers. Participants are encouraged to ask questions at the conclusion of each talk and build collaborative networks throughout these sessions.
Presentations will happen concurrently in smaller groups on Wednesday 10 January and Friday 12 January. Participants will vote for their favourite talks. Presentations with the most votes will win up to $400 in prizes.
SESSION 1 & 2
Where: China in the World, Building 188, Fellows Lane, ANU
and online (Zoom link will be posted in Wattle)
When: Wednesday 10 January and Friday 12 January
Time: 11am – 12pm AEDT
For more information, tips on presenting and to submit an abstract, please visit our participant talks page
Public Lunchtime Lecture
Quantifying Differences In Shape Via Algebraic Topology
Presented by Dr Katharine Turner, Australian National University
Where: China in the World, Building 188, Fellows Lane, The Australian National University, Acton Campus
and online (Zoom link to be emailed to registrants prior to the event)
When: Wednesday 10 January
Time: 12pm – 1.30pm AEDT (Light refreshments will be served)
Optiver Lunchtime Lecture
My Journey from Mathematician to Trader
Presented by Ellena Moskovsky, Optiver
Where: China in the World, Building 188, Fellows Lane, The Australian National University and online (Zoom link will be posted on Wattle)
When: Thursday 11 January
Time: 12pm – 1.30pm AEDT (Light refreshments will be served)
Abstract: This talk will be about my journey from doing a Phd in pure mathematics to becoming a quantitative trader at Optiver. We’ll talk through my background studying maths at Monash University in my undergraduate degree and my time working while living in NZ. I’ll tell you a bit about the field of mathematics called Enumerative Geometry that stems from the mathematics of string theory, as well as some of the mathematical problems traders today tackle day-to-day. Along the way, we’ll do some maths problems and reflect on the skills we cultivate as mathematicians that provide great opportunities in today’s workforce.
About Ellena: Ellena Moskovsky (she/her) completed her undergraduate degree at Monash University in 2015 with a double major in Pure Mathematics and a minor in Astrophysics. She took a break from studying to work and travel, then returned to Monash University to do an honours year in 2018 followed by a PhD for the next four years. Moving into industry after her PhD, she is now a trader at a market-making firm, Optiver.
Public Lunchtime Lecture
Scattering Theory, Or Looking At The Big Picture
Presented by Professor Andrew Hassell, Australian National University
Where: China in the World, Building 188, Fellows Lane, The Australian National University, Acton Campus
and online (Zoom link will be emailed to registrants prior to the event)
When: Monday 15 January
Time: 12pm – 1.30pm AEDT (Light refreshments will be provided)
Careers Day
Discover the career paths can you take with a maths, stats or data science degree
Attend the AMSI Careers Day and explore the diverse career pathways available to mathematical sciences graduates. Mathematics, statistics and data science are critical to so many careers across all industry sectors! Talk to potential employers, get your employment questions answered and be inspired by the endless opportunities.
Where: Research School of Physics, Building 160, Mills Road, The Australian National University, Acton Campus
When: Wednesday 17 January
Time: 11am – 2.30pm
(Light refreshments will be provided)
Australian Signals Directorate Lunchtime Lecture
Foundation Models and Linguistics: How maths could help explore the shape of language
Presented by Kyla, ASD
Where: Level 5, Hanna Neumann building (Building #145), Science Road, ANU
and online (Zoom link will be posted on Wattle)
When: Wednesday 24 January
Time: 12pm – 1.30pm AEDT (Light refreshments will be served)
Abstract: The hype surrounding Large Language Models and their potential applications has been difficult to miss in the media and on the internet. Debate can be found in the annals of academic literature, expounding both the virtues (Meyer, Urbanowicz et al. 2023, Skorburg, Kupferschmidt et al. 2023) and the limitations (Bender, Gebru et al. 2021, O’Neill and Connor 2023, Thirunavukarasu 2023) of these models. Their utility for specific linguistic analysis is largely unexplored, with scholars focussing predominantly on prompting of the models to perform meta-linguistic analysis (Beguš, Dąbkowski et al. 2023). The embeddings obtained from them provide a rich model of language that can be applied to a large range of linguistic analyses. In particular, for those analyses that are complex enough to necessitate computational approaches. In this talk, I will provide the intuition behind using LLM’s for linguistic analysis and explore some of the areas in which mathematicians and linguists could collaborate to explore and describe the shape of human language.
References
Beguš, G., et al. (2023). “Large Linguistic Models: Analyzing theoretical linguistic abilities of LLMs.” arXiv preprint arXiv:2305.00948.
Bender, E. M., et al. (2021). On the dangers of stochastic parrots: Can language models be too big?? Proceedings of the 2021 ACM conference on fairness, accountability, and transparency.
Meyer, J. G., et al. (2023). “ChatGPT and large language models in academia: opportunities and challenges.” BioData Mining 16(1): 20.
O’Neill, M. and M. Connor (2023). “Amplifying Limitations, Harms and Risks of Large Language Models.” arXiv preprint arXiv:2307.04821.
Skorburg, J. A., et al. (2023). ““Large Language Models” Do Much More than Just Language: Some Bioethical Implications of Multi-Modal AI.” The American Journal of Bioethics 23(10): 110-113.
Thirunavukarasu, A. J. (2023). “Large language models will not replace healthcare professionals: curbing popular fears and hype.” Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine: 01410768231173123.
Closing Ceremony
Well done – you made it! Join us as the program draws to a close. Wave farewell (but not goodbye!) to friends and share a few highlights from the last four massive weeks. Don’t forget to add your new friends to your socials before leaving campus or logging off!
Where: Hanna Neumann Building 145, Science Road, The Australian National University, Acton Campus
When: Friday 02 February
Time: 12pm – 1.30pm