UCD School of Mathematics & Statistics
6 results

Coronavirus: What does exponential growth mean?
- Science
- April 16, 2020, 01:00
In its initial stages, the coronavirus pandemic grew at an exponential rate. What does this mean? The number of infected people in a country is growin(...)

The many modern uses of quaternions
- Science
- October 4, 2018, 01:00
The story of William Rowan Hamilton’s discovery of new four-dimensional numbers called quaternions is familiar. The solution of a problem that had bot(...)

Explainer: Has Michael Atiyah conquered the Everest of mathematics?
- World
- September 24, 2018, 15:13
A major mathematical result has been announced by British-Lebanese mathematician Sir Michael Atiyah. In a talk at the 6th Heidelberg Laureate Forum in(...)

Automatic face recognition: how it works
- Science
- September 6, 2018, 01:00
As you pass through an airport, you are photographed several times by security systems. Face recognition systems can identify you by comparing your di(...)

Fourier’s wonderful idea: Breaking complex signals into simple pieces
- Science
- March 29, 2018, 15:55
Joseph Fourier, born just 250 years ago, introduced a wonderful idea that revolutionised science and mathematics: any function or signal can be broken(...)

Stemming the spread of epidemics
- Science
- February 22, 2018, 11:09
We are reminded each year to get vaccinated against the influenza virus. The severity of the annual outbreak is not known with certainty in advance, b(...)