Maria-Louiza Van Den Bergh

Maria-Louiza is studying Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Warwick, and spent the summer with us on the URSS scheme in 2024. She worked with Dr Nick TawnLink opens in a new window and Dr Ian Hamilton on her project “Improving reliability in Comparative Judgement using bootstrap and a new strength estimate".

What was the highlight of the internship?

For me, the highlight of the internship was the moment the project became mine. The switch from meetings being led by my supervisor and staring at papers confused to presenting the work I had done was so lovely. It did take a few weeks to gain confidence in the project and my work. However, once I knew what I was doing and knew I was contributing, it was a wonderful feeling! (I also loved the short coffee breaks where we all struggled and shared our accomplishments. It helped remind me that progress isn’t always linear and finding mistakes is also progress!)

What did you like most about your project?

I really like seeing how my project could be applicable to other situations, especially during the poster session where academics familiar with the model added insight.

What did you learn about doing a research-style project?

I learnt to take it slow and focus on understanding, rather than rushing to get results. I also learnt how to approach supervisor meetings (eg with bullet points of what I had covered, what I didn’t understand and what to do for next week). This has been really helpful for the first few weeks of my Masters so far!

What is the best thing about studying at Warwick?

The staff! Not only are super friendly and supportive, they cover so many research areas which leads to amazing module choices and research opportunities. (My summer project started from a talk given by Dr Ian Hamilton!)

What was your favourite game at the Friday socials?

The lying fishes.

Harleen Kaur Gulati

Harleen is studying Mathematics at the University of Bristol, and joined us on the Summer Research Experience in 2024. She worked with Dr Richard EverittLink opens in a new window and PhD student Jia Le Tan on a project investigating the use of Monte Carlo algorithms for estimating fish stocks.

What was the highlight of the internship?

"The weekly talk from PhD students and Friday tea-time sessions!"

What did you like most about your project?

"My project was the perfect blend of both theory and methodology, allowing an insight into both reading papers and applying methods in code."

What did you learn about doing a research-style project?

"I learnt to find an approachable and efficient way to skim research papers to extract insightful information, as well as how vast the field of research truly is from the talks given weekly by current PhD students."

What is the best thing about studying at Warwick?

"The people, professors, students, wildlife (geese and swans and squirrels) and the beautiful greenery!"

What was your favourite game at the Friday socials?

"What the Fish (even though I was miserable at it)!"

Kevin Jusak

Kevin is currently studying Part III of the Mathematical Tripos, and was a part of the 2024 cohort. He worked with Dr Sam Olesker-TaylorLink opens in a new window on the Characterisation of Cutoff in Markov Chains.

Imagine shuffling a deck of cards by randomly swapping pairs of cards or flipping entries in a binary string of length 1000 (e.g., 011001...). Over time, both systems gradually approach a completely random state. Cutoff is a fascinating phenomenon observed in many Markov chains, where there is an abrupt transition from "far from random" to "close to random." For example, in the binary string, the sequence remains far from random after 1700 flips but becomes nearly random after just 1750 flips.

Since its discovery in the 1980s in the context of card shuffling, cutoff has been recognised in a wide array of systems and is believed to be a universal trait among high-dimensional systems. However, even after 40 years of study, most proofs remain case-specific, relying on explicit calculations in simplified models. Finding sufficient conditions for cutoff remains one of the major open problems in mixing times.

What was the highlight of the internship?

The whole internship was a highlight to me, I got to learn new concepts independently which was a very rewarding experience. The fellow interns I met during the internship were all really amazing too, I got to learn a bit about what they were doing too.

What did you like most about your project?

The whole project prepares me for a course I am currently studying in my master's and I look forward to building on what I've learned from my internship.

What did you learn about doing a research-style project?

Working independently and having to pick things up on my own is very different to learning from lectures. It gave me an idea of what doing research will look like.

What is the best thing about studying at Warwick?

The lecturers. Everyone welcomes questions, both through emails and after lectures. I really think that I learned as much from these interactions as I did during the lectures.

What was your favourite game at the Friday socials?

Pictionary (only maths-related words), I would say that I draw better than most the summer students there, but they had us rotate!

Becky Griffiths

Becky studied Mathematics at the University of Bristol, and joined us on the Summer Research Experience in 2022. She worked with Dr Richard EverittLink opens in a new window and PhD student Ian Roberts on a project investigating approximate Bayesian computation algorithms.