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What we do

An archive of Past events can be found here. Below is a summary of the events in general, who does what, and when it happens:

Social Events

  • What it is: One of the main aims of the CUGMS is to promote social interaction between PhD students studying maths in different departments. Therefore, we organise a number of events throughout the year, both large and small, to which all members are invited. CUGMS has a small amount of funding, so it is possible for us to at least partially subsidise these events. The CUGMS committee tries to host a number of events, but we also encourage other PhD students to organise events themselves. Please email us if you would like to plan something fun.
  • Who does what: Organiser: CUGMS committee, or anyone else who wants to plan an event. This person will be responsible for proposing the event to the committee to ask for funding, planning and publicising the event, and cleaning up afterwards (as appropriate). PhD students: Members of CUGMS are generally asked to sign up to participate online, so that the organiser can plan for the appropriate number of people. Then, hopefully, they will show up and have fun!
  • When it happens: Our annual events are as follows:
    • DPMMS PhD student induction (Michaelmas Term) — a short introduction to life as a PhD student in DPMMS,
    • Induction day pizza party (Michaelmas Term) —
      after the DAMTP and DPMMS we invite all PhD students to have pizza with us,
    • End of year picnic (Easter Term) — on Jesus green, weather permitting,
    • More to come...

    Other events

    • DAMTP vs. DPMMS football match (when the weather is nice, contact Neil if you are interested in football, nfm24)
    • Table football (tuesday nights last year, contact Alex, avf23)
    • Games night (whenever people get together to play cards and board games, check out the forum or contact Jack, jww30)
    • Yoga (was running on thursdays, contact Clare, cjb85)
    • Pizza and Movie nights (about once a term in MR2, contact Maxi, mjev2)
    • Bowling (maybe next term)
    • Formal dinner (hoping to make this an annual thing)
    • Anything else you want to organise (contact CUGMS president if you want to start your own event with the help of the society)
  • Past events:
    • End of year picnic — 12 June 2007
    • Exam pizza party for part III students — 22 May 2007
    • Pizza and movie (Casino Royale) — 18 Apr 2007 — organised by Maxine von Eye (mjev2)
    • DAMTP vs. DPMMS football match — 23 Oct 2006 — organised by Dan Jane (jdtj2)
    • Michaelmas 2006 pizza party — 10 Oct 2006 — Organised by CUGMS committee

Return Conference

  • What it is: Return conferences are informal conferences run by and for students. They are an opportunity for research students who took the Part III course but are now studying elsewhere to come back to Cambridge and share their experiences. Each conference is arranged by a group of students, some of them still in Cambridge and some at other universities; each student presents a talk on a topic they've been working on and listens to the other students' talks. Anyone who is interested is welcome to attend. The conference series allows new PhD students to gain experience of presenting a seminar in a supportive atmosphere, catch up with friends studying elsewhere, build their network of contacts and find out about the kind of research that goes on at other universities.
  • Who does what: Organiser(s): Once a group of students have decided to run a conference, they need to arrange a date, plan a format for the conference and work out how to deal with issues such as travel, accommodation and funding for speakers coming from out of town. Invited Speakers: Each speaker prepares a talk about a topic linked to their own research. Typically, those speaking will also have been involved to a certain extent in organising the conference. Phd Students (and anyone else who's interested in attending): The talks are by first-year PhD students and are targetted towards their peers, who may have specialised in different areas after finishing the Part III programme. As a result, the talks ought to be accessible to anyone who has studied some Part III courses in a related field.
  • When it happens: The 2nd Return Conference was scheduled for 21st March 2007, and was on theoretical physics.
  • Past Events:
    • 21 Mar 2007 — theoretical physics — Ben Collie
    • spring 2006 — pure maths? — Aruha Hoshino

Part III Seminars

  • What it is:

    This is an opportunity for Part III students to give a talk (perhaps their first ever) on some maths that they've learnt, in a friendly and informal setting. There are 2 series during the year: the Michaelmas one, where the talks are usually on material learnt that term, and the Lent one, where the talks are usually on the student's Part III essay. The students are organised into groups according to the subject matter of the talk, and the other members of the group provide an audience for the person giving a talk (and afterwards hopefully understand something they didn't before!). This is overseen by PhD students, who lead the groups, offering advice on the talk preparation, scheduling their groups' talks, and finally chairing the talks themselves.

  • Who does what:
    Organiser: one lucky PhD student from each department volunteers to organise the logistics of the talks. This involves booking lots of rooms, hassling group leaders to tell them when their talks are, finding out there aren't enough rooms, and at the last minute, being relieved because everything miraculously worked out ok. For more information, see this link. PhD Students: volunteer to lead groups, which involves going to the meeting on talk preparation for the Part III students, giving advice to their group on how to give a good talk, and chairing their groups' talks.
    Part III Students: Give the talks!
  • When it happens: The last week of Michaelmas and Lent terms
  • Past Events:
    • Lent 2008 — organised by Julia Goedecke (jg352) and Matt Dolan (mjd91)
    • Michaelmas 2007 — organised by Julia Goedecke (jg352) and Toby Wood (tsw25)
    • 12–16 March 2007 (Lent) — Jonny Evans (jde27) and Toby Wood (tsw25)
    • 27 Nov–1 Dec 2006 (Michaelmas) — Organised by Euan Spence
      (eas47) and Jonny Evans (jde27)
    • 13–17 March 2006 (Lent) — Organised by Dan Jane (jdtj2) and
      Euan Spence (eas47)
    • 28 Nov–2 Dec 2005 (Michaelmas) — Organised by Dan Jane (jdtj2)

Part III Cafe

  • What it is:

    need to write this still

  • Who does what:
    • Organiser:
    • PhD Students:
    • Part III Students:
  • When it happens:

    Mon, Wed, Fri, 15:30-16:30 during the first three weeks of term.

  • Past Events:
    • Michaelmas 2007 — Organised by Jack W (jww30) and ???
    • Michaelmas 2006 — Organised by Mark MacDonald (mlm42) and Jai
      Grover (jg372)

DPMMS Induction Day

  • What it is:
  • Who does what:
  • When it happend:
  • Past Events:
    • Oct 2007 — Organised by Jonny Evans (jde27)
    • 2 Oct 2006 — Organised by Darren Kenneally (dk335) and Alex
      Frolkin (avf23)

CMS Happy Hour

  • What it is: Beer, Nibbles, etc at the CMS
  • Who does what:
    • Happy Hour Boss: Organises groups of people to run happy hour each week, keeps track of the chash box, and orders beer etc when we run out.
    • Happy Hour Groups: Small groups of 3-4 people from the CMS volumteer by contacting the Happy Hour Boss to run Happy Hour for one week. We then rotate through the groups so that the work is shared among lots of people. Running happy hour involves: make posters, hang up posters, set up tables, put out beer etc, clean up, take down poster.
  • When it happend: Every Friday at 5:00
  • Past Events: We have been running happy hour every week since 27 july 2007