MathMods :: Joint MSc

A couple of photos from the BBQ (arrosticini) party we had yesterday in the courtyard of our students' hall in Pizzoli, L'Aquila.

Thanks to everybody (both MathMods and Polish students from Katowice) for joining us!

MathMods Meeting 2015 will be running from July 5 to 10, 2015 in San Benedetto del Tronto (Italy) and will have 3 main themes:

• Evaluation of the MathMods project, conducted by a team from Brno University of Technology (our associated partner)
• Second Edition of the Annual MathMods Alumni Meeting
• Series of mini-lectures about Mathematical Modelling for Engineering addressed to a group of students from the University of Silesia in Katowice, who are being hosted at the University of L'Aquila as part of the project named "Mathematics as a code of modernity"

Visit the official webpage for more details

Last Friday (June 5, 2015) we went out on a dragon bout tour on the Alster lake and its canals. We were lucky for having chosen this day, it was the first summer day in Hamburg with about 27 degrees and Hamburg was shown at its best from the water side! While passing at some of the most prosperous properties in Hamburg with beautifull estates and gardens with rhododendrons in flower we saw lots of aquatic birds such as ducks, geese, great crested grebes, cormorants and swans. The Alster lake as well as the canals were well-attended by people doing stand up paddling, canoeing and we saw all kinds of boats: for sailing, pedalling, rowing and we crossed the famous Alster boats passing.

After a short introduction in how to behave on and deal with the dragon boat given by our cox our students launched the dragon boats and with Aida and Rakshit on the drums we put to sea. The most important command was the stop command in order to avoid a pile-up with other watercrafts or the botany. Our students showed once again their ability to respond to a challenge which they mastered brilliantly. Addtionally our students gave a sample of their Italian knowledge by counting in Italian in order to improve the rhythm of the rowing teams! After a really short break and a change on the drums, Sascha alternated with Rakshit, our cox who by the way was enthusiastic of our students, who tried hard to follow his instructions and to cut a good figure, trained us for a final race. Only by a hair's breadth the red team won the race. We had a lot of fun and none of us felt into the water :-).

Want to visit the Expo 2015 in Milan? Current students enrolled at the University of L'Aquila (thus all our first or second-year MathMods students, as well as PhD students at UAQ) will only pay 10 euros for a ticket instead of the standard fare (around 39)! All you have to do is visit this page: http://expo.univaq.it (sorry, it's only in Italian). Then, go to https://servizi.linfcop.univaq.it/expo/, enter your username and password (the ones you use to access the Segreteria Virtuale and the Wifi network in our department in L'Aquila) to book a ticket, print a receipt and then make a bank transfer. Tickets will then be handed out in July somewhere in one of the university premises (according to that webpage you'll get more info via email about where they'll be distributed). You'll have to show the booking receipt, an ID document and a receipt of your bank transfer. Deadline to book a ticket is June 4, 2015.

Before moving to Hamburg for their second semester, our first-year students were willing to visit the Gran Sasso National Laboratory (LNGS), the largest underground laboratory in the world for experiments in particle physics, particle astrophysics and nuclear astrophysics located between the towns of L'Aquila and Teramo - about 120 km away from Rome. So, we managed to arrange an introductory lecture + guided tour led by Prof. Roberto Aloisio from GSSI, whom we wish to thank for his valuable contribution and for having hosted us at such short notice.

The presentation was held in the headquarters of the LNGS, located in an external building near "Assergi" motorwary exit. Then, we moved to the actual underground facilities, located on a side of the ten kilometres long motorway tunnel crossing the Gran Sasso Mountain. According to LNGS website, the laboratories lie beneath 1,400 metres of rock and "consist of three large experimental halls, each about 100 m long, 20 m wide and 18 m high and service tunnels, for a total volume of about 180,000 cubic metres".

After the guided tour, we headed towards the Adriatic coast and stopped off in the countryside for a huge slap-up lunch in Agriturismo Capodacqua, a typical country restaurant with a beautiful view over the surrounding hills.

We hope you've enjoyed it as much as we did and we wish you all the best for your second term!