Newnham hosted its first ever online open day in May 2020, for students interested in studying maths at Cambridge. The College event was part of a broader virtual open day held by the Maths Faculty.
The restrictions on normal life due to coronavirus demanded a creative response, so we welcomed potential applicants to College via Zoom. The event featured talks from Admissions Tutor Dr Sam Lucy, Director of Studies Dr Maria Ubiali and Special Supervisor Dr Thomas Bloom – all of them engaging speakers. The talks were followed chance to ask questions of the current students – so many that we ran out of time.
“The event was a real success! We had lots of great questions about the course itself, and the current students who took part answered lots of queries about life as a Newnham Maths student,” explained Lucy Rogers, Newnham’s Schools Liaison Officer. “The great thing about online events is that they have the potential to reach people from a much wider range of places than events which take place at the College itself, so I’m excited to run more of these in the future.”
Dr Maria Ubiali has been working to encourage young women to consider studying maths at University – a fascinating and challenging subject – and last summer saw Newnham’s first Maths Summer School. Dr Maria Ubiali is a particle physicist with a passion for mathematics, based at Cambridge and CERN. Her own research was featured in the annual Roll Letter 2018/19.
“Although the participants didn’t get to see Newnham in person, I hope that we managed to provide them with a sense of what it is like to be part of the Newnham community,” Lucy says.
We’re now looking forward to further Virtual Open Days over the course of the summer.