The James Stewart fund provides funding for students in Mathematics and Statistics to participate in opportunities that might not otherwise be available to them. These can include, but are not limited to, summer research with faculty at McMaster or elsewhere, travel to conferences, outreach activities. Undergraduate students at McMaster may wish to have a research opportunity that is not covered by the NSERC USRA awards; for example, to work for just one or two months, or to work with a faculty member at another university. Students at another university may apply for funding to work with a McMaster faculty member. Undergraduate or graduate students may apply for support to travel to a relevant conference.
Awards are available to students in any Mathematics and Statistics program at McMaster, and to students in any program to work with a faculty member in the Mathematics and Statistics department at McMaster.
Applications for Small Awards (up to $500) will be accepted at any time and funded on a rolling basis. For Large Awards (up to $5000) there will be a call for proposals in the winter term. It is expected, although exceptions are possible, that funding will be used in the subsequent summer. Applications demonstrating that matching funds are being provided will be viewed more favourably than those without. Applications by undergraduates and by graduate students will be assessed separately. Previous awards can be viewed here.

Applications are now invited for Large Awards for summer 2023.

An application consists of:

• a description of the proposed project (up to one page), with a timeframe;
• a budget, specifying how much funding is requested and how it will be spent (e.g. stipend, travel, etc);
• a cv;
• an (informal) transcript;
• a letter of support from a faculty member at McMaster (potential supervisors and projects can be viewed here. If research is to be conducted at another university, there should be a letter of invitation from that university. If a student is registered at another university, there should be a letter of recommendation from that university.

Students are encouraged to consult with the undergraduate advisor Dmitry Pelinovsky or the graduate advisor Ben Bolker for advice on the budget and the feasibility of their project.

All applications should be sent to fogarty@mcmaster.ca with subject line Stewart Award. Applications are due March 28, 2023.

The 2023 Britton Lecture Series

A Mathematical Approach to the Design of a Bioartificial Pancreas

With   Sunčica (Sunny) Čanić

Department of Mathematics, UC Berkeley

First lecture April 3 at 11:30am in MDCL 1305

View Event Poster Here

We are happy to announce the 4th McMaster/Co-operators Problem-Solving Workshop, which is jointly organized by the Department of Mathematics & Statistics at McMaster University (https://www.math.mcmaster.ca/) and Co-operators General Insurance Company (https://www.cooperators.ca/).

The Workshop will take place in-person (for the first time!) on Saturday, March 11th, 2023, and will gather representatives from industry, academic mathematicians, undergraduate and graduate students.

The main goal of this workshop is to provide the students with an experiential learning opportunity through a concrete real-world problem with real data, submitted by the insurance company. The participants will work individually or in study groups (up to 4 students) and will have the opportunity to learn and develop their interpersonal and technical skills (including data science, statistics, optimization, mathematical finance, programming, communication, etc.). This would also enable the industrial partner to connect with McMaster students. This workshop is also aimed to be an “incubator” of collaborations, that can lead to more long-term and impactful relationships between the participants and the industrial partner.

The three first editions of the Workshop resulted in many opportunities for the participants, such as full-time and part-time jobs, job shadowing, job interviews, and presentations to Co-operators managerial teams.

Moreover, Co-operators is currently hiring and actively looking for new talents (co-op and permanent positions) to join their forces for the Actuarial and Business Intelligence teams.

The problem description will be communicated soon, and the registration is open at this link

Here are the important dates and deadlines:

• February 3rd, 2023: Registration opens
• February 10th, 2023: Start of the qualification round
• March 1st, 2023: End of Registration and qualification round
• March 6th, 2023: Announcement of the finalists (Workshop participants)
• March 11th, 2023: A full day workshop and networking event
• By end of March 2023: Announcement of the winners and the prizes

And here are some of the prizes offered to the participants:

• $2,000+ for the top groups
• Invitation to present to Co-operators Business Intelligence & Actuarial teams
• On-site Job Shadowing
• Potential part-time opportunities
• Door prizes, and more!

Please find attached the advertising poster and please feel free to promote this event. For further questions, please email us at: mcmaster_workshop@cooperators.ca

Looking forward to meeting you at the Workshop!

The Organizing Committee

View the event poster here.

Dr. Zdzislav Kovarik passed away on November 29, 2022. Following his Ph.D. at the University of Toronto in 1971, Dr. Kovarik joined the Department in 1973 and worked until his retirement in 2010. An obituary for Dr. Kovarik can be found here.