Hands-on maths

318 pupils from all over Franconia and the Upper Palatinate travelled to the 17th Day of Mathematics. This represents an increase of 20 per cent compared to the previous year.

Anyone who thought maths was dry was proved wrong on the 17th Day of Mathematics at the University of Bayreuth. It all started with a team competition. There, the young people took on tricky tasks - with brains, team spirit and a portion of ambition. Prof Alfred Wassermann (Associate Professor at the Department of Mathematics and its Didactics) and Prof Sascha Kurz (Associate Professor at the Department of Business Mathematics) led the competition team from the task definition to the correction and evaluation: also tricky.

From midday onwards, it was time to take a deep breath, marvel and discover.

The rest of the programme was packed with a wide range of lectures and labs where everyone could get involved.

Dr Michael Baumann (habilitation candidate at the Chair of Applied Mathematics) gave a lecture on game theory: Anyone who believes that only luck counts when gambling has never looked through maths glasses.

Insurance, reinsurance and corona - sounds complicated? Not with Dr Martin Seehafer from MunichRe (former doctoral student at UBT's Institute of Mathematics), who showed how mathematics can be used to skilfully protect both our lives and the stability of insurance companies.

And then there were galaxies and microchips! Dr Christopher Straub from Fraunhofer IISB (former PhD student at UBT's Institute of Mathematics) whisked the audience away to distant galaxies - and into the world of tiny microchips.

Pupils of all ages had fun in the labs - even the youngest ones holding their parents' hands!

In the Space Simulation Lab, they piloted rockets to Mars. Gravity, speed and the right timing had to be taken into account in the simulation in order to land on Mars with pinpoint accuracy. The young astronauts received attentive advice from members of the Department of Applied Mathematics.

In the AI lab (Martin Braun, NeuroForge; former student at UBT), the focus was on how artificial intelligence ‘thinks’ - and how maths is the brain behind the algorithms. Those who took part were able to build their own small AI applications.

The parquet flooring (designed by Director of Studies Erik Sinne from Kaspar-Zeuß-Gymnasium in Kronach) was also creative. Anyone who wanted to could lay their own patterns, discover symmetries and recognise the mathematics in them. Even more surprising: a gapless overlap is even possible without symmetries in the pattern.

And for those who preferred to puzzle, the mathematical puzzles were great fun.

The day ended with the award ceremony for the best teams in the Audimax. After a welcome address by Prof. Vadym Aizinger (Chair of Scientific Computing) and speeches by Prof. Susanne Tittlbach (Vice President of Digitalisation, Innovation and Sustainability), Michael Hagel (Siemens) and Martin Braun (NeuroForge), the winning teams were announced and awarded prizes.

The winning teams (1st/2nd/3rd place and their school):

Grades 5-6:

"DG 5/6" (Dientzenhofer-Gymnasium Bamberg); "Fibonaccizerstörer" (Markgräfin-Wilhelmine-Gymnasium Bayreuth), "KHG Bamberg" (Kaiser-Heinrich-Gymnasium Bamberg)

Grades 7-8:

"Die Gaußtronauten" (Dientzenhofer-Gymnasium Bamberg), "GFS 13" (Gymnasium Fränkische Schweiz Ebermannstadt), "Team Blackout" (Markgräfin-Wilhelmine-Gymnasium Bayreuth)

Grades 9-10:

"Sigmaboi" (Markgräfin-Wilhelmine-Gymnasium Bayreuth), "3,1415 Reasons to Win" (Gymnasium Fränkische Schweiz Ebermannstadt), "Winkel-Wizards" (Arnold-Gymnasium Neustadt bei Coburg)

Grades 11-13: "Franz und Gloria" (Gymnasium Christian-Ernestinum Bayreuth), "Sigma-Squad" (Graf-Münster-Gymnasium Bayreuth), "Die Glücklichen / Null Teiler" (Gymnasium Münchberg & Gymnasium Parsberg).

But actually, everyone was a winner on this day: those who took part not only experienced maths, but also enthusiasm and teamwork, and hopefully even discovered new perspectives.

The next Maths Day will take place on Saturday, 11 July 2026!