The Department of Mathematics has organized a seminar on the ‘Recent Advance in Industrial Mathematics and Applications’, as it relates to the field. It was one of the most thrilling seminars as students of the department get to understand, and be exposed to the latest technological advancements in the world of mathematics.
Speaking at the seminar, Miss Bosede Ajayi, a Freelance Product Management Staff at Toptal, Lagos, Nigeria, where she manages the development of global products, gave a little retrospect of her journey, mentioning her interest in coding and technology from a young age of sixteen, and how she self-learned the things she knows in that field today.
She decried the obvious disinterest in personal development by many young people today and encouraged the students to research anything that catches their interest and to also try as much as possible to participate in free online courses and certifications that would build them up, and prepare them better for the job market. She noted that the wave of ‘big data’ is said to have begun in the 90s but the rise was from 2017 to 2018 and now every organization needs a data team to analyze available data, to be able to predict their customers.
Giving a clear analysis, Miss Bosede explained that for an organization to push something out online, like buying a bag for instance, one could go on Instagram, and then the next thing is to see different designs of bags to choose from. Or you click on one ad that shows a bag, and the next thing is seeing so many advertisements on bags. She explained that mathematical operations are important for the successful analysis of this data. Miss Bosede highlighted that ‘probability theory’ helps users understand the randomness and uncertainty within data sets and how statistical methods and models help statisticians summarize, interpret, and make inferences from unstructured data.
In addition, she stated that regression analysis models use mathematical equations to establish how different variables relate, which is perfect for trend analysis, predictions, and optimization techniques, which rely on calculus, help fine-tune ML models, and reduce errors during training. “Mathematical knowledge could also be used in the financial world for quantitative analysis, which is the use of math models and numerical methods to analyze financial data and financial technology, which uses mathematical models for credit scoring, fraud detection, and risk assessment,” She revealed.
Miss Bosede noted that cryptography and cybersecurity systems also use mathematical algorithms to secure communication channels and sensitive information, andcybersecurity experts make use of mathematical concepts to design authentication and digitalsignatures which improve date security.
In conclusion, she encouraged the students not to think of Mathematics as a boring course but to look at the opportunities they can gain from this field of study. She mentioned a few like cryptography, cyber security, ethical hacking, predictive models, data analysis, and design of Al models.
Earlier in his opening remarks, the Head of the Department of Mathematics, Dr. Olasunmbo Olaoluwa Agboola, appreciated the students, staff and faculty of the Department for their cooperation and inputs towards the success of the event. He also commended the efforts of the University Management in ensuring that the Town and Gown Seminar platform is sustained.
Dr. Agboola advised students to maximize the opportunity provided by the University and the Guest of the day to upgrade their knowledge and prepare for life outside of school; stating that not every student has the privilege of this level of interaction with the industry before graduation.
Also at the event were other senior members of faculty and staff of the Department.
