Read from two of our year 12 students about the Mentored Research Project experience, as part of our Developing Mathematicians Programme.
The Year 12 Mentored Research Projects were a chance to delve deeper into the world of academia. The group research projects allowed our cohort to experience parts of the mathematical sciences that we had never encountered before. Our research concluded with a presentation at Imperial College London.
The arduous seven-month process began in October when we were presented with a list of projects, some standing out more than others, but each filled with mathematics that ensured to appeal to someone. Once we were allocated our groups, the research began and we all worked to piece together parts of mathematics we had not seen before in order to solve and/or explore a problem. Countless hours were spent learning new and fascinating areas of mathematics followed by applying them to our given problem.
After this initial stage, we were allocated our mentor and supervisor who gave us constant support and guidance throughout the project. We had frequent meetings with both to keep our groups on track for achieving the targets that we had set. This included being taught new mathematical content, asking questions and receiving feedback from a specialist in the field of our research. My group was lucky enough to be able to have our meetings at the theoretical physics department at Imperial College London, as well as some online meetings which was the common form of communication with our mentors. This period of time was filled with learning new mathematical skills and applying them to a set of problems, aiming to build up the skills to tackle a much larger problem, or both. This invaluable experience taught everyone the skills required to succeed in any group project: collaboration, determination and perseverance despite the solution being seemingly distant.
Following the research process, the groups were now tasked with writing up a formal report, making an academic poster and a presentation. For many of us, this was our first experience of using LaTeX (a writing tool for formal scientific work) but, as with many things throughout the project, the insights we gained from this learning curve will benefit us in our further education and work in academia. We translated our months of research into this report containing the mathematical tools, methods and the results we obtained during the months of research. We then began making the academic poster in which we distilled small, key parts of information to give a reader a brief overview about what our presentation would be about. Along with this, we designed our presentation slides to guide the audience through the talk and explain the chosen parts of our research in an orderly and logical manner.
Finally, our research concluded with the fulfilling group research project day where we gave our presentations to colleagues, parents, mentors and academics of Imperial College London. The morning was set aside for our final rehearsals and becoming accustomed to the lecture halls we would be presenting in. The afternoon involved the guests being invited to the event and exploring the different posters. The groups presented these along with answering any questions that people might have. This session was followed by a set of presentations in which each group delivered their talks in a lecture hall to friends, family and academics.
Overall, the group research projects were an experience that has enlightened us with many new skills and attributes which I am sure will prove essential in our future academic work and careers.
- Devan Shah, Year 12
The research project is a brilliant experience overall; not only did we enlarge our knowledge about advanced maths topics, but we also learnt a whole load of useful soft skills, from teamwork to presenting. I extremely enjoyed the process of working towards a goal as a team and the presentation day as well. Thank you to our mentor, Ella; our supervisor, Emily L; and everyone for their support.
In this project we use gene expression data, sets of biological samples that demonstrate the expression levels of a certain gene, to develop models that can assist us in predicting a patient’s cancer type. The two types of cancer we explore are Acute Lymphocytic Leukaemia (ALL) and Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML). Having identified the genes associated with a particular cancer, we then attempt to determine which genes are significant in these predictions using various models.
Firstly, we explored the topics with our mentor; we learnt about the sigmoid function, hypothesis testing and gene expression datasets. We realised how much calculation and modelling can be involved even for a more biological topic. Learning such maths topics can be challenging, but it'ss extremely satisfying when you realise you understand it.
Then, we further researched online about the method and started expanding on certain ideas, such as linear regression and logistic regression. We discovered a lot more about the effect of different variables and were soon able to apply these methods to our project.
Presentation day is a fantastic opportunity for us to showcase our outcomes and be able to practice our presentation skills. As a group we presented our project in an understandable way to a range of audiences, from parents to professors. With multiple times of rehearsals, we are able to deliver our project clearly and respond to questions. Our audiences asked a lot of creative questions after our presentation; for example, what does actual gene expression data look like? Can the sigmoid function be applied in other ways? This shows that we’ve successfully engaged the audiences, which is the whole aim of our presentation. I really enjoyed sharing my project with different people because I can get variable feedback. From poster to report to presentation, different forms of communication can give really different results. They can be more technical, academic or some more general advice, but they are all valuable to us and can help us to improve more effectively.
I believe the research project is a very good opportunity for students to learn proactively and for parents to understand what their children are learning!
- Maisy Li, Year 12