The inaugural Solve for X began on Monday 24th June.
The week began with the Scholars, Martingale team and mentors meeting in Cambridge.
The programme for the week has been co-developed with the Isaac Newton Institute (INI) and Newton Gateway. The morning started with introductions from Martingale and Prof. David Abrahams, Solve for X facilitator and former director of the INI.
Mentors began talking through the challenges that had been set for Scholars. These cover a wide range of topics from steel shipping operations to satellites and GPS technology. Scholars were assigned a challenge, and after lunch, they got to work immediately!
The first day ended with a fantastic reception and dinner in St John’s College, providing both social and networking opportunities to the cohort. St John’s College has generously hosted the Scholars throughout the week.
Tuesday began with a morning check-in and pitch training for the Scholars. Dr Anna Ploszajski, who will also be hosting the Solve for X final event, facilitated this training, encouraging Scholars to use their presentation and communication skills to engage the audience with these complex maths problems.
Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday are reserved for working on the problems and rehearsing ahead of the event on Thursday. On Wednesday, the Scholars experienced a change of scene and are spending the day working out of the Isaac Newton Institute.
Dr. Joshua Males, a researcher at the University of Bristol and Solve for X mentor has been working closely with the Scholars throughout the week. He shared “It’s been great to be involved with Solve for X so far, and to meet such a talented and enthusiastic group of Martingale Scholars. They’re making great progress on the set problem, and it will be fantastic to see them present their solutions at the event in Imperial College tomorrow.”
Everyone is looking forward to the final event taking place on Thursday at Imperial College London, where Scholars will pitch their solutions to a panel of judges and a winner will be announced.
Stay tuned to hear more about the winning team!