Celebrating Exam Success: Rokos Awards

This is the final piece in the ‘Celebrating Exam Success’ news series, which has brought you stories from Pembroke students who performed particularly well in this year’s exams. Each feature celebrated a particular aspect of life at Pembroke. This week we caught up with Sam Holt (MEng Engineering Science, 2013) and Alex Wood (MMathPhil Mathematics and Philosophy, 2014), who undertook Rokos internships at Pembroke.

Pembroke undergraduates studying STEM subjects are eligible to apply for the Rokos Awards, which are intended to support students looking to enhance their studies and scientific knowledge through research internships.

Sam Holt recently graduated with a degree in Engineering Science, receiving the Information Engineering Prize and joint 2nd place in the best 4th year project exhibition overall. He particularly enjoyed the group projects in third and fourth year as well as working on his thesis. Sam’s thesis involved working alongside a research team, the Oxford Robotics Institute. He commented, ‘Everyday I was able to challenge, and learn new knowledge relating to robotics, algorithmic development, computer vision and good engineering design. That truly was the best part, since everyday I had the opportunity to work with, and directly question, leading experts in these fields.’

Undertaking a Rokos internship last summer allowed Sam to put to practice the theory he learnt through his course and pursue an original research idea under the supervision of leading academics in the Hypersonics laboratory in Osney. He explained, ‘I was researching how to reduce propeller noise, modelling on small propellers commonly used on civilian drones (quad copters). I set up specialised testing equipment, and automatic instrumentations. I also modelled designs using point cloud manipulations of existing propeller models’. The end result? A specially designed propeller that reduced noise by 40% intensity: the work continues with Oxford University Innovation to secure a Patent. You can read his report here.

Considering applying for Engineering Science? Sam would definitely encourage that! He said, ‘It's a fantastic course, allowing you to develop and explore new interests, with the first two years of the syllabus covering all engineering disciplines, and then further specialisation in years three and four. Often potential engineering students are undecided, and often you can only find out what types of engineering are like, by actively doing it, to truly experience it.’

Alex Wood is about to enter his final year of a degree in Maths and Philosophy. In the recent examinations he received the University's Gibbs Prize in Maths and Philosophy for Philosophy Part B performances. One aspect he has particularly enjoyed about the course is its sheer diversity, ‘Being required to move from solving mathematical problem sheets to reading philosophical texts and writing essays in the same day has certainly developed my mental agility and greatly improved my critical thinking!’ Alex also enjoyed getting to grips with the intricate links between the two subjects (most notably in logic and set theory).

Explaining his Rokos Internship research he said, ‘Differential equations, a purely mathematical notion at first glance, arise in a swathe of different disciplines, most notably in engineering, physics, economics and biology. As such, the analysis of such equations makes up a big part of mathematical research around the world. My internship was focused on using techniques from abstract algebra, regarding the concept of symmetry, to clarify our understanding of the solutions to these equations – roughly, whether they can be written in a “neat” way. In particular, since there is already a nice theory of this kind related to linear differential equations, my research aimed to extend this theory to their non-linear counterparts.’ 

Alex undertook his internship this summer and said ‘I have found it immensely satisfying to journey into some of the lesser-known areas of maths. It definitely highlights the fact that, despite the education I’ve received here, there are still vast areas of off-syllabus mathematics which have been fruitful areas of study for thousands of people over the last century and beyond. It’s awe-inspiring to say the least.’

Are you thinking about applying for Maths and Philosophy? Here are Alex’s tips, ‘Try to get to know, to at least some extent, the differences between maths at university and maths at school. If you’re afraid of genuine problem solving and would be dissuaded by the frustrations of running through the same question in your head for a day or two, then this course is not right for you. Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised by this aspect of the degree. Also, don’t be put off by the admissions statistics for the course… the only way to guarantee your missing out on a place is by not applying!’