The interactive lectures given by Rényi Institute researchers serve both science communication and educational development purposes.
Engaging secondary school students, promoting mathematics, and indirectly attracting future researchers have been at the heart of the Rényi Institute’s events for high school students launched during the first half of the year.
The series began with National Girls’ Day in April, when we welcomed 40 teenage girls interested in mathematics. During the first presentation, Ágnes Backhausz, research fellow at the Artificial Intelligence Department of HUN-REN Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics, shared her personal journey into research and outlined the early stages of a scientific career for the participants. In the following session, the pupils met Nóra Almási, a researcher working in combinatorial geometry and graph theory, who guided them through an activity in which they mapped friendship networks and social relationships in small groups. After lunch, Gabriella Keszthelyi, author of the book What Color Is Probability? – now in its third edition – and researcher affiliated with the Budapest University of Technology and Economics and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, spoke about statistical biases and the gender data gap. More information about Girls’ Day is available HERE.
In early May, two classes from the János Hunfalvy Bilingual Technical School of Economics attended Márton Muntag’s lecture An Introduction to Artificial Intelligence and Its Economic Applications. Márton answered numerous questions both during the formal session in the Institute’s Great Hall and in the informal discussions that followed. What began as a one-time visit is expected to develop into a regular partnership, as the school has already expressed interest in bringing another group of graduating students to the Institute in the autumn.
In addition to the lectures organized at Rényi Institute, our researchers regularly visit secondary schools, participate in talent development programmes, and deliver outreach presentations at their former schools. To mention just a few examples, Abel Prize laureate research professor László Lovász and research professor Balázs Szegedy participated in the Fazekas+ Festival; research professor Géza Tóth led training sessions for students preparing for the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO); and Márton Naszódi, senior researcher in the Geometry Department, gave a presentation at József Eötvös Secondary School on what happens in multi-dimensional spaces.   |
AI and Mathematics – Experiences of a UC Berkeley Student was the title of the lecture and personal presentation delivered on 20 May by Christ Miranda, a member of Rényi Institute’s artificial intelligence research team. The talk focused on AI interpretability, i.e. how we can better understand the operation of modern artificial intelligence systems and how mathematical thinking contributes to this understanding. Miranda, who became involved with research while still in secondary school, attracted considerable interest not only during the lecture itself but also in the informal discussion that followed. A graduate of Fazekas Secondary School, Christ Miranda is currently studying Computer Science in the United States.
In the final days of May, students from the Lycée Français Gustave Eiffel de Budapest visited the Institute, where Viktor Harangi, senior research fellow in the Graph Theory Department, introduced them to engaging explanations of fundamental mathematical concepts such as the Pythagorean theorem and the Fibonacci sequence. Several students also asked the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow about scholarship opportunities available to young researchers.
Rényi Institute’s practical and accessible lectures and forums for secondary schoolers will continue in the autumn with the start of the new academic year.