Behind the door – subtracting the myths out of maths

Across the world, there are thousands of public universities that are open for members of the public to explore, to just walk in and experience firsthand the breathtaking scientific developments that are happening in their city. 

But how often do we take up this opportunity, to just simply walk into a building that we know nothing about and speak to the faculty members who are fuelled by a passion for innovation. 

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been lucky enough to do just that. For the five years I’ve been studying at The University of Melbourne, there is this one towering building on the other side of campus that I’ve always stared at and wondered about but never once considered entering. 

But the other day, I let my curiosity take over and I pushed open the big wooden door that stood between me and the maths department.

The Peter Hall building is 3 stories high, made of red brick, erected in 1923.

Initially home to the Department of Anatomy, this collegiate Gothic building now houses professors and academics from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. 

The interior of the building is planned out in a T-shape, with a long narrow hallway of polished wooden floors. Both sides of the building’s arms extend past my eyesight but I can hear the sounds of rustling paper, maddening clicks on a keyboard and then there’s that inevitable smell of coffee lingering. 

Across my time in this twentieth century building, I spoke with 4 researchers from the mathematics department and discovered a world that pushes the boundaries of knowledge. 

And while I was mesmerised by the transformative work that was shown to me, I found it also challenged my preconceptions of what maths really is and what studying maths actually looks like. 

One of the most common misconceptions about maths is that it can be tedious and dull.  

Early this year, a survey conducted by Youth Truth of more than 90,000 students discovered less than half of the students found the work they do in maths often interesting. 23% stated never, or rarely ever find maths interesting.

But for Dr Lucy Ham, a postdoctoral research fellow in the field of biosciences, maths is anything but boring. 

“I mean, to me, it’s just amazing how complicated these things are,” says Ham, “I think that’s always the thing that inspires me.” 

Ham’s work mostly involves theoretical systems biology, a field of science that involves using statistical methods and frameworks to understand how cells work and function.

Currently, Ham is working on a fascinating research project that uses mathematical models to help predict the process of cell division and cell death.

This model will help Ham to understand how cells progress from one tiny single fertilised egg into the 30 trillion cells of a fully grown human.

It demonstrates how maths can be so much more than just formulas to memorise. 

For many students, maths is often associated with rote learning, which is how Associate Professor Sophie Hautphenne felt when she left high school. 

“I remember asking my maths teacher in my last year of high school, ‘Okay, so I’m going to keep studying maths, but I don’t fully understand what’s left to know.’”

“But obviously not there’s no end to what you can discover,” says Hautphenne. 

Hautphenne completed her PhD in Belgium before making the decision to move across the other side of the world to Melbourne where she is a senior lecturer for the School of Mathematics and Statistics. Most of her research is centred around applied probability and stochastic modelling.  Stochastic modelling has one random variable.

One of Hautphenne’s recent projects has been working with environmental conservationists to interpret and model data in populations. In particular, Hautphenne’s work has focused on the Chatham Island Black Robins, an endangered species in New Zealand. 

While previously there was only 1 breeding couple left, conservation efforts and Hautphenne’s modelling have helped bring the endangered bird’s population up to around 300.

“I got very excited by that because I could see the real maths problems behind that real-world problem.”

“Somethings happen when you try to solve some problems,” says Hautphenne. 

“Because then you can really let your mind wonder, and then you get some magic.”

When I took my first step into the building, I expected I would soon be drowning in a sea of long, winding numbers and big dramatic formulas. But walking down the hallways, I found there were hardly any. 

“There’s a bit of a misunderstanding about what being in mathematics is like,” says Dr Adriana Zanca, a research fellow who completed her PhD at Melbourne University using computational models to help understand areas of mathematical biology.

“If I talk to my cousins, who are 18 and not interested in science or mathematics, they’re like, ‘So do you do times tables at work’?”

But that is not the case, instead, Zancaspends her time each day working between 5 or so different projects at a time.

“I think with mathematics what is particularly off-putting is the use of equations and symbols, when actually most of the time, if you said the concept to a person in words, they’d be like, ‘Oh, yeah, sure.”

One of her projects at the moment is in collaboration with the Peter MacCallum Cancer Foundation. She is helping map out the relationship between tumour growth in rats and a certain type of treatment therapy. 

The team hypothesised that the data would fit perfectly on a linear relationship, but their results suggest it’s more complicated than that.

“We’re currently working on developing a mechanistic model to just explain why that might be happening,” she says.

“[Maths is] just that perspective of looking at the world, in the same way that like using a microscope is one way to study a biological system. Using a mathematical framework is another way of investigating a biological system.” 

“I don’t see numbers very often. Like mathematics, for me, is kind of like a framework or a tool for exploring things,” she says. 

Ham agrees with this perspective, suggesting maths should be considered a language. 

“For me, it’s mostly about telling a story,”

“There’s an element of creativity which involves lateral thinking. Thinking and coming up with these little constructions.” 

Tucked away in a small corner of the tall building, Associate Professor Guoqi Qian is busy saving the world, one model at a time.

Statistical data science is a field of maths which uses models and algorithms to transform huge amounts of data into real-word solutions. 

In particular, Qian has been crunching data to create predictive weather models for a month and more in advance. 

Currently, most weather forecasts can predict up to 14 days in advance at best.

“But how useful is that?” Qian asks. 

“For example, for people in the insurance company or people in agriculture, they’re interested in the next 12 months. Not just the next week, but the next 12 months.”

The model Qian is currently developing can predict upcoming weather for 12 weeks, however Qian predicts that by next year, they’ll be able to predict rainfall a full year in advance for anywhere across Australia. 

But of course, the reach of Qian’s work stems far away from the walls of Melbourne University. 

“Landslides are actually closely related to rainfall,” says Qian, “For countries like Nepal or China, it is a big problem.” 

Just last week there was a landslide in Nepal that killed 148 people. The effects of climate change are only set to make these conditions worse. 

Earlier this year, Qian and his team received funding from The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to study the landslide and precipitation in Nepal to improve the early warning system for landslides in the country.

“In this area, the model that we have developed for rainfall, I think they can be applied in many, many areas.”

The work of a mathematician is not all hypothetical and conceptual, as  Zanca explains. 

“Experimentally, you’re kind of limited in what you can actually do by like resources and like ethics also just physics.”

“But when you develop a mathematical model, I guess a lot of those constraints are removed. You can hypothesize things that you can’t do in the real world, or at least not yet.”

I asked  Zanca about whether she thinks AI will replace mathematicians.

“I don’t think AI can quite replicate the kinds of things that we do,” she says, “Because of that element of creativity.”

“I can’t foresee a time where maths would be superseded.”

Ham concurs.

“With the AI approach, yes, they can learn things from data, but often you lose the kind of interpretability part. Whereas with a mechanistic model, which is the kind we use, you keep this, so you actually have a way of really understanding how the system works.”

The other issue of purely relying on AI and supercomputers is their impact on the environment. Instead, Professor Qian believes in a philosophy of what he calls green computing. 

“I think something may be buried by this sense when people are talking about  big data or AI,” he says, “People aren’t really aware of it.”

Powerful AI machines consume extraordinary amounts of energy in order to run. Some studies even suggest that generative AI can use up to 33% more energy than a task-specific software.

So instead of relying on high-performance supercomputers, Qian tries to use just his regular laptop where he can crunch the data needed for his rainfall forecasts.

“It still produces the same results using a smaller computer,” says Qian, “It possibly produces even better results.”

“On the one hand, people want to conserve the earth and want to be green but now with the supercomputers you are anti-green.”

Probably one of the most common beliefs most people think to themselves is that their brains just simply aren’t built for maths. 

“I think everyone can be a maths person, honestly,” says Ham.

“I think it certainly comes more easily for some people,” she says, “But I think it’s something that still can be appreciated. And I think some people do, even if they don’t realise they do think in that way.” 

 Zanca agrees saying: “Maths shouldn’t be something which only those trained should be able to understand. It is a language, and you can present it in a way that is approachable.”

Traditionally, women have often been underrepresented in the mathematics department and are often some of the first to talk themselves out of studying maths. 

“What we see often with women is the imposter syndrome, it’s very strong in maths,” says Hautphenne.

“I don’t think I’ve been given the feeling that because I’m a woman, I’m not as competent. But I think some of my female colleagues have.”

Although historically maths has been perceived as a ‘masculine’ subject, with some studies suggesting there’s still a lot of work to go, what is clear though, is that these cultural norms are being challenged. 

“I mean, in my students, there’s the same number of female men and male students who are very strong,” says Hautphenne.

“I think anybody who enjoys it should give it a try, because there’s so much more to learn and so much more exciting to learn than in high school.”

For more than 100 years, this building has been the central meeting place for countless brilliant minds to collaborate and create the solutions to life’s most unanswered questions. 

Walking through these halls, I can’t help but feel the weight of history echo off the walls, ready to inspire the next generation of problem solvers. 

 And as I opened the door to leave, I reflected on how naïve I had been about the world of maths before I stepped into this building. How unaware I was of the beauty of maths and that it really can be found everywhere. 

I reflected on the fact that for so many years I had been intimidated to just walk in and go see for myself what was really happening behind those doors. 

Do you love maths communication? You might be interested in this quantum quiz.

Behind every building there are unlimited stories of discovery and invention. You just have to be curious enough to walk in.