RHUL Maths student wins prize in IMA National Best Maths Project competition.

Matthew Jenkins

Congratulations to our student Matthew Jenkins, who has just been awarded third place in the IMA National Best Maths Project competition. The Institute of Mathematics and its Applications were running this national competition to celebrate their 60th aniversary and invited all universities across the country to put forward their top BSc student.

Matthew's project is titled 'Tileability of simply connected regions by ribbon tiles and possible extensions to multiply connected regions'. A classic recreational maths puzzle asks if a chess board can be tiled with dominoes, after its two opposite corners are removed. Ribbon tilings are interesting generalisations of this puzzle, motivated by questions in pure algebra.

Now they have graduated with a 1st class BSc in Mathematics from Royal Holloway, Matthew plans to pursue an MSc in Mathematical Sciences at the University of Bristol. Matthew writes 'This competition was an excellent opportunity for me to revisit my project and the surrounding literature. I am very happy with the results of my project, and the experience has prepared me well for future mathematical research. I am extremely grateful to my supervisor, Prof Simon Blackburn, for recommending me for the IMA National Best Maths Project competition. I would also like to thank the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications for organising this event, the department of mathematics at Royal Holloway for their continual investment in my passion for mathematics (including their awarding of the Coulter McDowell prize for the outcomes of my project), and my good friend Erik Weigert (who also had an excellent mathematics project) for their unwavering support both during the project, and in preparation for this competition.'