“I enjoyed explaining the power of maths and probability at the JRA poster exhibition"
By: Justine Charles
Last updated: Tuesday, 7 November 2023
Mariia showcasing her research at the JRA poster exhibition
Students on the University of Sussex Junior Research Associate (JRA) Scheme showcased their work and celebrated the end of their research projects at the annual poster exhibition on 18 October at the Student Life Centre.
The JRA Scheme offers undergraduate students the opportunity to work on an eight-week research project over the summer months. Participants work alongside academic supervisors and PhD mentors, produce valuable outputs, and contribute to cutting-edge research across academic disciplines.
The poster exhibition gives students the opportunity to showcase and explain their research to visitors.
3rd year BSc Mathematics student Mariia Sinkevich’s research focused on queuing problems. Using mathematical modelling and probability theory, she modelled queuing systems and analysed behaviour.
Mariia said: “After developing core theories and mathematical models, I implemented them in Python programs to perform predictive analysis, analysed long-term behaviour, and created animations of queues and traffic based on initial parameters.”
She thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to participate in the poster exhibition:
“It was a great opportunity to see all the amazing projects that undergraduate students had developed over the summer. The exhibition showcased a variety of posters on different topics, which led to many engaging discussions throughout the day.
“The fact that we spend around 5 years of our lives waiting in queues made people especially engaged with my research. Visitors were curious how we could decrease this number and how we could relate traffic jams and probability.
“I enjoyed explaining the power of maths and probability and the amazing things we can achieve with them. Visitors also enjoyed playing with coding programmess and animations, attempting to model queue behaviour in real time. I also had some in-depth scientific conversations about the research and how we can utilise the results.”
When asked about future plans upon completion of her degree, she added:
“I intend to delve deeper into mathematical modelling and system analysis. It amazes me how we can utilise mathematical theories to model systems and anticipate their behaviour.
My research this summer has been instrumental in determining the career path that I want to pursue, and I’m looking forward to beginning my postgraduate journey.”