Real-world business challenges solved by adding maths students to the equation

Students from the University of Leicester have brought their maths skills to bear on a range of business challenges, from detecting crime patterns to estimating carbon footprints.

The University is celebrating another round of successful collaborations between industrial partners and mathematics students.

18 final-year undergraduate students gained real-world experience and applied their mathematics and data analytics skills to tackle business challenges. With support from the Leicester Innovation Hub, this latest round of projects included collaborations with the play equipment manufacturer Red Monkey Play, the manufacturer of hot-holding units flexeserve, the data science consultancy Al1122 Associates, and the East Midlands Policing Academic Collaboration (EMPAC).

Over the course of 20 weeks, groups of students applied their data analysis and modelling skills to help each business answer a real-world problem.

Students Menna Elbeltagi, Alexander Indge, Finley Cull, and Jasmine Kaur worked on the project proposed by EMPAC. They said: “During our time working in collaboration with EMPAC, we have gained and developed many valuable skills. One of the most prominent was data analysis. As mathematicians, we understand the importance data analysis has in an industrial setting and through EMPAC our confidence in applying our mathematical knowledge has greatly shone through.”

In a press release, EMPAC congratulated “the students on their pioneering work and encourages others in every university, in every subject, to explore our better understanding of how to keep society safer in the future.”

Dr Alberto Paganini is Lecturer in Applied Mathematics in the University’s School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences and the projects coordinator. 

He said: “The School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences at the University of Leicester is committed to collaborating with industrial partners and embedding the development of transferrable and employability skills in our curricula.

“These projects allow our students to gather first-hand experience and develop advanced data analytics, coding, teamwork, and communication skills to tackle real business challenges.”

• Find out more about Mathematical Sciences at Leicester, part of the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences.