Being part of SAMBa is like being part of a little community: everyone is super supportive and there is always someone to talk to if you need it (usually with cake!).

I was a MMath student at the University of Bath before becoming a SAMBa-aligned student. My project was funded by SAMBa’s industrial partner, Jacobs. This project involved using stochastic models to analyse the long-term behaviour of systems of neutrons in nuclear Reactors.

During these three years I spent several weeks at their offices in Dorchester understanding their software and explaining our work, as well as attending and presenting at their annual conference.

I also participated in several other SAMBa activities such as ITTs, presenting at the annual summer conference, being a student organiser for an LMS Research School, teaching in Mongolia and communicating maths to non-mathematicians.

SAMBa helped me by being able to demonstrate a knowledge of different areas of maths (probability, statistics, programming) and knowing how to bring them together to apply them to real-world problems was one of the main reasons I obtained my current position.

Although the application is different, the idea of bringing together different areas of maths to work with both academics and industry is a key part to the project. This, as well as attending ITTs to work with other departments, universities and industrial partners also was something that gave me an advantage during interviews and applications, since this is very important in Inria and not something every other mathematician has had the opportunity to do.

Being part of SAMBa is like being part of a little community: everyone is super supportive and there is always someone to talk to if you need it (usually with cake!).