My internship gave me insights into a mathematics research career

Headshot of Declan Maurice stood in front of the Arts Tower smiling
Declan Maurice
Undergraduate student
Mathematics MMath
Declan took part in the Sheffield Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) programme, spending a summer working on number theory and developing his programming skills.

For my SURE project - supervised by Dr James Cranch - I studied number theory, looking at all the numbers ending in one. I observed how this affected simple operations such as addition and multiplication, and also more complex properties involving the infinitude and distribution of prime numbers within this group.

Having not taken the computing module in my first year at Sheffield, this was my first experience of using Python, which played a large role in my project. I've also used LaTeX in order to complete my dissemination poster, which has given me confidence with programming heading into the fourth year of my MMath.

It was an interesting experience to work independently, doing my own reading and then focusing on the topics that I was interested in, and having the ability to shape the project. This style of learning, together with the daily meetings and discussions I was having with James, is very similar to the fourth year project, and I feel as though I have a bit of an advantage as a result of having completed the SURE project.

I really enjoyed the experience, and it has given me a good insight into what studying at a PhD level could be like, which something that I am very strongly considering.


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