Campus announcements
Access to Mathematica software and other updates
26 June 2024Dear colleagues and students
The University of Cape Town (UCT) has secured a site license for Mathematica, a powerful computational software used widely in scientific, engineering, mathematical, and computing fields. Read more about this and other recent developments on campus.
1. Access to Mathematica software
UCT has secured a site license for Mathematica, which is available to all UCT students and staff until the end of 2024, offering many benefits for academic and research endeavors. This software can help students improve their understanding of mathematical concepts, perform detailed data analysis, take detailed and interactive notes, and create professional-quality reports and presentations. It can assist researchers in accelerating their research with high-performance computing, streamlining workflow with automated calculations, and exploring new research directions with advanced modeling and simulation capabilities. Mathematica can be applied to a huge range of disciplines, including:
- Mathematics: Symbolic computation, algebra, calculus, differential equations, graph theory.
- Physics: Modeling physical systems, solving complex equations, simulations, visualisation.
- Engineering: Control systems, signal processing, structural analysis.
- Computer Science: Algorithm development, machine learning, data structures.
- Finance: Quantitative analysis, risk modeling, time-series analysis.
- Biology: Bioinformatics, systems biology, genetic sequencing.
- Chemistry: Molecular modeling, reaction kinetics, cheminformatics.
- Economics: Economic modeling, econometrics, optimisation problems.
- Statistics: Time-series analysis, data visualisation, hypothesis testing.
- Education: Interactive teaching tools, animations, course-note creation.
Staff and students are encouraged to use their UCT email addresses to get Mathematica.
For more information, contact Associate Professor Jonathan Shock.
2. Reminder: ICTS maintenance to impact UCT services this weekend
Staff and students are reminded that ICTS will perform important data centre maintenance on Saturday, 29 and Sunday, 30 June 2024. This work is a critical part of our ongoing infrastructure improvement.
Internet access, eduroam, Amathuba, UCT email, Teams, and other Microsoft services will not be impacted on these days. However, all other UCT ICT services – such as Vula and PeopleSoft – will be unavailable on Saturday from 08:00 to 00:00 (midnight). All services should be available on Sunday, though some may be interrupted if further work is needed.
If you need to use any of the affected services, please do so either before or after the maintenance.
3. UCT Open Textbook Award: call for nominations
The UCT Open Textbook Award is now in its fifth year and has proved to be a crucial mechanism for supporting innovative open education activity that addresses challenges related to the cost and accessibility of teaching and learning materials, as well as curriculum change and multilingualism, at UCT.
Nominations are open for the 2024 UCT Open Textbook Award; and can be made either by open textbook authors or by a third party. The deadline for submission is 28 July 2024.
Open textbooks are freely available, openly licensed educational resources with affordances for dynamic, collaborative approaches to textbook authorship, quality assurance and publishing. In addition to the cost-saving aspect, open textbooks provide a means through which to engage students as co-creators and share teaching and learning materials beyond the institution.
4. UCT’s autumn flash sale still under way
The UCT community is reminded that the UCT Clearance Pop-Up Shop’s Autumn Flash Sale, offering incredible discounts of up to 50% off on selected items, is still under way.
Whether you are in need of UCT official merchandise, looking to upgrade your wardrobe, or searching for unique gifts, this is the perfect opportunity to grab some fantastic deals. From trendy apparel to stylish accessories and everything in between, there's something for everyone at the UCT Clearance Pop-Up Shop.
Visit the shop at the Steve Biko Students’ Union Building, Cissie Gool plaza on upper campus. Trading hours are from 10:00 to 15:00 on weekdays, excluding public holidays. Prices are valid until 28 June or until stocks last. Payment can be done via debit cards, credit cards or p-cards.
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