The ninth (and final) group of essays from the 2022 Teddy Rocks Maths Competition come from entrants with surnames beginning with the letters U-Z. The showcase will take place throughout May and June with the winners being announced at the end.

The competition was organised with St Edmund Hall at the University of Oxford and offers a cash prize plus publication on the university website. It will be running again in early 2023 so be sure to follow Tom (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube) to make sure you don’t miss the announcement!

Kaleb provides a detailed overview of how Neural Networks work and applies the concepts to a dataset of handwritten digits.

Prakshan explains the concept of a zero knowledge proof and how they are relevant to the popular game “Among Us”.

Alexander dives into the history of quaternions and how they are used today to provide more robust computer graphics than their 3-dimensional counterparts.

Zixi explores game theory with two counter-intuitive examples of selfishness and greed.

Nicolás investigates the use of language on Twitter when reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic, identifying several key communities with differing messages.

Alaric reveals the hidden mathematics that underlies some famous card-based magic tricks.

Emily looks back at the work of Alan Turing and how his revolutionary ideas led to the foundations on which modern day computing is based.

Leonardo presents the formal mathematical definition of a limit using the metaphor of an infinite valley containing increasingly smaller and smaller apples.

Xiaole uncovers the complex mathematics underpinning the seemingly innocuous wireless radio.