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Corona measures update 20 December 2021 Sunday 19 December 2021 20:01
Again, the Dutch government has announced new COVID-19 measures. In comparison to the measures taken in November, the situation will change for Abacus as follows. Until at least Friday 14 January 2022:
- Studying is not possible anymore in the Abacus room or the balcony. However studying in Educafé is possible!
- Committee meetings will be held online.
- Activities will take place online.
- There will be no physical lunch lectures .
- If you happen to visit the University buildings, keep 1.5m distance where possible.
The already existing measures that will still hold, include:
- Drinks don’t take place
- At least one board member will be available in the room between 10:00 and 15:00 for questions and providing coffee and tea (excluding the Christmas Holidays). Contact through WhatsApp, email, or Discord is of course also still possible.
We understand that these new measures are difficult. We appreciate your flexibility, and we all have to stay positive to make the best out of it.
The introduction of these new measures also results in the GMA being moved to an online platform. Keep an eye on the website and your email for more information on that.
Kind regards and stay safe,
The 54th board of W.S.G. Abacus
Flowers from the Education committee Friday 3 December 2021 11:24
As of September 1st, Anton Stoorvogel is the new programme director of Applied Mathematics. To congratulate him with his new position, the Education committee decided to give him a bouquet of flowers.
As programme director, Anton will be the one in charge of the organisation of our beloved study programme. This can sometimes be a hard task, but we have confidence in the capabilities of Anton. He will be involved in developing a new curriculum for the bachelor programme. This is a challenge that involves a lot of attention and can impact the study programme, and by extension also the study association. We hope that as the study association for AM we can have pleasant collaborations with Anton as Programme Director.
With these flowers, the Education committee wants to show our appreciation for Anton's work so far as new programme director and wish him the best of luck in the coming years, in which he will occupy the position.
New Covid Regulations Tuesday 16 November 2021 11:27
Unfortunately, the Dutch government and the University of Twente have introduced new regulations to combat the spread of the coronavirus. These regulations will last for at least three weeks and will have the following consequences for our association. Until Monday December 6th:
- Drinks will not take place.
- A limited number of activities will take place. The board will assess for each separate activity whether it can happen responsibly. For example, lunch lectures will not be cancelled.
- Students can still come to the university to study and the Abacus room will remain open. Students and employees can get coffee or tea at the Abacus room. However, they are discouraged to hang out in or around the association room, for example, when playing games.
- The board will continue performing their tasks in the Abacus room and will be available there most of the time. You can also always reach the board via WhatsApp, email or Discord.
- Committee meetings can still take place physically and the Abacus room or other rooms in university buildings can be used for this. Of course, these meetings can also be held online, if desired by the committee.
All of these measures have been put in place for the safety of the students and such that we can return to normal as soon as possible. We hope for your understanding and that these measures will be respected. As the board, we are also disappointed to have to inform you about these new rules. Hopefully, we can get rid of them as soon as possible.
We will share updates regarding the measures with you through our announcement channels. Which activities have been cancelled and which haven't, can be seen in the activity calendar on the Abacus website.
Best regards,
The 54th board of W.S.G. Abacus
Board change Wednesday 8 September 2021 15:20
On Tuesday 7 September 2021, the change GMA took place! The 53rd board was discharged and the 54th board is constituted as follows:
Niels Apeldoorn - Chairman & Officer Educational Affairs
Thomas Kanger - Secretary & Officer Internal Affairs
Eline Peeters - Treasurer
Margriet Eijken - Officer External Affairs
Ruben Hoeksma - General Adjunct
We want to thank the 53rd board for their hard work during this exceptional pandemic year.
Abacus room open again! Monday 6 September 2021 14:18
As of today the Abacus room is open again for all members. So, come by for some coffee, tea or have a nice chat with the candidate board. The Educafé is also open with full capacity again. It's also not necessary to keep 1,5m distance inside the buildings but do remember to wear your face mask when you are not seated.Educafé has reopened Wednesday 30 June 2021 11:55
The Educafé has reopened for studying. You can now work again on your final exercises in the Zilverling.
Due to the 1.5m regulations, the capacity is still lower than usual, but there is plenty of space to work on the final bits of your study.
Flowers from the Education Committee Wednesday 28 April 2021 15:05
After the 3rd quartile, the Education Committee gave Ruben Hoeksma a bouquet of flowers. During last quartile Ruben put lots of effort into changing the structure of his courses to fit the current situation: he let students decide how and when to study by offering alternating reading and lecture videos and he introduced aspects by which students had to work together and keep in touch. Overall he was clear in his communication, to the point and always made sure there was enough interaction between him and the students. His friendliness also encouraged students to switch on their cameras and more open discussions to take place during several tutorials.
Many students were able to appreciate Ruben's efforts and his dedication deserved to be rewarded.
Thank you for your hard work, Ruben! We hope many more students can enjoy your teaching in the future.
Candidate board 2021-2022 Thursday 22 April 2021 20:51
The 53rd board of Wiskundig Studiegenootschap Abacus has the pleasure to announce the candidate board for the 54th board. We expect them to be constituted as follows on the 7th of September:
Chairman & Officer Educational Affairs - Niels Apeldoorn
Secretary & Officer Internal Affairs - Thomas Kanger
Treasurer - Eline Peeters
Officer External Affairs - Margriet Eijken
General Adjunct - Ruben Hoeksma
Education Week Thursday 22 April 2021 16:01
During the 3rd quartile the Education Committee organised the Education Week. During this week many events took place, among which the Mathematical Lounge+, an activity together with the Ab-Actie, the Applied Mathematics Education Prize (AMEP) and a course on how to play Scopone Scietifico.
We hope you enjoyed the Education Week this year as well and hope to see you there next time!
Mathematical Lounge+
During the Mathematical Lounge+ we had a lovely joint talk by Pim van ‘t Hof en Daan Velthuis. Both of them had creative topics: Pim talked about origami and ways to cut patterns out of paper with only a single cut, while Daan discussed the mathematics behind sudoku’s. You can find the recording of the Mathematical Lounge+ on the youtube channel of Abacus.
Chess Variations
For this activity the Ab-Actie and Education Committee joined forces and gave a new look at chess with several different variations to play. Some were quite chaotic like ‘king on the hill’, whilst others just were mind boggling like ‘atomic’ or ‘quantum chess’. Over all it was a lot of fun to be a part of the pure chaos that ensued due to nobody knowing what was actually going on in the games. There was a great atmosphere and people really enjoyed being a part of it, even if they are not the greatest at regular chess.
AMEP
This year Gjerrit Meinsma, Nelly Litvak and Tracy Craig were nominated for the AMEP. All three of them gave a wonderful talk about the theme ‘Virtual Mathematics’. Eventually, Tracy Craig was crowned winner of this year’s AMEP by the students, but all three nominees ended up very close and really showed, even in that instance, just how wonderful teachers they are. The committee thanks them all three for participating and congratulates Tracy with her well deserved win.
The best three teachers of the decentral education prizes compete for the UTEA (University of Twente Education Award) on the 27th of May at 16:00 in Teams.
Scopone Scientifico
Last but not least, the Education Committee also included a course in the Education Week. Here you could learn how to play Scopone Scientifico, a typical Italian card game played in groups of 4, 2 against 2, which much like Taipan makes use of very peculiar cards.
Christmas dinner site Tuesday 6 April 2021 10:53
On Wednesday the 21st of April the online “Christmas” dinner of W.S.G. Abacus will take place. The enrolment closes this Sunday. You can find more information and enrol on the Christmas dinner site (click here).
