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During March, Stellenbosch University hosted the 35th annual South African Symposium on Numerical and Applied Mathematics (SANUM). Read more...
The public is invited to attend the examinations of our post-graduate students. For more information, refer to the list of presentations.
Applied mathematics is the mathematical underpinning of a variety of engineering and industrial applications. It is in essence the analysis and computer simulation of various mathematical models as they arise in real-world situations. In this division we focus on application areas such as image processing, graph theory and fluid flow.
The successful application of mathematics to a practical problem usually entails three phases:
- the formulation of the practical problem in a mathematical form;
- the solution, exact or approximate, analytical or numerical, of the problem in its mathematical form; and
- the interpretation of the mathematical results for the original problem.
An applied mathematician should be skilled in each of these aspects. This implies that he/she should not only be a mathematician, but should also have an interest in and insight into at least some of the areas in which mathematics is applied.
Course contents and teaching methods are selected to meet the various demands of the job market as well as new developments in the greater field of applied mathematics by
- close cooperation with the relevant sectors of commerce and industry,
- close cooperation with various engineering disciplines, and
- an active academic research programme.
Communication and presentation skills (both written and oral) are emphasised and developed by requiring that students hand in projects on a regular basis. Contact with past students, who advise the us of sought after skills and required qualifications in industry, is maintained.
Applied Mathematics at Stellenbosch University is unique in South Africa in that it located in the Engineering Building. This situation enables its members to collaborate with colleagues in various engineering disciplines in order to focus their research on real and actual problems in industry and the community.
