Visiting lectureship at the University of Namibia and PyCon NA 2024

Renewed Partnership between the University Namibia and the School of Mathematics

As part of the Cardiff University’s partnership with the University of Namibia, the school of Mathematics worked with the Department of Science at the University of Namibia (UNAM) from 2015 to deliver two projects with lasting impact:

• A summer transition school to help students adapt from School Mathematics to University Mathematics. This is particularly important for students at the University of Namibia as all students (not just those studying mathematics) are expected to achieve a base level of mathematical competency.
• A national Python conference. PyCon Namibia has grown in to a thriving community of Python programmers in Namibia but has also had lasting impact throughout Africa and the world. There are now annual continental Python conferences. This was part of the work that lead to one of Cardiff University’s impact case studies: https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/mathematics/research/impact/growing-open-and-sustainable-software-communities-across-africa

Following the COVID-19 pandemic this partnership has garnered renewed momentum. The department of Science at UNAM and in particular the School of Mathematics intends to offer more applied mathematics subjects to its syllabus.

I was offered a visiting lectureship at the University of Namibia to teach an undergraduate course in Game Theory.

The topic of Game Theory was chosen as it is an example of a Mathematical subject which has a direct value to a number of other departments at UNAM:

• the School of Military Sciences;
• the Business school (a number of mathematical game theorists have gone on to win Nobel prizes in Economics);
• Political Sciences;
• Biological Sciences.

“The Department of Mathematics at UNAM introduces a module on game theory in its current offering to impart the much needed competencies and skills in applications of game theory in study of conflict resolutions, pray predator relations, cooperation among humans, or anything else classified as “an intelligent, rational, decision-maker”. In addition to teaching the module to our undergraduate students, Dr. Knight presented as series of seminar presentations which were attended by a diverse audience. The department is grateful to Dr. Knight for his invaluable contribution to the department and University at large. For future collaborations, the Department wishes to expand on this initiative by developing specific short course programs focusing on the application of game theory concepts to diverse areas of which Dr. Knight will be the primary convener”

Samuel Nuugulu, Head of Mathematics Department

Details of the visiting lectureship

The goal of this visiting lectureship was to build the foundations for graduate students at UNAM to learn and eventually teach the subject of Game Theory.

As such, Dr. Knight delivered a final year course on the mathematical fundamentals of Game Theory. This was delivered through 4 hours of weekly contact time for the 4 weeks of his time at UNAM. Following this, I continued to meet with my students virtually as they worked on their personal research projects which will use Game Theory to explore:

• Using Evolutionary Game Theory to understand emergence of Social Conventions.
• Using Moran Processes to model invasive species.
• Using Fictitious Play to identify the best response dynamics in Military Situations.

PyCon NA 2024: the 9th National Python Conference in Namibia

This visiting lectureship gave me (a former trustee of the UK Python association) the opportunity to assist with the organisation of the national Python Conference.

A particularity of PyCon NA is the emphasis on involving Namibian school children.

You can read a report and see photos from the conference here: https://na.pycon.org/2024/.

Some highlights include:

• More than 110 attendees from over 15 countries within Africa and beyond;
• Half of the attendees and a third of the speakers were women;
• Direct partnership with schools and universities from Namibia;
• Financial assistance and sponsorship from a number of organisation and commercial companies.

During this Dr Knight delivered a workshop on Python for Mathematics for local School children, mapping the Namibia School curriculum to programming techniques and also gave a talk on Game Theory which involved the Aina winning the Rock Paper Scissors tournament.

A series of Public lectures on Game Theory

With a goal to broaden the community’s understanding of the value Mathematics can have as a subject to the wider set of sciences on offer at UNAM, Dr. Knight gave a series of public lectures.

The Seminar series was in four 1 hour parts:

1. Emergent Behavior in Complex Environments: Equilibrium Behavior of Rational Agents
2. Emergent Behavior in Complex Environments: Evolutionary Game Theory
3. Emergent Behavior in Complex Environments: Cooperation
4. Emergent Behavior in Complex Environments: Matching Games, Routing Games and Cooperative Games.

This was attended by students and members of faculty from a variety of departments.

Future Plans

The work is not done here. I looks forward to working closely with UNAMs department of Science and School of Mathematics to better understand the potential for and best possible action plan to ensure:

1. a sustainable first course in Mathematics that has immediate value to other schools at UNAM;
2. a graduate programme allowing for a community of expertise in applying Mathematics to real world problems.

Conclusion

This visiting lectureship program represents a significant milestone in the international partnership between the Cardiff University and UNAM.

• PyCon NA continues to grow and with it does the local open source software community. Plans are already underway for the 10th National conference with a goal to reach even more school children.
• Game theory has been established as a topic available to all students at UNAM. The School of Mathematics at UNAM and I are going to work together to put together a plan of action for ensuring even more of value is added to the University wide curriculum.

On a personal level, I learnt a lot from my students at UNAM and am planning on making some modifications to the way I teaches Game Theory at Cardiff as a result of discussions with students here.

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