The University of Namibia’s Peter Katjavivi Hall recently hosted the first session of the Namibian International Spring School in Mathematics (NAISSMA 2022).
The event, which ran from 24 to 28 October, provided a variety of pure and practical mathematics courses without sacrificing their didactic components.
The primary goal of NAISSMA 2022, which embodies the genuine vision of the ‘Mentoring African Research in Mathematics’ (MARM) programme, is to enhance the promotion of social development and the enhancement of the sense of citizenship of the participants.
It is far from being exhausted in the simple offering of courses for students or scholars already interested in the discipline, in essence contributing to the amplification of their scientific awareness.
In this sense, NAISSMA 2022 is, by far, the first initiative of this kind carried out on the Namibian territory and neighbouring nations for its desire to combine science and society in one symbiosis for the benefit of fair and sustainable growth.
The structure of the school will rest on advanced lessons for more experienced scholars held by professors Alessio Corti (Imperial College, London), Luigi Preziosi (Polytechnic of Turin) and Marina Marchisio (University of Turin). It will also offer absolute novelty for the traditional schemes of MARM programme – a course of a more didactic nature (Ursula Zich: the Origami Spectacles for Geometry) with an eye on young high school students from all over the country, coordinated by Loide Kapenda (education ministry).
The main purpose of the programme is to offer a large number of young people, regardless of wealth class, a first opportunity to meet the Academy, and to breathe its atmosphere in a climate of inclusion based on commitment participation in the activities of the school in all its aspects: scientific, educational and social.
NAISSMA 2022 is genuinely African and will offer basic courses taught by Namibian mathematicians (Mugochi, Nuugulu) and one monographic on hybrid methods for the solution of dynamical systems by Sandile Motsa of the University of Eswatini.
The purpose of the participation of non-African professors is to promote a network suitable to ensure the sustainability of the MARM project beyond the natural deadline of the project (December 2022). So far, there has been the participation of young people from various other African nations: Botswana, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia. The action of NAISSMA 2022 fits well into the programmes to combat poverty and inequalities, as prefigured by the United Nations Agenda Vision 2030 for sustainable development.