The Department of Mathematics at the University of Buea played host to the first-ever workshop focused on predictive modelling with applications to Biology and Finance from Monday, May 23 to Wednesday, May 25, 2016. The workshop was organized and facilitated by Fulbright Scholar and visiting professor Julius Esunge in collaboration with Dr. Miranda Teboh-Ewungkem and Professor Gideon Ngwa.
In addition to talks from the facilitators, the thirty workshop participants from the USA, Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon listened to guest lectures from Professor Samuel Wanji (parasitologist), Professor Pius Oben (fisheries) and Professor Ernest Molua (agricultural economics) all from UB, and Drs. Melody Denhere and Grace Ngukeng from USA. The lectures provided participants with questions and challenges from the users of mathematical techniques, while the facilitators offered guidelines on how to tackle such problems using a highly versatile predictive modelling software known as R. Participants devoted ample time during hands-on sessions to work on the tools and techniques to address the problems presented by experts from other disciplines.
The workshop was underwritten by generous support through a grant from the US – National Science Foundation held by Professor Julius Esunge and Dr. Miranda Teboh-Ewungkem, combined with infrastructural support from the University of Buea. The closing session of the workshop provided an avenue for participants to present their findings as well as outline the way forward. The workshop was crowned by a dinner at the UB staff canteen with the Vice Chancellor Professor Nalova Lyonga as the guest of honour. In her remarks, the VC expressed gratitude to the organisers and encouraged the participants to continue the good work of distilling the fine ideas of mathematics to a wider audience through interdisciplinary scholarship.
