Science
Students'
Society

Scubed is organising a meeting for those students from the Faculty of Science who are interested in the Erasmus programme. A brief overview of the Erasmus programme will be given for the benefit of those students who were unable to attend the Erasmus Information Session organised by the International & EU Office. The students will then have the opportunity to discuss any issues they are concerned about with Dr Emmanuel Sinagra, Erasmus Officer of the Faculty of Science, Ms Mary Jane Mifsud, Erasmus Programme Officer at the European Union Programmes Agency (EUPA) and Ms Annhelica Agius, Erasmus Coordinator at the University of Malta.

 o         3 day seminar: Friday 20^th - Sunday the 22^nd of March

               At the BayStreet Hotel, Paceville.

o         This is a seminar focusing on the value the environment has for both the individual and the society from a scientific point of view. Talks held by professionals in the field will show that the environment can and must be protected and conserved-for the sustainable maintenance of the present and future generations of our species and others sharing the planet with us. The outstanding beauty of our surroundings may sometimes go unnoticed but through our collective education we can start to appreciate our natural heritage. This is what this seminar will try to achieve.

S cubed is offering you the opportunity to visit Arrow Pharm (Malta) which will give students an idea of where and what you can do with your future degree; this could after all be your place of work. This particular visit is mainly aimed at students taking a Bachelors of Science degree in Chemistry and Biology areas as their main area of study, but more site visits for the other areas of study shall be offered in time to come, so keep an eye out.

This opportunity is open to all students and will be held on Wednesday 18^th and Friday 20^th March 2009. Transport is available free of charge. There are only a limited number of places and registration will be carried out on a first come first served basis.

For further info contact Amy on 79298028

See you there

Thanks,

The scubed executive

For the first time, the Science Students’ Society will be organizing an activity abroad, specifically in London between Saturday 7^th & Monday 9^th February 2009. The main objective of this event is to give an experience which will broaden the scientific knowledge of all participants. . Students will be visiting the Science Museum, the Natural History Museum and the UCL. For furthur details contact Ramona on 99255131.

Following a massive seminar for which 150 students attended in all, Scubed will be organizing for the 3^rd time: On The Trail (back by public demand). The event will be held at Pembroke Scout Centre between Friday 12^th and Saturday 13^th December. Students will pay 25 Euros for:

• transport (both ways),
  
• food (dinner / breakfast / lunch),
  
• O-Bar Party,
  
• prize for the treasure hunt

…. well it is literally free. After settling in, we will have dinner. Following up there will be some ice breaking activities and than the party. We will sleep in camps provided by the organization, wake up for breakfast, and leave for the treasure hunt with a packed lunch. The winners will get a prize.

All Science Students are comming... are you??

S cubed is offering you the opportunity to visit the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA). This visit will give you an idea of where and what you can do with your future degree; this could afterall be your place of work. This particular visit is mainly aimed at students taking a Bachelors of Science degree in Chemistry and Biology as their main area of study, but more site visits for the other areas of study shall be offered in time to come, so keep an eye out. The visit will include a talk by the director of environment, and a tour of the place. This opportunity is open to all students and will be held on Fri 5^th December. The cost will be of €3 (transport included both ways).

For further info contact Andrea on 79251104

See you there

Throughout this summer the Chemistry department has offered the organization a bigger and more adequate storing site in the new building. We would like to thank the department for appreciating our work and for helping us in these circumstances.

Room allocation report:  last July Karl Agius also submitted on behalf of the organization the room allocation report - a report which summarizes the work of the organization through out the year. Our organization placed 3^rd from all faculty based organizations and 10^th form all organizations on campus. This was a great achievement for the organization not only because we obtained an office in the students’ house [office number 7] but also because we obtained 121.5 marks, a record over the 96 and 36 marks obtained in previous years. Moreover we placed in these rankings without benefiting from any recurring marks since the organization did not submit this report the previous year.

Posets, Matching and Partial Colouring

By: Professor Domingos Moreria Cardoso, University of Averiro, Portugal

Abstract: A partial vertex proper colouring of a graph is a mathematical model for the popular Sudoku puzzle.  There are nice relations between posets and graphs.  For instance, it is well known that a poset may be represented by a Hasse diagram.  The partition of a poset into chains, modelling serveral practical problems, can be obtained by solving the maximum matching problem of a particular dipartite graph.  The number of ways of completing a partial colouring can be obtained by using a special chromatic polynomical which may be determined from a particular poset.  Algorithms for solving these types of problems are presented and a few challenges are proposed.

For more details please contact Professor I. Sciriha on irene.scirihaaquiline@um.edu.mt

Digital Seismic Recording in Malta - 13 years on

By: Mr. Matthew Agius, Univeristy of Malta

Abstract: During the last 20 years, advances in computer technology have brought about a rapid change in the way data is collected, stored, pocessed, exchanged and presented in most scientific fields. The challenge to acquire and process near real-time seismic data has forced seismic institutes to upgrade their stations with state-of-the-art broadband sensors, digitzers and GPS systems connected through the Internet. Moreover, after the disastrous December 2004 Sumatra earthquake and tsunami, there has been a general impetus among the seismological community to improve the rapidity with which large events are evaluated and the information disseminated, with the aim of implementing regional and international Tsunami Early Warning Systems.  For the last 13 years the Seismic Monitoring Unit within the Physics Department has been responsible for keeping up with this progress and has contributed too the international community by the sharing of data and manual locations of local earthquakes.  In particular, the Unit is now a real -time contributor to the Virtual European Broadband Seismic Network (VEBSN).  In the last two years the unit has developed an automated way to locate earhquakes using three-component wave polarization analysis at a single station (Wied Dalam, WDD) and in recent months this was enhanced further with the lauch of a website.  Several web serivces have been included such as: real-time plots, event view (seismogram and anaysis), event information editing page, On Demand Analysis (including mobile phone access), Google Maps for mapping of earthquake locations, macro seismic questionnaire and multi-station location tool.

http://www.phys.um.edu.mt/seismic

The new dates for the Actavis Site visit are the following:

• Wednesday 23rd April. Transport leaves at 9.00am from gateway.  The site visit will commance at 9.30       
• Friday 25th April. Transport leaves at 10.00am from gateway.  The site visit will commance at 10.30

Students who have registered to attend the Actavis Site visit are kindly asked to take note of the following points:

• Make-up is not allowed and should be avoided
• Jewellery items (including rings) should not be worn
• Food consumption (including chewing gum/sweets etc.) is not allowed
• Females are kindly requested not to wear skirts
• Pointed and high helled shoes should be avoided
• Persons suffering from a medical condition should not attend the factory tour

It would be appreciated if you bring this to the attention of friends who will be attending.  Please note that anybody not following these rules will not be allowed to go into the factory.

Remeber also to be on time , whether you are coming with the coach from university, or with your own car.

 www.actavis.com.mt

This year, we, the Science Students Society (SCUBED) will be celebrating our 5th anniversary. In order to commemorate this event, scubed will be releasing a special edition publication and we will also be throwing a party. So, if you're ready to party see the poster below! :p  The party is going to be held at Olive Garden, Mdina.A map is provided just click here.

Feel free to email us on scubed.org@gmail.com
Ticket hotline: Andrew 99236689

See you all there! :)

The Science Students Society will be organizing a site visit to ACTAVIS. The visits will take place on two different dates [23rd & 25^th April] to accommodate as much students as possible. The price is just €3 for those who will use transport both ways and €1 for those students who will not be using transport. Transport leaves from gateway building at 9.00am on Wednesday and at 10:00am on Friday. If you want to join us for this event approach one of the executive members. Closing date for registration is on Friday 4th April 2008. Feel free to email us on scubed.org@gmail.com

http://www.phys.um.edu.mt/seminars/upcoming_seminars.html

Over 100 students attended the first Research Methodology Seminar held between Friday 29^th February and Sunday 2^nd March at the President Hotel PV. Prof Richard Muscat, Pro Rector for research & Innovation was invited for the opening.

Later the Scubed executive delivered a presentation on what the organization is doing and what the upcoming events will consist off.

Later the Mafia themed party kicked off.

On Saturday, Byron Baron gave 3 talks

1. Setting up and preparing for a research project,
   
2. Practical aspects of a research project,
   
3. Data Analysis and finalisation of a research project. 

Application form for the Mafia party ONLY on Friday click here

Application form for the Research Methodology Seminar click here

Application form for students who would like to attend just for the talks can be downlaoded from here.

A map is also available here  

To check the programme review for the weekend click here

To have a look at the seminar programme click here

Scubed organized a Christmas party at Hacienda – PV on Friday the 21^st of December in collaboration with Papier Plus Studio and IAESTE. Everybody was invited.

Another new member has joined the Scubed Executive.  ANDRE' D'Amato is a third year student.  He has been appointed Education Officer.  We wish him good luck. A reminder to all students that if they would like to join us they should email us on info@scubed.info.

After 2 years of work in the organization, SIMONE Cutajar has decided to stop the adventure here. Simone Cutajar served as a secretary, media officer, vice president and activities coordinator. Simone will still be active within the InSitu Subcommittee. The Scubed executive would like to thank Simone for the service  and time that she offered during these 2 years.

After on the trail, the organisation received a lot of compliments.  This was the biggest event ever organized by the society at least in the past 2 years.  Over 90 student ranging from Chemistry, Biology, Maths, Physics, Statistics, Law, Architecture, Medicine and Erasmus students attended.

The event consisted of a Presentation on the organization, followed by some activties. We than had a bar-b-q and eventually we had a party, with students still having fun till 3am! The winners of the treasure hunt were the Freakz - a group composed of B.Sc Chemistry & Biology 2nd years.

The executive would like to thank all those students who attended and all those individuals who helped us in some way or another to make this event a great SUCCESS!!

Photos of the event have been uploaded on HI5!

A delegation from the Scubed executive attended the official launch party of papier.com.mt held at Cube- PV on Wednesday 28th November. The Party was organised by David Schembri, Director of Papier Plus Studio - the Main sponsor of the organisation.We would like to take this opportunity to thank Papier Plus Studio for the financial support he is giving to the organisation for the third consecutive year.

Between the 16^th & the 18^th of November a delegation from the Scubed executive consisting of Karl Agius, Tristan Tilney & Ramona Camilleri attended the KPS/KE seminar held at the Alexandra Hotel in Paceville. Apart from the three Scubed representatives two other science students were present representing INSITE and MKSU.

Over 70 students from the Faculty of Science attended the 3^rd annual Science seminar. On Friday we had the opening from the Scubed and the In Situ crew followed by a party. On Saturday we had a talk from Prof Felice – President of the Malta Chamber of Scientists followed by an ice breakers activity. After lunch we had Dr Sinagra from the Chemistry Department, Mr David Suda from the Statistics Department, Prof Agius from the Biology Department and Dr Farrugia. On Sunday we concluded the seminar with a closing session during which we made an evaluation of the seminar and made a survey. We would like to thank all students who helped in some way or another and for their comments.