The Prince of Girona (PGiF) and Ferran Sunyer Balaguer (FSBF) foundations are to hold a "Mathematics Saturday in the County of Alt Empordà" on 25 February 2012, with a view to showing how mathematics are present in daily life and using an enterprising approach to encourage student interest in this subject through education. The initiative involves Figueres City Hall and is aimed at eleventh- and twelfth-grade high school students from centers of education in the Alt Empordà area, who will take part in the different activities run at Figueres Center of Integrated Training.

The entire schedule will highlight the presence of mathematics in today's technology and provide instances such as space missions, the role of mathematics in digital communication through cryptography, and their importance in the study of the evolution of population. The sessions will be informative and mainly addressed to encouraging interest and scientific vocation, promoting teamwork and placing mathematics in the context of today's problems.

The activities, run from 10 am to 2 pm, will feature three subjects, coordinated by three professors from the Department of Mathematics at the Autonomous University of Barcelona:

• The art of encoding messages: will deal with the history of cryptography and feature anecdotes, the methods involved, the mathematics behind it and its utility in mobile telephony and Internet.
• Mathematics and astrodynamics: will analyze the design of space missions, look at key discoveries about the stars, and describe plans for the creation of space highways.
• Evolution and mathematics: will focus on how mathematics can help to understand nature and more specifically the evolution of population.

These subjects are samples of the areas and of the disciplines in which mathematics play a significant role. Each session will include a talk-colloquium with a university professor and a workshop-competition on each topic, which students will enter in pairs. The winning teams from each of the three subjects, together with the second- and third-place teams, will be invited to the 2012 IMPULSA Forum, organized by the Prince of Girona Foundation. The winners will also be awarded a digital tablet.

A press conference with the presence of the Mayor of Figueres was held today. The collaboration agreement between the PGiF and the FSBF for the session on 25 February was also signed.

Further information: Mathematics Saturday in the County of Alt Empordà