Calina M. Durbac - Outreach

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I give Maths talks with audiences varying from academics to university students, to GCSE and A-level students as well as the broader community. I am always happy to tailor my presentations accordingly. Below you can find information about some of the talks I have previously given:

Games and Decisions

What is Game Theory? What is its connection to decision-making? In this talk you will find out the answer to these questions, as we dive together into an introduction to this very interesting field of study, finishing off with some of its surprising applications.

This talk is about 20 minutes long, suitable for GCSE and A-Level students. It presents an introduction to Game Theory and its connection to Decision-Making.

Game Theory: A Very Short Introduction

Game theory is the field of Maths that studies the behaviour of rational decision-makers. Join me in finding out about its past, present, and future, as well as its fun (and, sometimes, unexpected) applications in this 50-minute interactive talk guaranteed to equip the audience with a basic understanding of Game Theory.

This talk is about 50 minutes long, suitable for GCSE and A-Level students as well as the broader community. It presents an introduction to Game Theory with its history and applications.

Promoting Cooperation in Selfish Populations

What is Evolutionary Game Theory? How can it help promote cooperation? Why is cooperation important in the first place? Join to discover the answer to these questions and see for yourself the impact Maths has on other disciplines.

This talk is about 35 minutes long, suitable for GCSE and A-Level students. It presents an introduction to Evolutionary Game Theory, showing how Maths can be applied to social concepts such as cooperation.

Promoting Cooperation via Incentives: An Evolutionary Game Theoretic Approach

Cooperation is the act of paying a cost in order to convey a benefit to somebody else. Although it initially seems against the Darwinian Theory of Natural Selection, cooperation has been, is, and will always be a vital part of life, from bacteria to insects to humans.

This talk offers an engaging introduction to Evolutionary Game Theory, with a special focus on how incentives, like reward and punishment, can be used to promote cooperation. External institutions, such as the UN and NATO, play a key role by offering these incentives to encourage cooperation in populations where it is otherwise uncommon. However, this process demands careful spending optimisation as it can be resource-intensive. In this presentation, we will dive into these behaviours in depth, discussing key analytical results in a clear and fun manner. Additionally, numerical simulations will highlight and reinforce theoretical findings.

This talk is about 40 minutes long, suitable for A-Level and university students as well as the broader community. It presents an introduction to Evolutionary Game Theory and a mathematical model of cooperation.

To book any of the above talks, or to discuss other events, please contact me via email here.

Email: cmd639@student.bham.ac.uk

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