We may not notice it, but mathematics impacts our lives on a daily basis. Mathematical models inform policy decisions around the economy and public health. They are used to understand climate change and how to respond to it. They are vital in the design of public buildings and spaces. They are even used to try and prevent crime.

It seems reasonable, then, that the mathematical models should reflect people's interaction with each other and their environment, and that they should take account of people's perspectives and priorities. In this episode of Maths on the Move we talk to Liz Fearon, an epidemiologist at University College London, about a pioneering new project which aims to involve people in the production of mathematical models from the start, treating them as valued and equal members of the research team. Liz tells out about the motivation behind the project, how it works, and what she hopes to achieve.

To find out more about topics mentioned in this podcast see:

• Co-production of mathematical models — the article accompanying this podcast

• The website of the COMMET project

• Disease modelling for beginners — our introduction to some basic concepts in infectious disease modelling

• The inequalities of COVID-19 — our article exploring the role of the pandemic in amplifying social inequalities

• Tracing mpox — our article about modelling the spread of mpox.

This podcast is part of our collaboration with JUNIPER, the Joint UNIversity Pandemic and Epidemic Response modelling consortium. JUNIPER comprises academics from the universities of Cambridge, Warwick, Bristol, Exeter, Oxford, Manchester, and Lancaster, who are using a range of mathematical and statistical techniques to address pressing questions about the control of COVID-19. You can see more content produced with JUNIPER here.

The capabilities of artificial intelligence may appear to be galloping ahead, but there are still many challenges that need to be solved. Last month we joined members of the Maths4DL research project for a hackathon — an intensive two-day brainstorming session designed to figure out how one might teach machine learning techniques for solving differential equations and how best to test those techniques.

In this episode of Maths on the Move, Maths4DL members Yolanne Lee from University College London, Georg Maierhofer from the University of Cambridge, and Chris Budd OBE from the University of Bath tell us all about the hackathon, the science behind it, and what it was like to participate in those ambitious but exciting 48 hours.

For a brief introduction to machine learning see Maths in a minute: Machine learning and neural networks and for a brief introduction to differential equations see Maths in a minute: Differential equations. You might also like:

• Our podcast featuring Yolanne Lee talking about her work as a Maths4DL researcher,
• Our podcast featuring Georg Maierhofer talking about physics informed neural networks, as well as the accompanying article,
• Our article AI and GoPro physics featuring the work of Nathan Kutz who is mentioned in this podcast.

This content is part of our collaboration with the Mathematics for Deep Learning (Maths4DL) research programme, which brings together researchers from the universities of Bath and Cambridge, and University College London. Maths4DL aims to combine theory, modelling, data and computation to unlock the next generation of deep learning. You can see more content produced with Maths4DL here.