Maria Kapsis
University of South Australia
Biography
Miss Maria Kapsis is a final-year student in the Bachelor of Mathematical Sciences at the University of South Australia. Maria’s research interests are motivated by real-world challenges sourced from industry that involve Operations Research. Maria led and managed an industry-sponsored teambased project as part of the 2018 University of South Australia’s Mathematics Clinic to enhance The Santos Chemical Delivery System. Maria continues to broaden her experience in mathematics and put theory into practice with the AMSI Vacation Research Scholarship.
In her academic studies, Maria is a high-achieving student, with a grade-point average* of 6.35 (out of a possible 7). In 2018, Maria was awarded the UniSA Richard Oertel Memorial Mathematics Grant for her passion for mathematics and academic merit.
As a tutor, Maria shares her passion to inspire others to learn the importance of understanding mathematics. She leads as an example to many secondary students, encouraging initiative, independent learning and problem-solving.
*For a description of how UniSA calculates grade point average: http://ow.ly/n31b30nlhFs
Optimal Partitioning of Photovoltaic Cells on a Curved Solar Collector
The ATN group of universities is building a solar car to participate in the 2019 World Solar Challenge. The car will be powered by photovoltaic cells on its top surface. The cells must be partitioned into groups called ‘strings’. The power generated by a string is limited by the cell with the lowest irradiance. The challenge is to partition the cells into strings so that the variation of irradiance within each string is as small as possible. This project will investigate the optimal partitioning for a given sun position, for the entire trip, and with additional design constraints. Integer programming formulations and heuristic optimisation methods will be used.