Mike Grannell
Teaching
Research students
Since
joining the OU, I have co-supervised four part-time research
students.
The first of these, J. P. Murphy, was registered at the
University of
Central Lancashire and obtained his Ph.D. from there in May
1999. The
second, G. K. Bennett, obtained his Ph.D. from the OU in May
2004. The
third, A. D. Forbes, obtained his Ph.D. from the OU in December
2006.
The fourth, G. J. Lovegrove, obtained his Ph.D. from the OU in
March
2009. The details are as follows:
- John Murphy, Steiner
triple systems and cycle structure, co-supervised
with
Terry Griggs.
- Geoff
Bennett, Some
investigations in Steiner triple systems and related
designs, co-supervised with Terry Griggs and
Bridget Webb.
- Tony Forbes, Configurations
and
colouring
problems in block designs, co-supervised with
Terry Griggs.
- Graham Lovegrove, Combinatorial
designs
and their
automorphism groups, co-supervised with Terry
Griggs and
Kathleen
Quinn.
Curriculum connections
M836 Coding Theory
Terry Griggs and I originally wrote the module notes for this
30 point M.Sc. module.
It was presented for the first time in 2002, since when I have
continued to maintain the module and produce the
assessment materials. The module, which Jozef Siran and I revised in 2020,
has been very successful, popular with students, and has good
retention and pass rates.
Generally
Research activity in combinatorics informs our curriculum
through modules such as M836 and the undergraduate module
MT365 (Graphs, Networks and Design)
which is also popular with students and has good retention and
pass rates. Our students, who form the majority of part-time
mathematics students in the UK at both undergraduate and postgraduate
levels, would become progressively disadvantaged were this link to be weakened
or severed.
Contact:
Mike Grannell
mike.grannell@open.ac.uk