Coming up...

Watch this space for info about our next events and displays.

 

If you have an idea for something mathsy you'd love to see or collab with us for, let us know! 

You can read what sorts of things we've got up to previously below.

Mathateca Logic Puzzle Workshops
Mathapoetica: Mathematical Poetry Workshop

 

Join us at the CWEA on Sunday 3rd August for an exciting three-hour workshop exploring the poetry of mathematics and the maths of poetry. All backgrounds and levels of experience are welcome, from maths-phobic poets to mathematicians who’ve never seen a sonnet!

 

Delivered in collaboration with the Canterbury Poets’ Collective.

Show Your Working. Hear from professionals about the maths behind their work.
Show Your Working

Christchurch City Libraries Speaker Series @ Tūranga

 

This November, come along to a night of presentations by professionals about the interesting ways they use maths in their work. Featuring:

 

How Surveyors use Maths by Phil Dewar and Alex Liggett

Statistics: The Backbone of the Global Seed Industry by Kelly Evans

Software Engineering for Geoscientists by Kelsey Vavasour


🗓️ 6:00PM – 7:00PM, Thursday, November 13, 2025
📍TSB Space, Level 1 Tūranga, 60 Cathedral Square

Mathateca Logic Puzzle Workshops
Nerd Nite #39: For the love of maths

 

This April Fools Day, Mathateca are collaborating with Nerd Nite Christchurch to bring you an evening of entertaining talks in a pub about the maths behind juggling, human anatomy and crafting - be there AND be square!

 

🗓️ 6:30 - 8:30 PM, Wednesday 1 April

📍A Rolling Stone, 579 Colombo Street, Christchurch Central

 

Tickets $15 /$10

Mathateca Logic Puzzle Workshops
Exercise Your Brain with Logic Puzzles!

 

Join us on Level 4 at Tūranga, Christchurch's Central Library on the second Sunday of every month from 3:00pm - 4:30pm for our free logic puzzle workshops delivered by New Zealand's top puzzle solver, James McGowan.

 

Whether you're new to logic puzzles or looking to sharpen your skills, come along to train your brain and have a good time!  

Join Mathateca at the Festival of Women and Girls in Science banner
Women and Girls in STEM

 

Join us at Tūranga from 10am-3pm Saturday 21st February for an inspiring and hands-on STEM expo perfect for scientists aged 5-15 and their whānau.

Mathateca Logic Puzzle Workshops
Tabletop Tūranga - a free boardgame festival for Canterbury

 

Join friends old and new for a weekend of tabletop gaming at Christchurch's Central Library. All welcome, from seasoned gamers to those who are brand new to the hobby. Mathateca will be running the maths of Hex activity on Saturday 7th and the maths of Mancala on Sunday 8th, with round robin tournaments in the afternoons both days to test your skills.

🗓️ Saturday 7th - Sunday 8th June, 2025
📍Tūranga, 60 Cathedral Square

Pi Day Calculation-a-thon 

Calling one-and-all to attempt to calculate as many digits of pi as we can, using nothing but paper and pencil.


This July, number enthusiasts in Christchurch are gathering to continue calculating as many digits of pi as we can by hand. If you can do long division (or are willing to learn) then you have the required skills to participate.

 

Come along to the CWEA main hall at 59 Gloucester St anytime from noon-4:30pm on Saturday 25th July to help us in our monumental calculation endeavour!

Past events

Show Your Working (Nov 2025)

 

On November 13, 2025 we gathered at Tūranga to hear short presentations from local professionals about different uses of maths in the workplace across industries, from geoscience to agriculture to surveying, emcee’d by Mathateca board member Tom.

 

Our speakers were Phil Dewar and Alex Liggett on surveying, Kelly Evans on statistics in the seed industry, and Kelsey Vavasour on software engineering for geoscientists.

 

The four speakers from Show Your Working Nov 2025 sit on the stage in the Tūranga TSB space. From left, Kelsey Vavasour, Kelly Evans, Alex Liggett, Phil Dewar and MC Tom. In the background, the "Show Your Working" banner can be seen on the screens.

 

Phil Dewar and Alex Liggett are Senior Surveyors at Fox and Associates, a Christchurch firm known for its innovation and professional excellence in 'creating legacies with land'. Phil and Alex covered two very different aspects of the work of surveyors, discussing the mathematical challenges they face. Alex talked about the traditional work of a cadastral surveyor, defining sometimes elusive property boundaries, while Phil talked about point clouds - how modern technology can be used to capture them to solve measurement problems.

 

Kelly Evans has been on the International Seed Testing Association (ISTA, the global governing body for seed quality testing) Statistics Committee and Chair of the New Zealand Seed Testing Society (NZSTS). She presented on how statistics is the backbone of the global seed industry, discussing the importance of accurate sampling and rigorous analysis of quality testing results.

 

Kelsey Vavasour is a Senior Software Engineer at Seequent. She talked about her work on the backend of cloud hosted software products for geoscientists, primarily one called Imago which is used for managing and analysing photographic data taken while drilling. Imago processes, displays, and analyses images and related data, including interactive features to highlight areas of interest. Kelsey talked about the importance of mathematical logic and understanding usage patterns in order to monitor how the software is being used and scale services effectively.

 

After the presentations we had a lively Q+A session and then a chance for attendees to further discuss with speakers. The evening of talks was supplemented with a repeat showing of our Mathematical 3D printing and Slide Rule displays (info on our downloads page).

 

This talk was our third Show Your Working session, run as part of Christchurch City Libraries Speaker Series @ Tūranga. Look out for more sessions in the future, and if you would be keen to give a presentation on how you use maths in your workplace email us at info@mathateca.nz.