The zombie apocalypse simulations were carried out at the Green Man Festival in Wales in August.
The researchers instigated a zombie outbreak by handing out wristbands to “infect” healthy individuals.
The “zombies” could then come back to the researchers for more wristbands to spread the infection and to learn more about the project.
In total, the simulated zombie outbreak managed to infect more than 2,000 festival-goers.
PhD researcher Fay Frost said: “The project we presented to the public highlights the exciting possibilities of mathematics and hopefully helps to break down the inherent fear associated with the subject.
“With this project we used a fun familiar concept to represent real research into disease conducted at the University of Sheffield.”
