2008 PIMS Industrial Problem Solving Workshop and Graduate Industrial Mathematics Modelling Camp
Topic
"Connecting Industry to Solutions"
PIMS Industrial Problem Solving Workshops (IPSW) are held annually at a
PIMS university. The aim of IPSW is to create a mutually beneficial
link between researchers in industry and academic mathematicians.
Leading specialists from the academic community study problems
presented by the industrial partners in teams during the weeklong
workshop, and present the results of their study back to the industrial
participants at the end of the week. The benefits of an IPSW are
numerous and some of its obvious successes are: brings together
academia and industry, often leading to long-term research
collaborations; develops challenging new research areas with a direct
bearing on physical problems; trains highly qualified personnel from
the participation of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. In
general workshop participants include graduate students, postdoctoral
fellows, faculty members, and industry representatives.
Each year during the week preceding the IPSW, PIMS hosts the Graduate
Industrial Mathematics Modelling Camp (GIMMC). The purpose of the camp
is to teach graduate students mathematical modelling methods from
experts in the field. A cross-section of relevant industrial problems
and modelling techniques are presented.
Details
The Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences (PIMS) will hold
the 11th PIMS Graduate Industrial Mathematics Modelling Camp (June
9-13, 2008) and the 12th PIMS Industrial Problem Solving Workshop (June
16-20, 2008) at the University of Regina.
Participation by graduate students and faculty from the U.S. and Canada
is encouraged. Financial support is available, particularly for
graduate students who attend both GIMMC and IPSW.
GIMMC
The GIMMC is the first leg of the PIMS Industrial Mathematics Forum which also includes the PIMS Industrial Problem Solving Workshop (IPSW 12). GIMMC will be held on June 9-13, 2008. Both events will take place at the University of Regina.
The Graduate Industrial Mathematics Modelling Camp is designed to give graduate students in the Mathematical Sciences an opportunity to learn techniques of mathematical modeling under the supervision and guidance of experts in the field.
Mentors will present the problems, and for the remainder of the camp, they will each guide a group of graduate students through to a resolution, culminating in a group presentation on the afternoon of Saturday.
The workshop is a preparation for the following IPSW 12 at the University of Regina, and financial support for graduate students is contingent upon their attending both events. Students should arrange for a letter of recommendation from their supervisor. The application deadline is April 30, 2008 with registration commencing December 1, 2007.
GIMMC Selection of Academic Participants
Please read over the requirements carefully to ensure that you qualify. Outstanding graduate students at both the Masters and PhD level in the fields of mathematics, applied mathematics, statistics, and computer science, or related disciplines, from all Canadian and US universities are invited to apply. All students who are on visas in the US will require a visa for Canada.
Selection criteria will be based on background and statement of interest, as well as geographic and institutional diversity. Women and minorities are especially encouraged to apply.
Applications must be completed by April 30, 2008 for full consideration. Preference will be given to early applicants. Successful applicants will be notified by April 30.
For an application to be complete, we must have received a letter of recommendation from your supervisor. The recommendation letter must be emailed to gimmc@pims.math.ca by April 30.
A maximum of 50 students will be accepted, therefore those who apply early will have the best chance to participate in the Camp.
IPSW Selection of Academic Participants
It is expected that students participate in both events, the Graduate
Industrial Mathematical Modelling Camp (GIMMC) and the Industrial
Problem Solving Workshop.
GIMMC (June 9-13):
Students will be prepared for the industrial problem solving workshop
through the Graduate Industrial Mathematical Modeling Camp (GIMMC).
IPSW (June 16-20):
* Day 1: Presentation of several industry problems. Students,
academics, and industry representatives split into working groups (IPSW
teams) and start brainstorming.
* Days 2-4: Problem solving, discussion, modeling, analysis, computation.
* Day 5: Presentation of progress made.
* After the workshop: Preparation of a high quality report that will be published in conference proceedings.
GIMMC and IPSW give students a unique opportunity to work on real-world
problems that are relevant to industry. Students will learn to work in
teams on challenging problems They will work in contact with industry
partners and potential employers.
The workshop is fully funded and students are accepted on a competition
basis. To guarantee a healthy working environment, we invite beginning
graduate students and higher-level graduate students, postdocs and
faculty in the areas of applied or applied and industrial mathematics,
statistics, optimization, and computational mathematics. In addition,
people working in mathematical aspects of economics, physics, biology,
finance, etc. may find the workshop highly rewarding and are encouraged
to apply.
There is no registration fee. Students and post-docs will have part of their travel costs covered.
Industry Problems
IPSCO (a Division of SSAB), Regina, Saskatchewan
Division of Experimental Oncology, Cross Cancer Institute
The Mosaic Company, Potash Business Unit, Belle Plaine, Saskatchewan
Ron Palmer, Regina, Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan Gaming Corporation, Regina, Saskatchewan
Industry Participants
Potential Industry Benefits:
Exposure to a network of international experts in mathematical modelling and scientific computing.;
Fresh and modern insight into difficult problems that may provide innovative solutions or ideas;
Develop long-term collaborations with academia for future research;
Potentially raise your company’s profile within the academic community.
How to participate?
If you are interested in participating, then formulate a specific
problem that could be analyzed or treated with techniques from
mathematical modelling, scientific computing, and statistics. Please
contact Dr. Shaun Fallat (University of Regina, (306) 585–4107,
sfallat@math.uregina.ca) to discuss the proposed problem. After the
first contact, we ask you to:
Provide a written project description of about 2-3 pages,
Give a 30-minute presentation on Day 1 of the IPSW, and have a
representative be available during the IPSW if possible, or at least
during the final presentations on Day 5.
Support the workshop with about $2,000 (open to negotiation.)
Additional Information
Note that the Prairie Discrete Mathematics Meeting (V) is being held at the University of Manitoba on May 28-29, 2008 in the same rooms as WCLAM.
A Conference Proceedings will be compiled and published by PIMS after the workshop, and distributed freely to over 500 high-tech companies. Proceedings from previous PIMS-IPSWs may be viewed online here.
Limited funds in the form of travel reimbursements and accommodation expenses are available for faculty participants, for whom the workshop offers the following benefits:
1. The challenge of applying their skills to new and relevant problems directly applicable to industry.
2. The opportunity for continued collaboration with the workshop's academic and industrial participants.
3. The opportunity to help promote the role of the mathematical sciences by showing businesses and governments the tangible benefits of supporting mathematical sciences.
Mentors
Donald L. Kreher obtained a joint computer science and mathematics Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska in 1984. He has held academic positions at Rochester Institute of Technology and the University of Wyoming. He is currently a University Professor of Mathematical Sciences at Michigan Technological University, where he teaches and conducts research in combinatorics and combinatorial algorithms. He has published numerous research papers and is a co-author of the internationally acclaimed texts: ``Combinatorial Algorithms: Generation Enumeration and Search'', CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, 1999 and ``Graph Algorithms and Optimization'', Chapman & Hall/CRC Press , Boca Raton, Florida, 2005.
In 1995, Professor Kreher was awarded the Marshall Hall Medal, awarded by the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications.
His research interests include computational and algebraic methods for determining the structure and existence of combinatorial configurations, such as designs, graphs, error-correcting codes, cryptographic systems and extremal set systems. Applications of combinatorial configurations to computer science and information theory. Design and analysis of combinatorial algorithms for problems considered almost intractable.
His research interests have applications in scheduling theory, hardware and software testing, in particular telephone switching hardware. In addition, he has done quantitative work in the casino industry.
Rogemar Mamon, Department of Statistical and Actuarial Sciences, University of Western Ontario
Research interests and consulting/industrial interests:
My research interests are in the areas of applied probability and stochastic processes and their applications to quantitative finance. I am interested in pricing various derivatives, stochastic modelling of the term structure of interest rates and in the accurate estimation of parameters given a particular interest rate or asset price model. My other research specialisations include regime-switching models, applications of hidden Markov model filtering techniques to financial modelling and implied volatility calculation.
I am also interested in financial engineering, specifically in the valuation and hedging of financial instruments in the banking industry. Recently, I have as well started exploring the analysis of products that combine both financial and mortality/insurance risks. Within a regime-switching framework, measurement of market risk using VaR and CVaR, amongst other measures, is another area I’m particularly interested in.
Edward Doolittle, Department of Mathematics, University of Regina
Edward Doolittle obtained a PhD in mathematics from the University of Toronto in 1997. His research interests include hypoelliptic partial differential equations and the associated ordinary differential equations for mechanical systems. His research interests have applications to study of quantum particles in a magnetic field and to the dynamics and control of similar non-holonomic mechanical systems.
He is also interested in problems in quantum computing and quantum information theory, and associated problems in operator theory.
Dr. Doolittle is an experienced computer programmer, having worked professionally in the field for a number of years prior to earning his PhD. He is conversant with a wide variety of programming languages and methods, and is interested in the implementation of mathematical methods and the visualization of algorithms and solutions.
Dr. Doolittle is currently serving on the Canadian Mathematical Olympiad committee, and has helped train Canada's International Mathematical Olympiad team in problem solving techniques.
Laura Cowen, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Victoria
After completing her Ph.D. in 2005, Laura Cowen joined the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Victoria as an Assistant Professor. Her statistical research interests involve developing methods to analyse mark-recapture experiments which are used by fisheries scientist and ecologists to estimate population parameters such as survival rates and abundance.
Along with this research, Dr. Cowen does collaborative projects in other fields. Currently, she is working on a project to describe and model the sharing behaviour of Victoria's injection drug users. Once sharing behaviour is understood, harm reduction techniques can be adopted with the aim of reducing the spread of viruses such as HIV and Hepatitis C. Further, she is collaborating with microbiologists who are developing a new diagnostic test for various phases of the syphilis bacteria.
Dr. Cowen has consulted as a statistician for ecology related projects and continues to mentor graduate students in various fields on their data analyses.
Neville Fowkes, School of Maths and Stats University of Western Australia, Crawley WA, Australia
I am a mathematical modeller and work mainly on continuum problems arising out of industrial, scientific and biological areas. I have participated in more than 30 Maths-in-industry-Study-Groups (MISGs) held in many different countries. The companies I've worked with include Uncle Toby's, BHP, Hardie, CRA, ICI, duPont, British Steel, BrewTech, Mouldflow, Age Developments, Unilever, LNEC, Petronas, SAB. As an industrial modeller I have been asked to help initiate (and facilitate) MISG's in Indonesia, S. Africa, and have also helped set up industrial mathematics graduate and undergraduate programs in Portugal, China, Indonesia, Laos and Thailand. I have written a text on Mathematical Modelling based largely on problems arising out of my industrial mathematics experiences. This book has been used in Australia, UK and Europe and possibly elsewhere for industrial mathematics courses.
Travel
PIMS will reimburse the travel costs of Canadian and PIMS students according up to the following ceiling amounts:
BC and Ontario: $500
Washington and Quebec: $700
Saskatchewan: $200
Alberta and Manitoba: $350
Maritimes: $800
USA: $550
Mexico: $750
Claims can only be made after the workshops. PIMS will require both your boarding passes and a copy of your bill.
Expenses Refund:
For participants from out of town, please save all your original receipts, plus your boarding passes and/or kilometers traveled and we will reimburse reasonable travel costs. Please send us your itinerary by May 15. When you return home, please forward the receipts by mail to:
IPSW/GIMMC
Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences
University of Regina
Accommodations
Accommodations at GIMMC 11 and IPSW 12 will be arranged by the IPSW organizing committee for successful applicants.
Participants will stay at the University of Regina's student housing complex, the North and South Residence buildings.
The North and South Residence buildings opened in September 2004. They consist of one, two, three and four-bedroom furnished apartments with full kitchens and living rooms. Full bathrooms are included within each apartment. All configurations offer local phone service, high-speed internet connection, a cable TV port and access to laundry services. Cooking and eating utensils are not available, so please plan to bring your own.
View Virtual Tour (requires Java Virtual Machine)
Registration
To register, please visit: http://www.pims.math.ca/industrial/2008/08ipsw_gimmc/register/
Previous Industrial Problem Solving Workshops:
- 10th PIMS Industrial Problem Solving Workshop (2006)
- 11th PIMS Industrial Problem Solving Workshop (2007)
