SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMS AND ACTIVITIES

	Fields-MITACS Industrial Problem-Solving Workshop (FMIPW) August 11-15, 2008 Fields Institute, 222 College Street, Toronto Organizers: Sean Bohun (UOIT), Huihui Dai (City Univ. HK), (Huaxiong Huang (York), Roderick Melnik (Wilfrid Laurier), JF Williams (SFU) Scientific Committee: Sean Bohun (UOIT), Chris Bose (UVic), Barbara Keyfitz (Fields), Huaxiong Huang (York), Roderick Melnik (Wilfrid Laurier), Nilima Nigam (McGill) Roderick Wong (City Univ. HK)
	In collaboration with The Liu Bie Ju Centre for Mathematical Sciences, City University of Hong Kong

History and mission statement

Fields Institute for Mathematical Sciences:
Founded in 1992, the Fields Institute plays a central role in ``promoting contact and collaboration between professional mathematicians and the increasing number of users of mathematics". It supports research in pure and applied mathematics and statistics. Thematic programs of international interest, academic workshops, and prizes are organized by the Institute.

Of specific interest to the business community is the Commercial and Industrial Mathematics program. This program seeks to develop synergistic links between mathematicians and industrial partners. The Fields-MITACS Industrial Problem-Solving Workshop (FMIPW) is a new initiative in this direction.

MITACS

MITACS leads Canada's effort in the generation, application and commercialization of new mathematical tools and methodologies within a world-class research program. The network initiates and fosters linkages with industrial, governmental, and not-for-profit organizations that require mathematical technologies to deal with problems of strategic importance to Canada.

MITACS helps link academia, industry and the public sector, with a view to developing cutting edge mathematical tools vital to a knowledge-based economy. It sponsors research partnerships, industrial interchanges, workshops, and training programs.

What the workshop is about:

Objectives:

The objective of the FMIPW is to connect industries with faculty, postdocs and graduate students who have expertise in industrial case-studies. This interaction is fostered in the specific context of a problem-solving session over 5 days. The case-studies in question have a significant mathematical or statistical content.

The interaction between industry and academia has many potential benefits for both. Academics learn about interesting potential research problems and find application for their existing tools. Industries get access to some of the most experienced mathematical modellers and problem-solvers on the continent.

Format:

The FMIPW will occur over 5 days. Participants will include between 36-50 academic experts (including mathematicians and statisticians), and experts from industry. On the first day, the industrial sponsors will present their problem statements. The academic experts will divide into teams of 6-10 people each, with one team assigned to each problem. The teams spend the next 3 days collaborating on solutions to their problem, and present their solution on the final day of the workshop.

Deliverables:

At the end of the week, the academic experts make a presentation consisting of the problem restatement and their solution. This is a summary of results; the teams also prepare reports for the industrial sponsors.

What's in it for the participating company:

The intellectual dedication of many expert problem-solvers during the workshop to the phenomenon of interest to the company yields many benefits. These range from partial or complete solutions to the problem of interest, to long-term collaboration between the companies and the participating academics. The forum is an informal but intensive opportunity for companies to take advantage of the mathematical and scientific computing expertise of participating researchers.

Often the academic reformulation and solution of the problem enables the company to find inexpensive in-house strategies. Similar workshops in Europe and North America have saved participating companies hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In addition, the academic experts typically use state-of-the-art scientific and technological tools, which may prove useful to the company in other contexts as well.

The workshop also serves as a mechanism for recruitment of talented graduate students; the company sponsors can watch this pool of potential employees in action!

Why do academic experts participate?

The potential benefits of the FMIPW to professional mathematicians involved are myriad. They range from an exposure to interesting mathematical problems arising outside the confines of academia to an opportunity to try new scientific tools in novel application areas. Previous workshops have seen such involvement turn into long-term collaborations, often leading to journal publications and new research directions.

Commitment of FMIPW:

The Fields Institute and MITACS will provide the academic expertise and infrastructure for this workshop. The recruitment of appropriate faculty and graduate students to best meet the needs of the problems will be done by the Fields Institute.

Commitment of industrial sponsors:

Each participating company contributes a problem with mathematical or statistical content for discussion during the workshop. They also commit a representative to participate in the workshop during the problem-solving phase. The company may sponsor part of the FMIPW through a one-time or ongoing financial contribution.

Other
Western Canada Study Groups http://www.pims.math.ca/ipsw/ipsw_previous.html
UK Math-in-Medicine Study Groups http://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/ociam/Study-Groups/
and
Mathematical Problems in Industry http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/Depts/Math/News/MPI2003/MPIsite/
This year's UK Study Groups in Bath: http://www.bath.ac.uk/math-sci/bics/conferences/esgi.html

Participant List

Fullname	University Name
Altalli, Rajaa	Northeastern University
An, James	Mapleridge Capital Corporation
Anderssen, Bob	CSIRO Mathematical and Information Sciences
Arino, Julien	University of Manitoba
Barford, Tom	Mapleridge Capital Corporation
Bautista, Maurino	Rochester Institute of Technology
Bocar Amadou, Wane	Laval University
Bohun, C. Sean	UOIT
Breward, Chris	Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford
Butt, Nabeel	University of Western Ontario
Cai, Zongxi	City University of Hong Kong
Caponnetto, Andrea	City University of Hong Kong
Cara, Mirela	York University
Caudillo-Mata, Luz Angélica	Center for the Mathematical Research (CIMAT)
Chadam, John	University of Pittsburgh
Cisneros, Myriam	Instituto Mexicano del Petroleo
Cottrell, David	McGill University
Dai, Hui-Hui	City University of Hong Kong
De la Rosa, David	Centre of Mathematics Research CIMAT
Diaz Bobadilla, Irma	University of Regina
Findlay, Justin	University of Ontario Institute of Technology
Flint, Ortho	University of Western Ontario
Fritze, Peter	Mapleridge Capital Corporation
Gao, Yunchuan	Mapleridge Capital Corporation
Garcia Dominguez, Luis	Hospital for Sick Kids
Gordon, Brian	Mitacs
Heffernan, Jane	York University
Hennessy, Matt	UOIT
Hjorth, Poul G.	Technical University of Denmark
Howell, Peter	University of Oxford
Huang, Haohan	York University
Huang, Huaxiong	York University
Jiang, Xiamei	University of Toronto at Scarborough
Kan, Kin Hung	University of Western Ontario
Kane, Abdoulaye	Laval University
Kavazovic, Zanin	Université Laval
Keyfitz, Barbara	University of Houston and Fields Institute
Khaykin, Roman	York University
Kilgour, D. Marc	Wilfrid Laurier University
Kitanov, Petko	University of Guelph
Krywiak, Claudia	MITACS
Labibi, Batool	K. N. Toosi University of Technology
Ladipo, Kehinde	Fields Institute
Lewis, Gregory	University of Ontario Institute of Technology
Li, Jiawei	York University
Madras, Neal	York University
Marcotte, Odile	CRM, Université de Montréal
McGuinness, Mark	Victoria University
Melnik, Roderick	Wilfrid Laurier University
Miura, Robert M	New Jersey Institute of Technology University Heights
Moghadas, Seyed	National Research Council Canada
Moore, Richard	New Jersey Institute of Technology
Morfin Ramírez, Mario	University of Toronto
Ockendon, John	OCIAM Mathematical Institute
Orser, Brenda	B.I.O. Letha Information Systems Inc.
Ortan, Alexandra	McGill University
Pass, Brendan	University of Toronto
Phillips, Joel	McGill University
Pitcher, Ashley	University of Oxford
Pourziaei, Bobby	York University
Privault, Nicolas	City University of Hong Kong
Qazi, Sanjive	Gustavus Adolphus College
Qiao, Yun	York University
Quenneville-Bélair, Vincent	McGill University
Ross, David	Rochester Institute of Technology
Sabbagh, Mohammad S.	Isfahan University of Tech.
Salisbury, Thomas	York University
Schilders, Wil	NXP Semiconductors Research
Selkirk, Randall	Mapleridge Capital Corporation
Shontz, Suzanne	Pennsylvania State University
Sivaloganathan, Sivabal	University of Waterloo
Sørensen, Mads Peter	Technical University of Denmark
Sun, Wei Wei	City University of Hong Kong
Tan, Yongji	Fudan University
Tilley, Burt S.	Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering
Tsui, Lung Kwan	University of Pittsburgh
Vaidya, Naveen	York University
Walker, Homer	Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Warlow, Scott	Manulife Financial
Wylie, Jonathan	City University of Hong Kong
Zhang, Guoqing	University of Windsor
Zhu, Bruce	Mapleridge Capital Corporation

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