Collaborative Research: The MPI Workshop and GSMM Camp

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The project is a collaborative program of research, education and training based on the Mathematical Problems in Industry (MPI) Workshop and the Graduate Student Mathematical Modeling (GSMM) Camp. These annual meetings, held during successive weeks in June, attract mathematicians, scientists, and engineers from academic institutions and from indusry. University participants include graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty. The focus of the MPI Workshop is a set of problems brought by contributing participants from industry. These problems span a wide range of areas of applications, often in fluid and solid mechanics but also in mathematical biology, data analysis, and mathematical finance, among others. Recent problems have included, for example, mathematical models for electromagnetic wave interactions with nanostructures, mathematical problems related to drawing of glass sheets, medical ultrasonic imaging, and automatic defect recognition in industrial inspection applications. The work on the problems is done in vertically integrated teams consisting of the representatives from industry, senior and junior faculty, postdocs and graduate students. The scientific objective of the activity generated by the Workshop and its intellectual merit is the study of mathematical problems of significant interest for industrial applications. The GSMM Camp is held during the week prior to the Workshop, and graduate students attending the Camp also attend the Workshop. The main objective of the Camp is graduate student education and training. At the Camp, graduate students work together in teams, with the guidance of invited faculty mentors, on interdisciplinary problems typically inspired by industrial applications. The problems are carefully chosen to promote a rich set of problem-solving skills, both analytical and numerical, and to provide a warm-up for the difficult problems considered at the Workshop. The two meetings complement each other and form a comprehensive program of interdisciplinary research, education and training that is unique amongst universities in the United States.The project is an ongoing effort organized by the principal investigators at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, University of Delaware, Worcester Polytechnic Institute and New Jersey Institute of Technology. The MPI Workshop has run annually for the past 26 years with the principal aim of promoting research and education in applied mathematics and of developing links between academics and industry for the mutual benefit of both sides. For the past 8 years, the research and educational activities of the Workshop have been enhanced by the introduction of the GSMM Camp. In addition to these established meetings, the project involves a number of new activities associated with the Workshop and Camp designed to further advance the research and educational objectives of the collaborative program. These activities include the introduction of a graduate student fellowship program, support for early-career mathematicians to attend the meetings, and the development of a graduate student exchange program in cooperation with the Oxford Center for Collaborative Applied Mathematics. Overall, the Workshop and Camp, and its associated activities, have a broad impact on the education and development of early-career mathematicians, and on the interdisciplinary research and educational activities of participating faculty. The Workshop also promotes collaborations with industry and has an impact on the development and analysis of new technologies in industry.