About Study Groups
History
Initiated in Oxford in 1968, Study Groups with Industry provide a forum for industrial scientists to work alongside academic mathematicians on problems of direct industrial relevance. They are an internationally recognised method of technology and knowledge transfer between academic mathematicians and industry, usually lasting one week.
The success of the (now called) ESGI: European Study Groups with Industry, in which problems presented by industry are used as a basis for mathematical research, is demonstrated by the extent to which the unique format has been copied around the world and is now extending into other areas where mathematics may be applied.
Problem Solving
A Study Group provides a forum for:
- Exploiting the expertise of leading applied mathematicians to find solutions to industrial problems
- Clarifying and clearly formulating a problem
- Bringing new perspectives and fresh ideas
- Brainstorming on mechanisms and methodologies
- Finding state-of-the-art solution procedures
Wider Benefits to Industry
Past industrial participants have found that a Study Group has:
- Found solutions and insights into existing industrial problems
- Established lasting and productive working links with research applied mathematicians
- Raised and investigated research issues of long-term significance
- Expanded employment opportunities and company profiles with postgraduate students
- Stimulated greater awareness in the wider community of the power of mathematics in providing solution paths to real-world problems
Workshop Structure
- The week-long workshop attracts over 80 mathematicians from a wide
range of backgrounds to work on the selected industrial problems.
- A training course runs concurrently with the workshop providing
wider background material on new mathematical research topics related
to the industrial problems.
- On the first day the industrial representatives outline their
project and their objectives.
- The next two or three of days are devoted to brainstorming,
modelling and solving the problems closely guided by the industrial
representative. Participants are free to apply their expertise to any
of the projects.
- On the Friday the progress and recommended routes forward are
presented.
- Reports on the problem deliberations are produced after the
meeting. (Some reports from previous study groups are available here).
