About Study Groups
Study Groups are week-long workshops that provide a forum for industrial scientists to work alongside academic mathematicians on problems of direct industrial relevance. Study Group workshops were initiated in Oxford in 1968 but now they are all over the world (http://miis.maths.ox.ac.uk/how/). The success of the Study Groups' unique format, which uses problems presented by industry as a basis for mathematical research, is demonstrated by the extent to which it has been copied around the world and is now extending into other areas where mathematics may be applied (http://www.maths-in-industry.org/). The best results of the numerous Study Groups with Industry are published in the journal of Mathematics in Industry Case Studies.
The 1st Russian Interdisciplinary Study Group with Industry: Mathematical Modelling as an Industrial Resource (ISGI 2010) went from 18 to 21 October 2010 in the Higher School of Economics in Moscow. The organiser was Roman Voskoboynikov (Kurchatov Institute), who was supported by Elena Surovyatkina (Space Research Institute of RAS).
The 2st Russian Interdisciplinary Study Group with Industry will be held from 19 to 23 September 2011 in the Space Research Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. Researchers from experimental and industrial laboratories will be invited to present technical problems for study in working sessions with leading mathematicians and physicists from the academic community. Problems may come from a variety of subject areas, for example, from the space and transport industries to medicine and finance. In a week of brainstorming and mathematical modelling there is usually enough time to generate and assess many ideas for solving the problem, and usually some of the ideas are checked in more detail.
Our future objectives are to
- promote the interface between the mathematical sciences and industry in Russia (Industry is defined as any activity of social or economic value);
- relate knowledge and research in the mathematical sciences in academia to the mathematical challenges faced by industry, and to facilitate the relationships between mathematical scientists in academia and industry.
Short term benefit
- For scientists, benefits include the opportunity to tackle exciting new research problems driven by to ‘real world’ situations. Such activities have been proved to frequently generate tangible end results for industry, whilst networking with academic peers from around the world on subjects of common interest, can also open up new avenues of researchers.
- For industry the benefits include a bridging of the gap between academic scientists and industry scientists and discovering new methodologies via close interactions with academics. There is also the opportunity for industry to recruit young researcher recruitment by industry.
- For all participants, the study groups ultimately stimulate global collaboration, knowledge exchange and scientific progress in a mutually beneficial format.