Workshop Programme

Thursday, May 25

• 09:00 - 09:15 Openning Talks
  Prof. Dr. İbrahim ÖZEN - Rector
  Prof. Dr. Kenan İnan - Dean
  
  
• 09:15 - 09:30 Dr. Erhan Coşkun
  Industrial Mathematics and Workshop Mission
   
• 09:30 - 10:30 Dr. John Ockendon
  A brief history of mathematics-in-industry around the world

This talk will describe the many different mechanisms that have been used to promote Maths-in-Industry around the world since 1968. It will emphasize how efficient collaborations need to evolve according to different mathematical cultures. Mention will be made of the balance between public and private support for activity which varies strongly between different countries. Some prognostications will be made about future developments.

Close

• 10:30 - 10:45 Break
  
  
• 10:45 - 11:15 Dr. Hilary Ockendon
  Logging

The problem to be analysed is how to steer a logging truck round various road configurations. A description of the truck will be given and students will construct a model which will predict the position of the end of the log as the lorry steers a given path. The modelling will require knowledge of odes and simple differential geometry.

Close

• 11:15 - 11:45  Dr. Peter Howell
  Modelling Human Hair

Despite the speed of computer processors, it remains a computational challenge to animate hair realistically in computer games and animated movies. This case study involves modelling the motion of a single hair using beam theory.

Close

• 11:45 - 12:15  Dr. Hilary Ockendon
  Homelessness
  
  

  A charity in the UK wants to predict how quickly homeless families in a region can be provided with houses if there is sudden influx of refugees. The rules for allocating houses will be described and students will set up a model for the number of families in varius categories. This will result in a system of odes which will be studied both analytically and numerically.

  Close
• 12:15 -13:30 Break
  
  
• 13:30 -13:45 Form three groups around each project
  
  
• 13:45 -14:45 Start three working groups
  
  
• 14:45 -15:00 Break
  
  
• 15:00 - 15:45 Dr. Hilary Ockendon
  How industrial math is being taught in Oxford?
  
  
• 15:45 - 16:30 Dr. Erhan COŞKUN
  Suspension bridge models
  
  
• 16:30 - 17: 15
  General discussion
  (Industrial math in our country)
  
  

Friday, May 26

New mathematical reseach stimulated by industry

• 09:00 - 09:45   Dr.  John Ockendon
  Free boundary problems

Within the area of differential equations, one of the most important stimuli from mathematics-in-industry has been the demand for theory of free boundary problems. This topic did not exist as a coherent area of research before the first conference on the subject, which was held in Oxford in 1974. This talk will describe how the subject has grown so that it now has a bibliography of more than 10,000 papers. Some current open free boundary problems relevant to industry will also be mentioned.

Close

• 09:45 - 10:30  Dr. Peter Howell
  The glass industry

Oxford has enjoyed fruitful links with the glass industy for many decades. This provided a wealth of mathematically stimulating problems in fluid and solid mechanics, optics and heat transfer. The mathematical treatment of these problems involves techniques from perturbation methods, bifurcation theory, inverse problem theory and others.

Close

• 10:30 - 10:45 Break
  
  
  The prime training for Maths in Industry is via the MSc in Mathematical Modelling and Scientific Computing which was set up specifically to train students with a degree in Mathematics in the skills necessary to apply their mathematics to real problems. This talk will describe the key elements of the course and how it has evolved over nearly 30 years.
  
  Other useful training aids are Study Groups with Industry, Modelling weeks and Industrial Workshops. Some examples will be given of industrial projects that have been successfully completed by students at both the Masters and PhD level.

  Close
  Following a brief review of the suspension bridge models developed after the collapse of Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940, we highlight open research problems and discuss possible modifications that are needed in the current models.

  Close
• 10:45 - 11:30 Dr. Hilary Ockendon
  Textile industry

  There are a vast number of problems in the textile industry where mathematical models can be used to aid design or to help in understanding the physical processes involved. Example include:
  
  (a) the behaviour of a "tow" of manmade fibres as it passes through a bath of fluid in the production line
  (b) the modelling of raw wool or cotton as it is combed in the "carding machine" in preparation for spinning.
  
  In both cases simple models can be derived using approximations based on fact taht the "material" consists of a very large number of fibres and that the length of each fibre is much greater than its diameter.

  Close
  
  
  
• 11:30 - 13:30 Break
  
  

• 13:30 - 15:00 Finish working groups and make short summaries
  
  
• 15:00 - 16:00 General discussions and closing