European researchers joined forces to solve complex industry challenges

At DTU Compute, researchers and PhD students collaborate with industry to solve concrete problems in applied mathematics and computer science. This May, DTU hosted a classic workshop, part of the ongoing series European Study Group with Industry (ESGI), which focused specifically on problem-solving.

A diverse group of applied mathematicians, some from Denmark, some from the UK and other places, tackled three challenges from industry:

(1) a customer analysis problem and container-packing issues from the design company Piffany of Copenhagen.

(2) a problem dealing with stochastic control from Grundfos.

(3) a problem in computational fluid mechanics from the company Strømning ApS.

"It is always such a joy to experience the universality of modern applied mathematics and computer science, when specialists from different countries and at different points of their career, roll up their sleves and start collaborating on solving concrete problems from the real world," says one of the organisers from DTU Compute, Emeritus Associate Professor Poul G. Hjorth.

New mathematical approaches

At the end of the week, the companies were presented with the results of the workshop.

The work of the researchers provided a number of suggestions for new mathematical approaches to tackling the problems, leading to continuing work within the companies. 

"While the companies get new input from academic researchers, the researchers also take home from these workshops valuable knowledge of the issues faced in the real world and how their methods apply in real situations," says Poul G. Hjorth. 

The event – The 197th European Study Group with Industry (ESGI-197) was conducted the week of 18–22 May – at the Technical University of Denmark.

The workshop was partly sponsored by the Otto Mønsted Foundation.