A Mathematical study group with industry

A seminar room with round tables and people sitting at them looking at presentation slides from our network chair Bindi Brook
7 study group participants sat round a table working on computers

We hosted our first mathematical study group with industry on the 17 - 20 April 2023 at The University of Sheffield. The event was supported by Insigneo Institute and the Industrial Maths Knowledge Transfer Network - Innovate UK.

The event lasted 3.5 days, enabling researchers to work intensely towards challenge solutions which were presented to the industry reps on the final day. The challenges were within the remit of lung function measurement, and included predicting COPD exacerbations, audio-phenotyping of lung health and impulse oscillometry, challenge summaries can be found here.

The study group format provides a great opportunity for academics to apply their expertise to real world challenges and make connections across academia and industry, and for businesses to benefit from the tailored application of the latest research by highly skilled, motivated and enthusiastic researchers
— Dr Dawn Geatches, KTN Mathematical Sciences

The company representatives kicked off the event presenting their real-world challenges to the participants (primarily PhD and Early Career Researchers). This provided participants an opportunity to find out more about the three challenges, ask questions and to decide which challenge to work on for the duration of the event. Participants and company reps joined us for an evening meal of Cuban tapas.

On the second day participants grouped together to work on their chosen challenge. Throughout, participants had regular contact with the company representatives either in person, through virtual drop in sessions or email. The diverse range of expertise of the participants meant that a myriad of ingenious mathematical methods and topics were explored within each challenge, with each group directing their effort at several different solutions. On the final day the participants presented their proposed solutions and preliminary results to the industry reps, which allowed further discussion and ideas generation.

I did not have any experience on modelling lungs, but there were many experienced researchers present in the study group with whom I had a lot of interesting discussions and I gathered a solid overview of the cutting edge research. I have now become extremely interested to carry forward the research problems on lungs which we have initiated during the study group.
— Anonymous feedback from study group participant

Following the event each participant group will develop a technical report on the methodologies and approaches explored which will be published on our website in summer 2023. Participants and companies are encouraged to continue working together and developing onward collaborations beyond the event to progress this work - we look forward to supporting their progress!

Our main interest in participating was to meet like-minded researchers and encourage work that aligns with our product - hopefully seeding further collaborations
— Company Representative

BIOREME will be hosting a study group in 2024, so please do get in touch if you are interested in being involved in our next event.

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BIOREME - a year in review