European Study Group with Industry (ESGI) is Europe’s leading workshop bringing together mathematicians and industrial companies. These week-long workshops have been held annually since 1968 and were previously known as the Oxford Study Groups with Industry, where they attracted leading mathematicians to work on industrial problems.
The first ESGI in Norway was organized by mathematicians from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology supported by colleagues from the Technical University of Denmark in Lyngby and with strong financial support both from NTNU and the COST Action TD1409 Mathematics for industry network. It took place at the NTNU campus Ålesund, June 11-15, 2018. Ålesund, with its Art Nouveau architecture, is by many considered to be the most beautiful city in Norway. It lies in a region of Norway that is famous for its beautiful scenery with high mountains and blue fjords.
More then 30 participants from six European countries, Saudi Arabia, and New Zealand worked on 4 challenging problems. The first one was posed by SalMar, a Norwegian producer of farmed salmon. Here, the goal was to predict the average weight of the fish during production in sea phase , the slaughter weight and weight distribution analysing also occurring measurement uncertainties.
Problem 2 came from EFD Induction, a Norwegian producer of indiction heating equipment. They asked for deriving an optimal strategy for the induction tempering process such that an acceptable hardness gradient in the hardened steel parts is accomplished.
The third problem was suggested by Stavanger University Hospital. They wanted us to analyse options to improve safety of patients with total hip arthroplasty by improving preoperative digital templating strategies.
Last but not least, Elkem, a supplier of silicon based advanced materials asked us to develop a dynamic mechanical model applied to the different parts of an electrode during movement in a smelting furnace.
The problems were taken up and discussed by an enthusiastic group of participants. They came up with interesting results presented to the problem posers on Friday morning in the usual study group style. A written report is in preparation, we envisage that some of the problems will lead to further collaborations between academia and industry. All in all the event was so well-received by all participants that we hope to be able to organise another study group in Norway in two years.