By Dietmar Hömberg (NTNU/WIAS), Zerihun Kinfe Birhanu (Hawassa University) and Anne Kværnø (NTNU)
The 2nd Ethiopian Study Group with Industry took place at Addis Ababa University of Science and Technology, Ethiopia at December 1-5, 2025, preceded by a one-week preparatory winter school. The event was supported by the Ethiopian Norwegian Network in Computational Mathematics (ENNCoMat) project.
ENNCoMat Winter School in Industrial Mathematics
The preparatory winter school (November 24-28) focused on mathematical modelling, analysis, and numerical methods for partial differential equations. It comprised three courses covering relevant for the study group topics.
The course on Applied Partial Differential Equations addressed modelling, analysis, and discretization of elliptic and parabolic PDEs. Heat transfer and phase transition during egg boiling served as a running example, allowing discussion of variational formulations, the Lax–Milgram lemma, finite element discretization, a priori error estimates, and time discretization using Rothe’s method, with extensions to semi-linear coupled phase transition models.
The Applied Finite Elements course provided hands-on experience with numerical solution techniques using the open-source library FEniCSx. Topics included mesh generation and refinement, boundary conditions and semi-implicit time discretization schemes for parabolic problems. Heat transfer applications were used to highlight the role of physically consistent model parameters, and the course concluded with numerical schemes incorporating coagulation dynamics from the egg boiling example.
The third course, Hydrology and Modelling of Erosion, introduced modelling of water-induced erosion processes. After a brief overview of hydrological and geological background, the focus was on water flow and catchment characteristics. Including derivation of simple analytical equations for hydraulic head and water flow, which is useful for numerical modelling of catchment hydrology.
2nd Ethiopian Study Group with Industry
The Ethiopian Study Group with Industry (December 1-5) featured three problem sessions. One addressed erosion and sedimentation in the Ethiopian Rift Valley, motivated by increasing sediment loads and declining ecological functionality in lakes Abaya and Chamo. The focus was on conceptual spatial and temporal modelling of sediment transport and on assessing, at a qualitative level, the potential impact of Forest Landscape Restoration. The problem was proposed by Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research, Müncheberg, Germany.
Two further problems were proposed by Horizon – Addis Tyre Manufacturing PLC, Ethiopia. The first concerned identification of rubber curing dynamics from Moving Die Rheometer data, aiming to derive parametric evolution equations for the state of cure based on torque–time measurements. The second built on this work by developing finite element simulation strategies for the tyre curing process, coupling a semi-linear heat equation with the curing model and addressing geometry reduction, boundary conditions, and numerical solution of the coupled system.
Ethiopian Norwegian Network in Computational Mathematics (ENNCoMat)
The ENNCoMat project is a collaborative initiative running from 2022 to 2026, funded by the Norwegian Partnership Programme for Global Academic Cooperation (NORPART) and involving Ethiopian and Norwegian universities with also ECMI as a partner. The project focuses on strengthening education and research in computational and applied mathematics through joint MSc and PhD supervision, student exchange, and shared training activities. Participation in ECMI modelling weeks and study groups with industry forms an integral part of the project, providing students with experience in industrial problem solving and international collaboration.
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