The 21st Industrial Mathematical and Statistical Modeling (IMSM) Workshop for Graduate Students will take place at North Carolina State University July 13-22. The workshop exposes graduate students in mathematics and statistics to real-world problems from industry and government.
Workshop problems typically require fresh insight for both formulation and solution. Often, the biggest challenge is figuring out what the real question is. Students will gain experience in and acquire the tools necessary for the team approach to problem solving, and they will learn how to produce a useful result under a tight deadline.
The IMSM workshop provides a unique experience of how mathematics and statistics are applied outside academia, broadening students’ horizons beyond what is usually presented in graduate education. It has helped many students with their career decision. In some cases, this help has taken the form of direct hiring by the participating companies.
The IMSM workshop will begin with a one-day software carpentry boot camp that brings students up to date on their programming skills in Python/Matlab and R and introduces them to version control systems and software repositories. For the following 10 days, student teams of 5-7 members will collaborate on a project, each team being closely mentored by both a problem presenter and faculty adviser. In addition to doing the research for their project, the teams are also asked to document their findings in written final reports and present them in 20-minute talks on the last day.
It often happens that student teams come up with solutions that are beneficial for a company’s problem, and the final reports can lead to journal publications. Projects initially presented at the IMSM workshop can result in long-term collaboration among students, faculty, and industry or government labs. Many companies, large and small, have shown continued interest in the workshop.
The workshop is sponsored by the Statistical and Applied Mathematical Science Institute with the Center for Research in Scientific Computation and the department of mathematics at North Carolina State University. Local and travel expenses will be covered for selected students at U.S. institutions.
The application deadline is April 15. Information is available here and questions can be directed to grad@samsi.info.
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