CONFERENCE POSTER
COMMITTEE
- Organizing Committee
- Bob Anderssen (CSIRO, Australia)
Philip Broadbridge (La Trobe University)
Yasuhide Fukumoto (IMI)
Kenji Kajiwara (IMI)
Tsuyoshi Takagi (IMI)
Evgeny Verbitskiy (Leiden University,
University of Groningen)
Masato Wakayama (IMI), Chair
- Scientific Board
-
Hirokazu Anai (FUJITSU LABS. LTD.)
Shin-Ichiro Ei (Hokkaido University)
Tim Hoffmann (Technische Universität München)
Miyuki Koiso (IMI)
Ryuei Nishii (IMI)
Jill Pipher (Brown University)
Hisayoshi Sato (Yokohama Res. Lab., Hitachi.)
Tomoyuki Shirai (IMI)
Katsuyuki Takashima (Mitsubishi Electric.)
Hayato Waki (IMI)
Takeshi Yamada (NTT Comm. Sci. Labs.)
- Supported by
- Co-Sponsored by
FMfI2014 SYNOPSIS
Applications + Practical Conceptualization + Mathematics = fruitful Innovation
For the Forum in 2014, the focus will be the above epigram which encapsulates the dynamics of the process that takes an application through to an innovation. Industrial mathematics can be view as the causal engine that implements the epigram by taking an Application as input, convolving it with a mixture of Practical Conceptualization and Mathematics to generate a fruitful Innovation as output.
In Industrial Mathematics, it is the questions spawned by real world applications that drive the resulting two-way interaction between a particular application and the associated mathematics that is utilized and developed and that sometimes involves, quite unexpectedly, deeper aspects and new areas of mathematics than initially anticipated.
The plan for the talks is to illustrate various aspects of this two-way interaction between applications and the association highlighting how the practical conceptualization assists with the linking of the question that encapsulates the current application to the relevant mathematics.
In a mathematics-for-industry (MfI) situation, though the application context and the desired innovation are notionally relatively clear, it takes time to identify the questions to be resolved. It is at this stage that conceptualization plays a key role through the generation of a plethora of possibilities of how to link various questions to mathematics to generate reliable and useful answers.
In a way, one is reminded of Edward David Quotation:
“The importance of mathematics is not self evident.”
It acknowledges the fact that the role of mathematics plays in solving real-world problems is taken for granted. Circumspectly, using mathematics to solve real world problems is similar to a sculptor working with mechanical devices to chisel out one of the possible forms hidden in a block of wood or stone being carved. The one chosen is the answers of the current subconscious conceptualization of the artist. That sculpturing could be viewed from this perspective can be found in Soseki Natsume’s series of short stories “Ten Nights of Dreams”. On the sixth night, the dream is about hearing that Unkei (the very famous Japanese 12th century sculptor (1150-1223)) was carving two forbidding guardians of the Buddha, Nio, at the main gate of the Gokoku-ji Temple. Unkei is carving without paying any attention to the noisy audience. The onlookers create a theory that the sculpture comes from the wood, rather than the hand of Unkei.
The first Japanese Field Medallist Kunihiko Kodaira, of 1954, echoed this analogy in his remark that his theory of elliptic surfaces was not invented by him but was just sculptured, using paper and pencils, from the wood of mathematics where it was waiting to be discovered.
The corresponding analogy for industrial mathematics, independent of the dynamics outside the context of the application being examined, is:
“Answers to a question that arises in an application are sculptured into reality using the tools of mathematics, developed and sharpened by this process.”
For the Forum, it can be viewed as the unifying theme of the two-way interaction between applications and mathematics.
Closing:
The epigram "APCMfI" has originated as the abbreviation for the newly launched
“Asia Pacific Consortium of Mathematics for Industry" and is, in order to celebrate the launch of this Consortium, being used as the epigram for the 2014 Forum which represents the first major activity of the APCMfI.
Dedication:
It is with very deep sadness and regret that we note the sudden and unexpected demise of Geoffrey (Geoff) Norman Mercer on Saturday, April 12, 2014, at the age of 51. He made an invaluable contribution to launching APCMfI. This forum is dedicated to the memory of the late Geoff Mercer.
