Material flow in a silicon furnace

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

The CDT in Industrially Focused Mathematical Modelling has been designed by academics and industrialists to enable modern quantitative methods to be readily and efficiently applied to industrial problems, thereby creating rapid impact through competitive advantage. The training includes aspects that will allow students to appreciate the business context within which the application of their mathematical research sits and hence understand where such application might have greatest influence. The emphasis on team working and interaction with different disciplines will create an environment where the insight gained from the mathematical ideas can be fully exploited. The cohort-based training of the CDT is directly aimed at ensuring that the students have continual active interactions and discussions so that identifying opportunities for technology transfer between the many industrial projects that they engage in will be a natural activity. The impact will be realised both through direct exploitation of the mathematical ideas by our partner companies and through more general dissemination routes to a wider industry base, for example through our annual meeting and appropriate forms of publication. The mini-projects enable new partners to engage at a relatively easily level, where they can assess possible impact, before progressing through to the longer research project element.

Our industrial partners have given some indication of the level of impact that they expect from the interaction with the CDT. In particular several letters highlight the extensive track records they have in funding Oxford internships and DPhils associated with supervisors who will be in the CDT. Furthermore, our students will graduate with the skills needed to operate successfully in industry and, as several companies indicate in their letters of support, will be ideal employees.

We have specifically engaged two partners, the Smith Institute in the UK and Teknova in Norway who have a major role in facilitating mathematical interaction between industry and academia. We are therefore ideally placed to ensure that the widest possible set of companies are aware of the CDT and its benefits. These partners will also be in a position to identify where the outputs of the CDT might be exploited through technology transfer opportunities.

We will have annual events where the cohorts will present their ideas and where we draw in a larger industrial audience in order both to widen our connections and possible partners but also to disseminate the ideas into the industrial community where possible exploitation might be identified.