The University of the Basque Country offers Mathematics on demand
Members of the Mathematical Technology Transference Team say that what they do is “a reflection of what industry demands”. However, it has to be pointed out that the demand from industry exceeds the amount of services the team (composed only of mathematicians and based on their premises in the Faculty of Science and Technology at the University of the Basque Country - UPV/EHU) can offer. In fact, among other things, this team yearly renews the agreements it has with various departments and agencies of the Basque Government, in order to help them solve their own mathematical problems, and therefore enhance their efficiency and competitiveness. For example, as team director Mikel Lezaun explains, they are about to start a project for the Office of Traffic Control. “It is at an embryonic stage, but consists in drawing up a statistical study of data that they have on the behaviour of drivers, on traffic flows on the main roads, on journeys recorded by radars and motorway cameras, and so on. Then we have to analyse this data in order to extract information on how these vehicle flows behave”, he explained. The web page of the Mathematical Technology Transference Team states that, “in a world in which the quality of life increasingly depends on technology, we as mathematicians are called upon to play a highly important role in an advisory capacity and in the transfer of technology to companies”. With this premise, the team arose in 2000, the world mathematical year. As Mr Lezaun stated, that year “there was a special effort from all the mathematical profession to undertake activities in transference and technology, in order to get closer to business”. In this way they began to make companies understand that applied mathematics can benefit them directly. “We apply mathematics to concrete problems in areas of knowledge different from ours”, said the team director. Health sciences are precisely one of these areas of knowledge. It is coordinated by mathematician Ms Inmaculada Arostegi and, through this, the team tries to contribute towards enhancing the daily clinical practice of the emergency services at hospitals. Concretely, it creates predictive models based on the data of patients admitted to emergency wards over a determined period of time. As Ms Arostegi explained, these models later act as future sources for admissions, about which “we generate a series of scores that evaluate how serious the patient is and what the forecast is for their short, long or medium term progress”. They have been working for two years in this specific area (“with quite an amount of success”, pointed out Ms Arostegi), and are now at the stage of validation of a number of models. Industrial processes also require applied mathematics. For example, in order to optimise medical implants and provide them with greater purity. David Pardo, member of the team, explained: “When we try to carry out medical implants with alloys, we make computer simulations as to how the alloy melt should be made, which is carried out by heating a piece of titanium with electromagnetic probes”. Cooperating in this project in concrete is the Mondragón Unibertsitatea (MU), which has purchased an experimental simulation machine. The same researchers from MU carry out the experimental part but, to this end, a previous, more numerical task is required to be executed and which corresponds to the team of which Mr Pardo is a member: “The mathematical part plays a great role in establishing how much power is required to be imprinted into the machine, and details such as how the process of creation of the implant is to be carried out”. The organisation and optimisation is the third large block dealt with by this UPV/EHU team. In this area they are working in collaboration with various transport companies, including the Euskotren network. According to mathematician, Eduardo Sáinz de la Maza, work shifts for this rail carrier have been organised recently. “This involves creating a tool for planning the work of the railway staff for the whole year. On the one hand, we draw up staff rosters to cover services, complying with all the exigencies of safety and guaranteeing weekly rest periods, and so on. On the other, once these are generated, we look at how to share these work tasks out in an equitable manner”, he explained. The diversity of the areas in which these team members are working shows that applied mathematics is useful for almost anything. Moreover, they encourage students to make a commitment to this profession, one in which unemployment is zero. “It is one with a future of great expectations”, they reiterated.
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