by Bianca Rae Sambo-Fabricante
Dr. Ferdinand P. Jamil and Prof. Karlo S. Orge, faculty members from the Department of Mathematics & Statistics, and Mr. Rolando P. Malalay, a PhD Mathematics student, went to the Technische Universitat Kaiserslautern (TUKL), Germany for an academic visit in October, 2017.
In front, from far right, Dr. Ferdinand P. Jamil, Mr. Rolando P. Malalay and Prof. Karlo Orge during the “Recent Advances in
Multi-Objective Optimization” last October 19-20, 2017 at TUKL, Germany. Photo taken by Prof. Sven Krumke.
The said visit is under the Faculty and Student exchange component of the DAAD-funded project entitled “Graph Theory and Optimization with Applications in Industry and Society (GraThO) (http://www.mathematik.uni-kl.de/opt/forschung/forschung-und-industrieprojekte /gratho/)” implemented since 2016 in TUKL and its partner institutions, MSU-IIT and Tribhuvan University in Nepal. The exchange program at TUKL enables the faculty members and students from partner institutions to be exposed to their learning environment, to the synergies between mathematics and its applications to their industry and society, and at the same time, attend the available lectures and seminars offered in the university during the semester.
The Department of Mathematics of TUKL, the project’s lead proponent, is one of the leaders in the area of applied mathematics, especially in combining mathematical research with applications in industry and society. It is recognized to have an extensive experience in transferring its expertise to developing countries. Through this project, the partner institutions are expected to succeed in teaching and in the conduct of research in optimization-related topics relevant to their respective regions and implementable in real-life scenarios.
The academic visit is one of the two major activities of the GraThO project for CY 2017; the other was a conference-workshop on “Advanced Network Flows” held in Tribhuan University, Nepal last March 26 – April 6, 2017. In attendance were 2 faculty members and 5 graduate students from MSU-IIT. Also, in line with its implementation, the Department of Mathematics & Statistics (DMS) of the Institute is offering seminar courses at graduate level in linear programming and location theory since the last summer term.
The realization of this cooperation with MSU-IIT is an output of the efforts initiated through the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Extension. Dr. Ferdinand P. Jamil, being the main contact person for the project in MSU-IIT, stayed in TUKL from October 1-31, 2017 for the conduct of research related activities. Prof. Orge and Mr. Malalay stayed from October 15 – December 30, 2017 and October 1-30, 2017 respectively to attend classes in Integer Programming and in Multi-Criteria Optimization and for the conduct of research activities. The project is set to end in 2019.