Where innovation starts
2009
Documentation for the joint external evaluation of
research in industrial and applied mathematics in the
period 2002–2008, under the aegis of the 3TU.Institute
of Science and Technology
Where innovation starts
Part B – Research Programs
25
CASA
27
Applied Analysis and Scientific Computing
Professors R.M.M. Mattheij and M.A. Peletier
SPOR
49
Statistics, Probability and Operations Research
Professors O.J. Boxma, R.W. van der Hofstad
and G.J. Woeginger
DMA
69
Discrete Mathematics and Applications
Professors A.M. Cohen and H.C.A. van Tilborg
On the Origin of Species (1859; 5
thed. 1869)
Although the history of the mathematics division at the Technische Universiteit Eindhoven
only spans half a century, it has known many highlights. The contributions of Van Lint,
Sei-del, and De Bruijn have been enormous. After their influence abated, a second generation
maintained this high quality of research in many areas of mathematics, but now with a newly
added algorithmic slant. And currently, yet another generation is emerging. Three research
groups are led by this youngest generation, and three other research groups are led by the
second generation. The age of the seventh research group leader lies somewhat in between,
but his group is co-chaired by a young professor.
The key to our long-term strategy and the principal factor of our strength is the selection
of the best available researchers for our professorships (three of our young professors have
been awarded VICI grants). Since one of the three older research group leaders already
has a young professor in his group who will take over leadership in due course, the most
immediate long-term concern is finding successors to the other two leaders of the second
generation. We intend to finance the start-up of these positions by means of funds that
should become available through the 3TU initiative to build the Applied Mathematics Institute
(AMI).
With a department staffed so strongly, we are truly fit to address the problem areas
identified by society and industry. Indeed our short-term strategy is to adapt to the
vary-ing research needs in these areas, and to collaborate on applications with partners from
other disciplines and peers from other universities. This strategy is carried out by the
forma-tion of institutes and by participaforma-tion in activities such as research institutes and European
projects. The two institutes within the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
are E
URANDOMand EIPSI. The problems on which the division is actively working range
from glass bottle construction to queueing networks, from railway scheduling to security of
electronic data exchanges, and from interactive mathematical documents to the statistical
design of experiments. Two themes gaining in prominence at the time of writing are energy
and transport.
mathematics division diminish, it is a necessity to look for activities funded by other agencies.
Over the last five years, external funding has doubled. Next to external financial support,
the department also becomes more dependent on Master students, PDEng students, and
PhD students entering our programs from abroad. These are the two greatest managerial
challenges of the coming years.
A global content-related challenge regards the ability to model and solve problems in
real-life applications. We consider this to be a key competence of a technical university. A
primary target is the further development of related modelling and design techniques.
Arjeh M. Cohen,
Dean of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Eindhoven, June 2009
Part A
Full title
Division of Mathematics
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Technische Universiteit Eindhoven
Date of establishment
1956
Affiliations:
Research schools
EIDMA
Euler Institute for Discrete Mathematics and its Applications
(chair TU/e, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science)
BETA
Institute for Business Engineering and Technology Applications
(chair TU/e, Department of Industrial Engineering and Innovation
Sci-ences)
EM
Engineering Mechanics
(chair TU/e, Department of Mechanical Engineering)
MATTeR
Materials Analysis, Testing, Technology and Research
(chair TU/e, Department of Chemical Engineering) (till 2004)
ASCI
Advanced School for Computing and Imaging
(chair Technische Universiteit Delft) (since 2007)
JMBC
J.M. Burgerscentrum Research School for Fluid Dynamics
(chair Technische Universiteit Delft)
SIMATH
Thomas Stieltjes Institute for Mathematics
(chair Universiteit Leiden)
Affiliations:
Clusters
D
IAMANTDiscrete, Interactive and Algorithmic Mathematics, Algebra and Number
Theory
(chair TU/e, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science)
NDNS
+Nonlinear Dynamics of Natural Systems
(chair Rijksuniversiteit Groningen)
STAR
Stochastics – Theoretical and Applied Research
(chair TU/e, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science) (starting
2009)
Affiliations:
3TU.Centres of Competence
FSM
Fluid and Solid Mechanics
NIRICT
Netherlands Institute for Research in ICT
Affiliations:
3TU.Institute
AMI
3TU Applied Mathematics Institute (starting 2009)
investigations. The master program
Industrial and Applied Mathematics
and the post-master
program
Mathematics for Industry
offer a broad education and include a fair share of design
oriented projects. An extensive program of service teaching to other departments, rooted in
research cooperation, supports the academic level of curricula across campus.
2. Leadership and management
The Department of Mathematics and Computer Science is organized according to the MUB,
a system of university administration that was introduced nationally in 1998. In this system,
integral management and control are in the hands of the Department Board. During the
review period, the board consisted of a dean and a vice-dean (alternately a mathematician
and a computer scientist) and the managerial director (the head of the Department
Admin-istration). Since April 1, 2009, this board consists of the dean, the managerial director and
two vice-deans who are also the heads of divisions of the department, viz., the Division
of Mathematics and the Division of Computer Science. The dean has the decisive vote.
Currently the board members are prof.dr. A.M. Cohen (dean), prof.dr. J.C.M. Baeten and
prof.dr.ir. O.J. Boxma (vice-deans), and mr.drs. P.M.L. Tijssen (managerial director). The
members of the board are appointed by the Executive Board of the university. The
De-partment Board decides on the research strategy of the divisions and is involved in all staff
appointments: professors and associate professors are appointed by the Executive Board
of the university on recommendation of the board; assistant professors and other staff are
appointed by the board itself. In taking its decisions, the Department Board consults the
Department Council (which consists of elected representatives of staff and students).
The Division of Mathematics has its own board that is in charge of the day-to-day
run-ning of the division. This board has three members, who are appointed by the
Depart-ment Board. Currently these are prof.dr.ir. O.J. Boxma (chair), dr.ir. E.E.M. van Berkum, and
dr. J.M.L. Maubach. The division board is in charge of dividing the research and education
tasks of the division among the individual staff members. This assignment is made in concert
with the relevant curriculum director.
The Division of Mathematics is organized in seven expertise areas (also called research
groups), the school MFI (Mathematics for Industry), and the laboratory LIME (Laboratory for
Industrial Mathematics Eindhoven). The focus of the research evaluation is expected to
be on the work of the seven expertise areas. In this documentation, the seven expertise
areas are organized into three research programs: CASA (Centre for Analysis, Scientific
Computing, and Applications), DMA (Discrete Mathematics and Applications), and SPOR
(Statistics, Probability, and Operations Research).
The school MFI is headed by dr.ir. S.J.L. van Eijndhoven, and provides a two-year
post-graduate education geared towards applications of mathematics in industry.
The laboratory LIME is a separate unit that is firmly embedded within the division
through staff members serving on the Board of LIME and staff members and students
par-ticipating in LIME projects. LIME was established in 2007 by merging the Centre for
Mathe-matical Applications and Software (CeMAS) and CASA Consultancy. It regulates, stimulates,
and extends industrial contacts over the full scope of the division’s mathematical expertise.
Currently, prof.dr. R.M.M. Mattheij is its director.
The Department houses the institutes EIPSI and E
URANDOM. EIPSI (Eindhoven
Insti-tute for the Protection of Systems and Information) was established in 2007, when the
exper-tise area
Security
was installed within the Division of Computer Science. The Security group
(in computer science) and the
Coding and Crypto
group (in mathematics) are embedded in
this institute. Currently, prof.dr.ir. H.C.A. van Tilborg is its scientific director. E
URANDOMwas
founded in 1998, but only became part of the Department of Mathematics and Computer
Science on January 1, 2008. The research groups
Probability and Statistics
and
Stochastic
Operations Research
are embedded in this institute. Currently, prof.dr.ir. O.J. Boxma is its
scientific director.
Management
The style of management is geared towards reaching a broad base of
sup-port. In important decisions, the Department Board and the Division Board always consult
the council of leaders of the seven research groups in the division.
Management decisions are communicated extensively. The Department Board issues
communiqués on a regular basis to inform staff about recent developments, and its
deci-sions are listed on a web page. Similarly, the minutes of the weekly meetings of the Division
Board of Mathematics are distributed by email among staff members. This board meets
monthly with the Council of Group Leaders, and the group leaders have informal meetings
with their group members to report on these meetings and discuss current affairs. The
Divi-sion Board also arranges an informal lunch meeting with each group separately, once a year.
Other meetings intended to stimulate scientific exchange and to strengthen the social
coher-ence are: (i) a departmental research day, once a year (jointly for mathematics & computer
science); (ii) staff seminars, in which there is also room for announcements by the dean,
discussions of open problems, etc.; and (iii) meetings in which new staff members introduce
themselves.
Scientists are intrinsically motivated, and derive their satisfaction mainly from the kind
of work they do. However, management has a number of means of additional motivation,
like bonus awards, pay rises, and promotions to individuals. Both individuals and research
groups can be rewarded for bringing in projects with external parties. The Department Board
nominates researchers who have come very close to receiving a VICI or ERC grant to the
recently installed Fund for Excellence of TU/e; typically, one postdoc year will be made
available to such researchers.
Incentives exist also on the level of research groups. For tenured staff, career planning
is individual and depends to a lesser extent than before on formation planning of the
depart-ment; for instance, tenured staff members can become associate professors (UHD) on their
own merit without the need for a new vacancy at this level. Management training is offered
to those who are put in charge of important administrative duties, other courses are offered
based on specific needs. Distribution of research and teaching tasks is adapted to individual
capabilities, with a growing differentiation of available research time, and faculty is enabled
and encouraged to take sabbatical leaves.
Quality control and processes of improvement and innovation
The main mechanism
for quality control in the department is formed by the annual performance evaluations of all
employees. Research group leaders are responsible for the management of their group and
egy plans for the divisions. These plans are intended to direct the development of a division
for a period of five years. They explicitly describe the choices that the division is facing with
respect to the course of its research, and translate the choices made into a projection of
the desired character of research groups and staff positions. The current strategy plan for
the Division of Mathematics covers the period 2006–2010. Within a group, there is much
autonomy regarding the research directions. Several group leaders have formulated their
long-term research plans in the form of a VIDI-, VICI- or ERC-proposal. In the review period,
three VICI-proposals were granted in the division (Florack, Van der Hofstad, Woeginger) and
two VIDI-proposals (Van der Hofstad, Peletier, not counting Van Zanten who joined us in
May 2009). Both the university and the department strongly stimulate submission of such
proposals, and offer the applicants ample training and support.
Each research group has one PhD student paid by the department, but the Department
Board can deploy additional PhD students and postdocs to encourage implementation of the
research strategies. For a little while each research group received a second PhD position,
but this is financially no longer feasible. A few years ago TU/e started its
Women in Science
program, to attract more talented female researchers in the higher university ranks. Currently,
the Mathematics Division employs two women participating in this program; they are hired in
a tenure track system and their salaries are partly paid by the board of the university.
External reviews are an important input for the strategy plans. In line with the
encour-aging remarks of the 2004 Assessment of Research Quality in Mathematics, the department
merged the research programs in applied analysis and scientific computing. External
re-views also influence funding (of the department as well as of the individual research groups)
because the scores in external reviews form a parameter in the financial model of the
uni-versity.
3. Strategy and policy
3.a. Strategy, policy and design in brief (incl. historical context; institute,
depart-ments, programs)
Our strategy plan of January 2006 states that mathematics in our division has an
algorith-mic profile, with specific expertise in discrete mathematics, stochastics, and computational
engineering. It is no coincidence that the three research programs DMA, SPOR, and CASA
follow this division. The long-term strategy is to strengthen our expertise in these fields, and
to address new and challenging problem areas in which our knowledge and experience can
be utilized.
The seven research groups of the Mathematics Division cover the basic disciplines needed
for these three fields:
program
research group
group leader
CASA
Applied Analysis (AA)
prof.dr. M.A. Peletier
Scientific Computing (SC)
prof.dr. R.M.M. Mattheij
DMA
Coding Theory and Cryptology (C&C)
prof.dr.ir. H.C.A. van Tilborg
Discrete Algebra and Geometry (DAG)
prof.dr. A.M. Cohen
SPOR
Combinatorial Optimization (CO)
prof.dr. G.J. Woeginger
Probability and Statistics (P&S)
prof.dr. R.W. van der Hofstad
Stochastic Operations Research (SOR)
prof.dr.ir. O.J. Boxma
Compared to the previous research assessment from 2003 there are several changes, which
we will describe next.
The three research programs of this self-assessment (DMA, SPOR, and CASA)
corre-spond to the subdivision of tracks in the Master program IAM, Industrial and Applied
Mathe-matics, except that the Combinatorial Optimization group of prof. Woeginger fits into Master
track DMA as well as SPOR. The resulting bridge between two of our main research
direc-tions is considered to be very valuable. Figure 1 illustrates the close reladirec-tionships between
the seven groups.
CASA. In September 2004, the research groups ‘Applied Analysis’ and ‘Scientific
Com-puting’ decided to join forces under the name CASA. In 2004, prof. Peletier was appointed
next to prof. Van Duijn, who was appointed in 2000 as the envisaged successor of prof. De
Graaf. In March 2005, as a result of Van Duijn’s appointment to rector magnificus, Peletier
took over as group leader. In May 2005, prof. Hautus retired and the research group
‘Sys-tems and Control’ ended as planned. Most of the remaining staff joined CASA.
SPOR. Following prof. Van der Laan’s retirement in August 2001, prof. Den Hollander
led the research group (with a part-time appointment). In January 2005, after the
appoint-ment of prof. Van der Hofstad, the research group Statistics and Probability was renamed in
Probability and Statistics. In February 2004, prof. Woeginger was appointed as the leader of
the group Combinatorial Optimization, as the successor to prof. Lenstra. In 2006 prof. Borst
was appointed on a permanent basis in the research group Stochastic Operations Research.
He shares some of the leadership of this group with prof. Boxma.
DMA. In September 2006, prof. Lange was appointed as a D
IAMANT-professor in the
group Coding Theory and Cryptology. She and dr. Schoenmakers have amplified the
cryp-tology expertise of the group. The joining in October 2005 of dr. Draisma is a beginning of
the required rejuvenation of the DAM group.
As stated before, besides the research groups, the division counts the postgraduate school
Mathematics for Industry and the laboratory LIME. The postgraduate school has been around
for a long time and was formally known before as
Wiskunde voor de Industrie
; it emphasises
modelling and design in an industrial context and thus forms an integral part of our strategy
to stay in close touch with the world of technical applications. The newly formed laboratory
LIME performs consultancy and is gradually expanding its activities from applied analysis
and scientific computing to the full scope of the division’s mathematical expertise. We value
its presence within the division because of the desired interaction between mathematical
research and industrial problems.
RM
MP GW
HvT
Figure 1:
The Erd ˝os graph between the seven research group leaders. Two researchers are at distance 1 if they are co-authors of a joint paper in a journal reviewed in MathReviews, and they are at distanced if the shortest chain of papers (with overlapping author sets) between them consists of d papers. In the picture the edges represent distances2 (thick),3(medium), and 4(thin), whereas non-edges stand for distance 5.The short-term strategy of the Mathematics Division concerns the choice of themes both
within mathematics and within society. The strategy often takes effect in collaborations at
the department level (institutes), the national mathematical research level (mathematics
clus-ters), and university or 3TU level (participation in institutes). Our two departmental institutes
of relevance to mathematics, E
URANDOMand EIPSI, have already been discussed in the
subsection on formal leadership above. The 3TU level is discussed in §3.c.
As for the mathematics clusters, we strive for involvement in at least one of these by
each of the three research programs. Currently this goal is achieved: DMA is involved in
D
IAMANT, SPOR in STAR (which started May 15, 2009), and CASA in NDNS
+.
In terms of societal problem areas, our foci are
•
information and communication technology (ICT),
•
biological and biomedical applications (BIO), and
•
materials (MAT).
In each of these areas, we match existing expertise, practical appeal, and concrete
possibil-ities of cooperation with other departments. Examples are NIRICT for ICT, the TU/e Institute
for Complex Molecular Systems (ICMS), the Department of Chemical Engineering and the
Department of Biomedical Engineering for biological and biomedical applications, and the
Center for Computational Engineering Eindhoven for materials. We discuss the individual
three foci in a little greater detail.
ICT. The ICT profile of the TU/e has a broad support within the mathematics division,
reputed for its work on performance analysis, network optimization, information security,
error correction, and also the development of interactive teaching material. In performance
analysis, the appointment of professor Borst has led to new initiatives in topics like wireless
and peer-to-peer networks, as exemplified by the participation in several European projects
on these topics. The combined expertise of our division and the Computer Science Division
makes TU/e a major player in ICT security in the Netherlands. At our side, the mathematical
aspects primarily regard cryptology. At the side of Computer Science, the existing expertise
has been strengthened by the appointment of prof. S. Etalle as full-time full professor in
Embedded Systems Security. This position is part of the 3TU.Centre for Dependable ICT
Systems (see §3.c). We have combined the expertise from both divisions in EIPSI.
BIO. This area was explored by dr. L. Stougie, who managed to identify interesting fields
of mathematical research (the PhD. work of Van Iersel being a witness), but moved to the
Free University before a clearly identifiable large scale activity emerged. However, our
divi-sion also works on biology oriented topics in various other ways: The bio profile that the TU/e
wishes to achieve generates a host of mathematical and statistical questions in, for example,
computational biology and medical image analysis. Research into anorganic and organic
materials is carried out in several departments and leads to fundamental mathematical and
computational issues. The CASA group is increasingly involved in research on biomedical
technology. Prof. Peletier’s group participates in ICMS. Prof. Florack, who has a VICI project
in biomedical image analysis, joined the division in September 2007, holding the chair in
Mathematical Image Analysis. He has a 0.2 appointment in the Department of Biomedical
Engineering.
MAT. The materials application area is receiving particular attention from CASA; much
of the research in scientific computing and applied analysis is inspired by questions related
to materials. The focus has broadened to semiconductors and multiscale phenomena. The
research on semiconductors is strongly promoted by external funding. The interest in
mul-tiscale phenomena is rapidly growing worldwide, and the combination of applied analysis
and scientific computing can provide fruitful contributions. The expertise in CASA has been
strengthened by appointing F. Toschi as a half-time full professor in Computational Physics of
Multi Scale Transport Phenomena (September 2008). This position is part of the 3TU.Centre
for Multiscale Phenomena (see §3.c).
3.b. Future developments (institute, departments, programs)
Our main research directions continu to be discrete mathematics, stochastics, and
compu-tational engineering. Before going into developments regarding these main research
pro-grams, let us briefly discuss the two parts of the division that are not embedded in the union
of the research groups: MFI and LIME.
The postgraduate school MFI will be continued; it is likely to be embedded in the
mathe-matics program of the graduate school envisaged by the rector for the whole TU/e. Thus, the
care for all mathematics PhD students, the Masters program, and the postgraduate school
will be joined into one school. At the same time, we expect and support that, at the national
level, the research schools in mathematics will join forces under the umbrella of the newly
formed PWN (Platform Wiskunde Nederland). As for the future role of LIME, we intend to
foster further expansion to the full scope of the division’s mathematical expertise. With a new
university-wide focus on energy, we strive for new contacts with industry leading to a new
The report of the 2007 Midterm Review Committee contained considerable praise, but also
raised three main concerns.
(i) The uncertain future of
E
URANDOM.
Attempts to secure external funding for E
U-RANDOM
via NWO or the Ministry of OCW have not yet been successful. However, in 2008
two key strategy documents for Dutch mathematics were published, viz.,
Concentratie &
Dy-namiek
(Concentration and Dynamics) and the
Masterplan Toekomst Wiskunde
(Masterplan
for the future of Dutch mathematics). Both documents emphasize the very positive role that
E
URANDOMis playing in Dutch stochastics, and they both advocate the establishment of a
stochastics cluster centered around E
URANDOMas the fourth mathematics cluster. TU/e and
the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science strongly support this.
(ii) Allocation of research time is too uniform.
Some researchers who gradually were
moving away from research have recently become
docent
and/or have shifted the bulk of
their duties to administrative tasks. The research time of a few other researchers has been
reduced. This allowed us to give extra research time to some exceptionally talented
re-searchers, and as a general rule to newly appointed staff members in their first years.
(iii) Vulnerability of the Coding- and Crypto (C&C) group.
The appointment of prof. Lange
as D
IAMANT-professor has given a new impulse to this group. The appointment of the
Ce-DICT professor Embedded Systems Security has led to the establishment of a Security
group (SEC) in the division of Computer Science. The collaboration of C&C and SEC in
EIPSI should lead to a further strengthening of the position of C&C.
In the next review period, the leader of the C&C group (prof. Van Tilborg) will retire, as will
prof. Cohen and prof. Mattheij. This poses considerable challenges, but also offers new
op-portunities. In discrete mathematics, the department aims for a new professor who does
research from an algebraic and geometric perspective, and who develops advanced
tech-niques for a variety of industrial applications. In computational science, we are planning to
appoint a new full professor and a part-time professor. The department is also investing
into statistics—a discipline which is highly relevant in a technical university, with many links
to other departments, industry, and E
URANDOM. Next to the appointment of prof. Van
Zan-ten, additional positions in statistics will be made available. Some of these initiatives will be
enhanced by 3TU funding; see §3.c below.
Newly emerging societal focal areas are energy and transportation. The department
will participate in a new concerted TU/e program on energy, the Eindhoven Energy Institute,
on themes like biofuels, energy conversion and transport. The CASA group is particularly
interested in problems related to photovoltaic panels (solar cells) and LNG (Liquid Natural
Gas). SPOR will participate in the new 3TU.Centre for Supply Chains, Innovative Mainports
and Mobility (SCIMM), focussing on the stochastic analysis and optimization of transportation
phenomena.
3.c. Cooperation with other Technical Universities in the Netherlands
For a number of years already, the division collaborates with the other TUs within research
schools like BETA (with UT), J.M. Burgerscentrum (with TUD and UT), EIDMA (with UT), and
Engineering Mechanics (with TUD and UT). The boards of the three mathematics divisions
are in permanent contact, and discuss and align their educational policies and research
strategies. In particular, the two sister divisions are always consulted before the appointment
of new professors.
Since 2005 the 3TUs offer a joint MSc program in Applied Mathematics. The MSc
pro-gram consists of common core courses (held at all three locations) and of common elective
courses (offered at central locations in the Netherlands). Most of the elective courses are
embedded into the Dutch national MSc program MasterMath.
The creation of the 3TU.Federation is providing a strong stimulus for the
collabora-tions between the three mathematics divisions. The division at Eindhoven participates in the
Center of Competence
Netherlands Institute for Research in ICT (NIRICT)
with the groups
Coding Theory and Cryptology, Combinatorial Optimization, and Stochastic Operations
Re-search, and in the Center of Competence
Fluid and Solid Mechanics (FSM)
with CASA.
In February 2006, the Dutch Government granted 50M
e
for thirty new chairs in the
Cen-ters of Excellence formed by the co-operating technical universities. Two of these support
our research plans: The chair in Embedded Systems Security, part of the
3TU.Centre for
Dependable ICT Systems (CeDICT)
, and the chair in Computational Physics of Multi Scale
Transport Phenomena, part of the
3TU.Centre for Multiscale Phenomena
.
In Spring 2009 (triggered by the 3TU Midterm Review) the three Technical Universities
decided to establish the
3TU Applied Mathematics Institute (3TU-AMI)
as a new Centre
of Excellence within the 3TU Institute for Science and Technology. The goals of AMI are
to provide better positioning of mathematical research at the 3 TUs, to contribute to the
coordination of focus and mass, to stimulate joint research and joint initiatives, and to act
as one desk for 3TU mathematics. AMI will be represented by a director and supported by
secretarial staff. An important task will be to increase the visibility of Applied Mathematics
at 3TU by organizing joint conferences and workshops and by inviting international visitors.
The Institute will also organise advanced courses for PhD students.
An important task of the 3TU Applied Mathematics Institute will be the coordination of
decisions on new professorial positions. The 3TU-AMI will provide financing for a five year
period to establish three professorial positions at each of the three Applied Mathematics
Departments.
3.d. Embedding and relations with(in) external parties (national and international)
The department strongly values the national mathematics clusters. It coordinates the cluster
D
IAMANT, which covers our research in discrete mathematics, it participates in the cluster
NDNS
+, in the field of applied analysis, and it has taken the initiative towards the stochastics
cluster STAR.
It is a policy of the department that every research group participates in a research
school, to strengthen further cooperation with other universities and to provide advanced
training of our PhD students. The department plays a major role in BETA (operations
re-search, statistics), EIDMA (discrete mathematics and combinatorics), and Stieltjes (applied
analysis, stochastics). Smaller participations include the J.M. Burgerscentrum (applied and
The department has a longstanding and successful exchange program with the
Cen-trum voor Wiskunde en Informatica (CWI) in Amsterdam, where researchers from CWI and
TU/e “trade places” for one day a week. Currently this program involves three researchers
from either side.
On January 1, 2008, NWO funding for the European Institute for Stochastics E
URANDOMended, and E
URANDOMformally became a part of the Department. The institute E
URANDOMis presently using the reserves of the foundation E
URANDOMto continue its scientific
activ-ities. The department is willing to assist E
URANDOMin its strive to continue its scientific
activities at the present scope and level. It is strongly supporting the stochastics cluster
STAR centred around E
URANDOM, and it has planned ample space for E
URANDOMin its
new building. Furthermore it provides the scientific director (currently professor Boxma) and
several scientific advisors.
The department has a joint Master Program in Industrial Mathematics with
Technis-che Universität Kaiserslautern and Johannes Kepler Universität Linz. The Erasmus Mundus
program of the European Commission supports the program with (full) scholarships for third
country nationals. An application for Erasmus Mundus II has been recently submitted, aimed
at continuing this joint Master program and enlarging it with a joint PhD program. Finally, the
TU/e as a whole participates in the C
LUSTERand C
ESAERnetworks of European universities
of science and technology.
Within TU/e, the department has been involved in 7 of the 10 profile areas of the
univer-sity, which for a little while featured prominently on the agenda of TU/e. CASA (prof. Peletier)
plays a role in the newly installed TU/e Institute for Complex Molecular Systems (ICMS).
Besides all these formal cooperations, the research groups have extensive
collabora-tions with researchers from a wide variety of top institucollabora-tions, mostly in Europe and the US.
3.e. An overview of participations, by research program
Research programs
CASA
SPOR
DMA
Research groups
TA
SC
KS
SB
CO
C&C
DAM
Research schools
– ASCI
•
– J.M. Burgerscentrum
•
•
– Engineering Mechanics
•
•
– Thomas Stieltjes Institute for Mathematics
•
•
•
– BETA Research School for Operations
Management and Logistics
•
•
•
– EIDMA
•
•
•
Mathematics clusters
– NDNS
+(Nonlinear Dynamics of Natural
Systems)
•
•
– STAR (Stochastics
-Theoretical & Applied Research)
•
•
– D
IAMANT(Discrete, Interactive and
Algorithmic Mathematics, Algebra, and
Number Theory)
•
•
•
3TU.Centres of Competence
– Fluid and Solid Mechanics
•
•
– NIRICT
•
•
•
3TU.Institute
– 3TU Applied Mathematics Institute
(starting 2009)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Research institutes
– ICMS
•
– E
URANDOM•
•
– CWI
•
•
•
•
– EIPSI
•
Profileringsgebieden TU/e
– Mechanics and Control
•
•
– Polymer Science and Technology
•
•
– Biomedical Engineering Sciences
•
•
– Logistics, Operations and their Information
Systems (LOIS)
•
•
•
– Broadband Telecommunication
Technologies
•
•
– Science and Engineering of Embedded
Systems (SEES)
•
– Ambient Intelligence
•
As already mentioned, the Department Board is involved in all staff appointments:
Pro-fessors and associate proPro-fessors are appointed by the Executive Board of the university
on recommendation of the board. Assistant professors and other staff are appointed by the
board itself on recommendation of a hiring committee that always includes the relevant group
leader, the curriculum director, and the personnel manager. The policy is to only hire staff
members who are both strong researchers and (have the potential to become) very good
teachers. The department has an active policy of appointing a part-time professor in each
group, who provides a structured link with industrial applications and research institutes.
The university offers management training courses as well as didactic courses for its
staff. As a matter of policy, new staff members with little teaching experience take the relevant
didactic courses, and senior staff and others put in charge of important administrative duties
take management training courses.
Every group has secretarial support staff (with research groups sharing one part-time
secretary) and some groups also have technical support staff (in the form of a scientific
programmer).
The table shows the aggregated number of research staff in full time equivalents, subdivided
over tenured staff, non-tenured staff, and PhD students. Details per program are given in
§7 of the program descriptions; see page 37 for CASA, page 59 for SPOR and page 81 for
DMA. See also appendix F on page 215 for related statistics.
Division of Mathematics
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
total
1Tenured
15.6
16.0
16.9
17.0
15.4
14.9
15.4
95.6
Non-tenured
10.0
7.9
6.7
11.7
10.5
12.4
14.3
63.4
PhD students
26.4
22.6
26.3
27.6
28.2
29.5
35.5
169.8
Total research staff
52.0
46.5
49.9
56.4
54.1
56.9
65.1
328.9
1In the period 2003–2008.4.a. PhD programs and policies
The Netherlands has a system of
research schools
. An important task of the research
schools is to provide training and education for PhD students. Research schools can be
accredited by the KNAW (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences) if they meet
certain quality criteria. It is a policy of the department that every research group participates
in at least one accredited research school.
Every PhD student participates in one research school, and follows the educational
program of this research school. PhD students are also offered general courses, such as
technical writing and presentation courses and language courses. Furthermore specific
in-dividual training is provided locally, through participation in the seminars run by the research
group, meetings with the daily supervisor, etc. The students are encouraged to present their
research at international conferences, and to publish their results in peer-reviewed journals.
The Personnel Department actively guards that each PhD student has a personal
train-ing and supervision plan. The plan is drawn up by the supervisor(s) together with the student.
PhD projects usually are scheduled for four years. At the beginning of the first year a clear
research plan is developed. At the end of the first year, the progress and the development of
the PhD student are assessed in a formal evaluation. A negative evaluation means that the
student has to stop his PhD project. A positive evaluation means that the supervisors are
convinced that the student is able to complete his project within the remaining three years.
In the following years, the progress is monitored through several informal evaluations.
List of PhD candidates
See appendix E on page 213.
Origin of PhD candidates
Over the last decade, we observe a radical change in the origin
of our PhD students. The percentage PhD students graduated as MSc in Eindhoven has
been halved, the percentage of PhD students coming from foreign universities has more than
doubled. This might be explained as the result of two opposite developments: on the one
hand the number of master students decreases, on the other hand the number of positions
funded increases.
1996–2000
2001–2005
Origin of PhD students
in total
per year
percentage
in total
per year
percentage
MSc IAM
19
3.8
49%
17
3.4
28%
other TU/e
4
0.8
10%
0
-
-other Netherlands
9
1.8
23%
18
3.6
30%
foreign universities
7
1.4
18%
25
5.0
42%
Total
39
7.8
100%
60
12
100%
Number of PhD theses
Division of Mathematics
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
total
2CASA
3
7
5
8
1
4
4
29
SPOR
4
3
1
3
2
4
2
15
DMA
4
3
-
5
-
3
2
13
Total
11
13
6
16
3
11
8
57
2In the period 2003–2008.
Success rates of PhD candidates
Met een stoommachine neemt men genoegen, als het nuttig effect slechts 20% bedraagt, en niemand denkt er aan, dat den vervaardiger als een tekortkoming te verwijten. – Prof.ir. W.H.L. Janssen van Raay, Rector Magnificus Technische Hogeschool te Delft (1926/27)
The table shows per calender year the number of standard PhD candidates (i.e. employed
as AiO or promovendus) enrolled as well as the numbers of those who graduated after the
specified number of years, those who have not yet finished, and those who discontinued
their studies.
starting
enrollment
graduation (numbers)
not yet
discont’d
year
(number)
> 4 yrs
> 4
12yrs
> 5 yrs
> 6 yrs
finished
< 4 yrs
< 4
12
yrs
< 5 yrs
< 6 yrs
2005
10
1
8
1
2004
11
1
7
1
2
2003
8
1
5
1
1
2002
3
2
1
2001
13
4
4
1
4
2000
5
4
1
1999
3
1
1
1
1998
8
1
1
1
3
1
1
1997
10
3
5
1
1
1996
7
3
1
1
2
starting
enrollment
graduation (cumulative percentage)
not yet
discont’d
year
(number)
> 4 yrs
> 4
12yrs
> 5 yrs
> 6 yrs
finished
< 4 yrs
< 4
12
yrs
< 5 yrs
< 6 yrs
2005
10
10%
-
-
-
-
80%
10%
2004
11
9%
73%
82%
-
-
18%
0%
2003
8
13%
75%
88%
100%
100%
0%
0%
2002
3
0%
67%
67%
100%
100%
0%
0%
2001
13
31%
62%
69%
69%
69%
0%
31%
2000
5
0%
80%
80%
80%
80%
0%
20%
1999
3
33%
67%
67%
67%
67%
0%
33%
1998
8
13%
25%
38%
75%
88%
0%
13%
1997
10
30%
80%
80%
90%
90%
0%
10%
1996
7
0%
43%
57%
71%
71%
0%
29%
Cum Laude
End of 1999, TU/e reintroduced the judicium Cum Laude to award doctoral
re-search of exceptionally high quality, conducted with an exceptional degree of independence.
In the period 2000–2008, 44 out of 1301 doctorates (=3,4%) were referred as Cum Laude.
For the Division of Mathematics, there were 8 Cum Laude’s on a total of 93 doctorates
(=8,6%).
Career destination of PhD graduates
The table shows the career destination of the 57 PhD graduates in the period 2003–2008.
Career destination
Number
Percentage
Academic staff in the Netherlands
12
21%
Academic staff abroad
12
21%
Trade and Industry
22
39%
Electronics industry
11
19%
Finance and banking
7
12%
Other
4
7%
Government
1
2%
Consultancy
7
12%
Miscellaneous
3
5%
Education
2
3%
Other
1
2%
Unemployed
-
-5. Resources, funding and facilities
Funding and expenditure
The table shows funding and expenditure for the Division of
Mathematics. Both funding and costs include education as well as research.
Funding in k
e
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
Direct funding
5287
5612
5210
5637
4965
6265
5329
Research funds
381
566
610
853
1162
1192
1495
Contracts
1421
1038
1340
1398
1446
1777
3315
Total
7089
7216
7160
7888
7573
9234
10139
Funding in percentage
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
Direct funding
75%
78%
73%
71%
66%
68%
53%
Research funds
5%
8%
9%
11%
15%
13%
15%
Contracts
20%
14%
19%
18%
19%
19%
33%
Total
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
Expenditure in k
e
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
Personnel costs
6222
6191
6276
6644
6944
8297
9745
Other costs
642
577
620
648
598
955
1172
Total
6864
6768
6896
7292
7542
9252
10917
Expenditure in percentage
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
Personnel costs
91%
91%
91%
91%
92%
90%
89%
Other costs
9%
9%
9%
9%
8%
10%
11%
Total
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
The considerable increase in 2008 in funding (contracts) and expenditure (personnel costs)
see page 40 for CASA, page 62 for SPOR and page 83 for DMA.
PhDs
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
Direct funding
42%
39%
33%
24%
23%
23%
23%
Research funds
36%
41%
42%
49%
52%
44%
35%
Contracts
19%
17%
19%
18%
19%
28%
33%
Other
3%
4%
6%
9%
7%
6%
8%
Postdocs
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
Direct funding
21%
11%
0%
0%
0%
7%
16%
Research funds
3%
15%
28%
39%
51%
52%
52%
Contracts
76%
74%
72%
61%
49%
41%
32%
Other
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
PhDs+Postdocs
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
Direct funding
38%
33%
28%
18%
19%
21%
22%
Research funds
29%
36%
40%
46%
51%
45%
38%
Contracts
31%
28%
27%
28%
24%
29%
33%
Other
2%
3%
5%
7%
6%
5%
7%
Facilities
At the time of the previous review in 2003 we wrote: “The TU/e main building,
which houses the department, offers less than ideal working conditions. Its renovation is
subject to continual postponement.” In 2009 the department still resides in the main building,
but the Executive Board of TU/e has decided meanwhile for a new building to be realised
next to the main building. We hope to settle in the new building by January 2012.
By then, the department will lose its library as a facility especially dedicated to the
disciplines of mathematics and computer science. The library will be integrated in the Central
Library, which fortunately will be housed on the lower floors of the same new building.
6. Overview of the results
The table shows the aggregated number of publications. Details per program are given in
appendix A on page 93 for CASA, appendix B on page 135 for SPOR and appendix C on
page 185 for DMA. See also appendix F on page 216 for related statistics.
Publications
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
total
4Academic publications
Journal articles
84
108
85
105
114
115
126
653
Conference papers
59
45
53
50
95
81
78
402
Book chapters
6
4
3
7
5
8
3
30
Monographs
1
4
-
2
2
1
3
12
PhD theses
11
13
6
16
3
11
8
57
Patents
6
3
2
5
8
4
1
23
4In the period 2003–2008.SWOT analysis
Strengths:
◦
A substantial rejuvenation in the corps of full professors carried through.
◦
High quality, as reflected in a sizable number of awards and grants.
◦
Continuing growth in external funding, both from research funds and contracts.
◦
Broad expertise in industrial mathematics, in areas fitting a technical university.
◦
The successful role of LIME in knowledge exchange with industry.
◦
Presence of the research institutes E
URANDOMand EIPSI.
◦
Active participation in the clusters D
IAMANT, NDNS
+, and STAR.
◦
Fruitful embedding of mathematics and computer science in one department.
Weaknesses:
◦
The (traditionally) small scale and individuality of research in mathematics, while
re-search funding is increasingly available only for large consortia.
◦
Persistently low influx of students in both bachelor and master programs in industrial
and applied mathematics.
Opportunities:
◦
3TU activities: Collaboration with TUD and UT in the 3TU Applied Mathematics Institute
(AMI), and 3TU funding of a few professorship positions.
◦
Collaboration between the Divisions of Mathematics and Computer Science in the field
of security in EIPSI.
◦
Synergy with LIME and MFI will further strengthen our profile in modelling and
techno-logical design.
Threats:
◦
Lack of external funding of E
URANDOM.
◦
Since an increasing percentage of the total funding is based on project money, the
number of scientific staff on temporary contracts has grown. This threatens the
consol-idation of knowledge within the division. Furthermore, in many cases external funding
requires matching from our own funds. These developments threaten to disturb the
balance between fundamental and more applied research.
◦
Demographic developments (minus 15%) point in the direction of a smaller number of
potential students in the region.
◦
High teaching load.
Conclusions
New appointments of full professors have given strong stimuli to our research, and have
helped to increase external funding. The three groups with aging leaders will be restructured
and refocused over the coming decade, which will open up new opportunities. The 3TU
developments will allow us to further raise the quality and visibility of our research in the
three focal areas discrete mathematics, stochastics, and computational engineering.
In the past few years we have realized a considerable rise in the influx of
foreign
PhD
students. It is essential to continue this effort, and to broaden it across the whole division.
In many application areas the mathematician’s involvement is usually indirect, through
collaboration with researchers having expertise in the application area itself. The reason is
that scientists and engineers involved in real life applications tend to use off-the-shelf
math-ematical tools. As a general rule, our staff will be involved in such applications at the time
these tools prove to be insufficient. Consequently, the rules of engagement in applications
are often through collaborations with other faculty or research laboratories, formulated in
themes. We will continue to look for new themes of societal and industrial relevance and to
collaborate intensively with other disciplines.
Les fondements sont solides, la direction est bonne,
toute notre tâche peut se résumer d’un mot,
continuons.
– H. Petitot, Introduction à la Philosophie traditionelle ou classique (1914)
2
Where innovation starts
Professors R.M.M. Mattheij and M.A. Peletier
SPOR
49–65
Statistics, Probability and Operations Research
Professors O.J. Boxma, R.W. van der Hofstad
and G.J. Woeginger
DMA
69–86
Discrete Mathematics and Applications
Applied Analysis and Scientific Computing
Full title
Applied Analysis and Scientific Computing (CASA)
Coordinator
prof.dr. R.M.M. Mattheij
Research groups
AA
Applied analysis
prof.dr. M.A. Peletier
SC
Scientific computing
prof.dr. R.M.M. Mattheij
Starting date
before 1996
Research area
Partial Differential Equations, Scientific Computing and
Applica-tions.
NABS-code
N07
MSC-classification
34, 35, 42, 43, 49, 58, 65, 74, 76, 78, 80, 86, 92
continued on the next page
Affiliations and cooperations
research schools:
ASCI (Advanced School for Computing and Imaging) [since 2007]
EM (Engineering Mechanics)
JMBC (J.M. Burgerscentrum Research School for Fluid
Dynam-ics)
MATTeR (Materials Analysis, Testing, Technology and Research)
[until December 2004]
SIMATH (Thomas Stieltjes Institute for Mathematics)
mathematics cluster:
NDNS
+(Nonlinear Dynamics of Natural Systems)
Delft:
Analysis, Mathematical Physics, Scientific Computing,
Mathe-matical Systems and Control Theory.
Enschede:
Applied Analysis and Mathematical Physics (AAMP), Numerical
Analysis and Computational Mechanics (NACM), Mathematical
Systems and Control Theory (WSB).
national:
strongest links with CWI (MAS), VU (group of Hulshof), UvA
(group of Doelman), Leiden (group of Verduyn-Lunel, LA
Peletier).
international:
strongest links with Kaiserslautern, Linz, Paris VI, Bonn, Max
Planck-Institut Leipzig, Köln, Imperial College London,
Cam-bridge, Bath.
CASA is a founding member of the European Consortium of
Mathematics with Industry.
and numerical) for the study of PDEs arising from a wide range of application areas. This
research is combined with and stimulated by a wide range of contacts and joint projects
with various application areas. CASA aims at becoming a worldwide leading centre for the
numerical and analytical study of PDEs.
2. Leadership
The professors act as natural focal points in CASA, initiating activities for (new) research and
stimulating the tenured staff to develop their own. These activities are structured on various
levels and in a variety of ways. There are weekly meetings between young researchers
and their supervisors, as well as biweekly technical meetings of tenured members of the
chair. The young researchers are encouraged to prepare these meetings by providing written
material beforehand, both to make these meetings more effective (and controllable) and to
practice the art of writing. CASA has a biweekly colloquium with almost exclusively speakers
from outside. There are biweekly seminar series, organised by the young researchers on
relevant and timely topics. Both the colloquium and the seminars are attended by the full
staff as well as master students. On top they are usually attended by visitors from industry
and other TU departments, adding to a very fruitful discussion and interaction.
Twice a year ‘CASA-days’ are organised, in a venue outside the university (sometimes
lasting two days), where the young researchers give presentations about their recent results
as well as plans for the immediate future. In addition there are full-afternoon minisymposia,
on an ad hoc basis, where three to four speakers present lectures focused on a specific
topic. The cooperation between the various researchers is further reinforced by a series of
working groups on special research topics. These groups discuss literature as well as new
own achievements, on a weekly basis and during a few months.
Each member belongs moreover to at least one research school, which holds annual
meetings (where posters and presentations are given). Researchers and PhD students are
stimulated to report on their work at international meetings; a good amount of funding is
made available for this purpose. At a national level, annual meetings like those of the
Dutch-Flemish Numerical mathematicians (one in Woudschoten, and so-called PhDays) add to a
proper encounter with colleagues working on related topics. They are strongly encouraged to
attend courses organised by the "onderzoekscholen". Finally there are frequent short-term
as well as long term visitors, who lecture on topics related to their expertise.
3. Strategy and policy
3.a. Design in brief
The groups represented by the chairs of Applied Analysis and Scientific Computing each
have their specific interest and expertise; in addition, the bundling of the two groups into
CASA has enabled many cross-boundary connections at professor, lecturer, and PhD level,
thus combining expertise on related problems.
The research of the group of Applied Analysis focuses on qualitative properties of
so-lutions of partial differential equations (PDEs). These range from issues of well-posedness
(existence, uniqueness or multiplicity, and stability of solutions) and regularity, through a wide
variety of other topics, such as singularity formation (blow-up and extinction), pattern
for-mation and evolution, to free-boundary behaviour, asymptotic behaviour for large time and
space, singular limit behaviour, and dependence on parameters. These issues are highly
linked; for instance, the regularity of solutions is closely connected to singular features such
as blow-up or free boundaries, and pattern-forming systems typically exhibit a wide variety
of solutions simultaneously.
The research of the Scientific Computing Group can be characterised by three major
aspects, viz. modelling of problems arising in an industrial context, development and
anal-ysis of numerical methods and design and implementation of numerical algorithms. More
specifically the research has been centered around the following themes: defect correction
techniques for both creeping viscous flow and turbulent pipe flow, multirate methods for
cir-cuit analysis, robust inverse methods for diffraction optics, boundary element methods for
potential problems, high order schemes. The transversality of mathematics makes that the
same methodologies can be used in a large variety of problems. As an example the group
has developed a significant expertise on local defect correction (LDC) that is shown its
ver-satility in virtually any type of numerical discretisation method.
The joining of the two chairs into CASA has created a wealth of opportunities for
re-search that builds on the combined expertise of both groups. As an example, robust
compu-tation of singularity formation requires an intimate knowledge of the structure of the solution,
and on the other hand simulations are essential in forming conjectures on the behaviour of
such solutions. Obviously, appropriate analytical knowledge is of paramount importance to
understand a problem before tackling it numerically. In addition, certain themes and
applica-tion areas overlay the whole of CASA, further pulling together the research of the two groups.
In terms of methodology these are in particular
multi-scale phenomena
and
variational
struc-tures
; in terms of application areas these are
fluid flow
,
materials
,
electromagnetics
and
life
sciences
. These themes give a common direction to the research, giving CASA a clear focus
and a unique national and international position. These applications areas are firmly based
within the TU/e profiling-areas
Dynamics of Fluids and Solids
and
Biomedical Engineering
,
providing CASA with ample opportunities for collaboration.
3.b. Program development
3.b.1. Personnel
Some important changes have taken place during the reporting period.
One was the appointment of Peletier as full professor (2004), adding important expertise in
the field of variational methods as well as strengthening the interest in life sciences. In 2005
Prof. Van Duijn was appointed as rector of the university, implying a substantial reduction of
his research time. Fortunately the department has realised the importance of his field of
ex-pertise and opened positions for new staff members. With the appointments of Remco Duits
and Luc Florack, CASA started a new line of research into mathematical image analysis.
Here we aim to further develop PDEs as processing tools, specifically in combination with
other methods such as wavelet transformations (orientation scores) and variational methods.
CASA has also strengthened its formal ties with industry. In addition to part-time
this CoC Mattheij is member of the Centre of Excellence “Multiscale Phenomena in Fluids
and Solids”; in 2008 Toschi was appointed on the new CoC chair “Computational physics of
multi-scale transport phenomena” (jointly with the department of Applied Physics).
3.b.2. Science
The research of CASA spans a continuum from fundamental to applied
and covers a wide range of applications. We have grouped the projects by what appears
to be the strongest link between them, while realising that any partitioning into larger blocks
belies the many connections between the various activities.
Viscous flow
The flow of viscous fluids is a large research area in CASA, both analytically and numerically,
with many active members of the faculty (Van Duijn, Mattheij, Molenaar, Peletier, Prokert,
Ti-jsseling, Van der Ven). A long-running project concerns the analysis and simulation of glass
flow in (partially) confined areas, such as in moulds for producing jars and bottles as well
as flows in a glass tank (oven). Results have been obtained using both finite and boundary
elements and these results have been incorporated in industrial projects. Fronts in viscous
flow are studied in a variety of different contexts and with various methods. Instabilities in
advancing fronts arising in injection moulding were studied using matched asymptotic
ex-pansions. a further topic here is the study of large-time behaviour of moving boundaries
in Hele-Shaw and Stokes flows. Finally, the stability of gravity-driven groundwater flow has
been characterized by investigating the steady flow of a viscous jet that falls onto a moving
surface, exactly identifying the parameter regimes of straight and curved flow.
Oscillating gas flow
A typical problem is understanding the fluid dynamics of so-called pulse tubes in order to
make quantitative improvements in their performance.
A two-dimensional mathematical
model has been developed to describe oscillating Helium flow in the tube of a pulse-tube
refrigerator. The model has been used to study the flow of energy in the tube, and in detail,
the dynamic heat transfer to the tube wall. The project has been completed with an
(indus-trially funded) PhD thesis. A second PhD, paid by STW is studying more complex geometry
and physics. Another problem is to develop methods to study of the influence of
produc-tion inaccuracies on the heat transfer in turbine blades. A particular aspect is the use of
non-reflecting boundary conditions. This PhD project is jointly undertaken with Mechanical
Engineering and paid by STW. Yet another (though related) theme is noise reduction in
do-mestic heaters. This STW project (jointly with Mechanical Engineering) on finding numerical
solutions for the G-equation and determining the transfer function is well underway.
Pattern formation
This new direction of research was initiated with the appointment of Peletier as full professor.
A Vernieuwingsimpuls (VIDI) grant is devoted to the stability of lipid bilayers, the biological
membranes that form the exterior of living cells. The mathematical counterpart of this stability
is the phenomenon of Partial Localization, self-aggregation of molecules into one- or
two-dimensional structures. This research is part of a programme of study of patterns and their
formation and evolution, with applications in biology (membranes and DNA), and also in
geological folding, elastic stability theory, block copolymers, and more generic models such
as the Swift-Hohenberg equation.
Singular-limit analysis and homogenisation
This existing line of research was strengthened with the appointments of Peletier and dr.
Muntean (2007). It builds on the general principle of scale bridging, or multi-scale
anal-ysis, as a tool for the analysis and numerical approximation of a wide variety of
math-ematical models. Since 2004 the research has branched out in directions such as
two-scale reaction-diffusion models, fast-reaction limits, singular limits in pattern-forming
sys-tems, blow-up problems, and homogenization of micro-scale moving-boundary problems.
This activity meshes closely with other lines of research within CASA and other departments
of TU/e (e.g. Materials Science, Biomedical Technology).
Porous media
Models involving flow and transport in porous media and the mechanics of deformable
me-dia arise from studies in the environmental sciences, from industry and from particular
ques-tions related to transport in the human body. The mathematics focuses on applied partial
differential equations, upscaling by homogenisation and numerical methods (mixed finite
el-ement method). Reactive flows with homogenization are studied in the context of the Bsik
project BRICKS. Another topic is the investigation of the consequences of time-dependent
constitutive laws for the admissibility of shocks. A PhD thesis was written on the stability of
gravity-driven groundwater flow. Funded by NWO and jointly with the department of
Biomed-ical Technology, a mixed and mixed-hybrid finite element method is employed to study a four
component mixture for cartilage. Another NWO-funded project dealt with various aspects of
wet paper production.
Mathematical Image Analysis
The recent appointments of assistant professor Remco Duits and full professor Florack (VICI)
within CASA has initiated another new research direction track, devoted to the
mathemat-ical analysis of images. This track combines fundamental and applied mathematics from
across all CASA themes. There is a strong collaboration with the biomedical image
anal-ysis activities in the Department of Biomedical Engineering (Bart ter Haar Romeny, Klaas
Nicolay, a.o.). Research mainly focuses on challenging imaging modalities and protocols for
which traditional paradigms are problematic, e.g. due to high dimensionality of image
do-main and/or cododo-main. From a fundamental point of view it aims at developing new, generic
paradigms for image understanding, the relevance of which reaches beyond specific
appli-cations. The concepts of scale and orientation are pivotal in these paradigms. From an
application point of view it focuses mainly, but not exclusively, on certain advanced magnetic
resonance imaging (MRI) techniques, for which TU/e has gained a particularly strong
exper-tise, and on biomedical applications based on these. These pertain to the analysis of time
