Mathematical Solutions for Industry

The Maths Industry Club at the University of Oxford provides practical solutions to industry problems across many sectors. By engaging with companies to understand the nature of their technical problems, the Industry Club has stimulated new partnerships and solved business critical issues. 

At the Industry Club, run by the Mathematical Institute, technical experts from industry present challenging unsolved problems that have arisen within their company to members of faculty, visiting professors, research assistants and graduate students in the department, for whom the challenge is to provide practical and prompt solutions.

The Industry Club workshops have addressed engineering problems in areas such as defence, oil, engines and optical fibres, as well as problems in biological applications and banking.

By the end of each workshop, the group from the Mathematical Institute can usually suggest methods to solve the problem and estimate the level of difficulty involved. They also provide potential mechanisms to progress the work collaboratively – for example, a difficult problem may include a suggestion to sponsor a CASE studentship. A less complicated problem may result in a report with some partial results and lists of references or suggest the sponsorship of an MSc student or an internship to complete the work. The company generally accepts the suggestions for further collaboration or simply follows up on the references internally.