Mathematical Science Study Groups with industry have been running for over fifty years and, having started with pioneering work in the UK in the 1960s, these groups now take place all over the world in a huge variety of shapes and sizes. Due to the pandemic, the Study Group format has migrated into a virtual form and have been hugely successful in solving problems and providing insight for various organisations including FareShare, the Department of Health and Social Care, and others.

Building on successful sessions in 2017 and 2019 the newly established HetSys CDT and KTN a re holding a three day, free virtual session between the 16th and 18th of December.

About this event:

The general format for these workshops is that representatives from industry will present their problems on the morning of the first day. The multidisciplinary research audience question the industrial representatives and decide which challenge they could offer input into. The group breaks into teams (with a nominated academic leader to facilitate the work) and over the next three days code, model, sketch solutions to the problem in an open collaboration. The group meets again at the end of the three days where the teams feedback the progress made.

Challenges:

Challenges will be announced in the coming weeks. Updates will be made on these pages as and when problems are finalised.

• Challenge 1 – Uncertainty Quantification for a Multiphysics Model of Dough Baking (PepsiCo). This challenge is based on a coupled multiphysics problem. The model represents heat and mass transfer and solid mechanics processes during the baking of a dough product. PepsiCo would like to understand whether there is a unique choice of the 5 key parameters that corresponds to given model outputs, and in general how to better calibrate their model on noisy data.
• Challenge 2 - Understanding the Kinetics of Ice Crystallization in Mycoproteins (Marlow Foods) . Mycoproteins are attracting an ever-growing interest due to their potential to serve as meat substitutes. Freezing is one of the crucial aspects involved with the production of these novel foods – not only as a necessity in terms of their storage, but as an avenue to develop a suitable texture of the final product as well. This challenge will provide look at modelling the kinetics of ice crystallization in mycoproteins.