Why Industry Needs Mathematicians: the PIMS Innovation Platform
by Miguel Eichelberger
Three Years of Possibility
In the summer of 2014, PIMS, along with CRM and the Fields Institute, was awarded funds to create the Institutes Innovation Platform (IIP). The goal of the initiative was simple: to increase the involvement of mathematical science in industry and technological innovation across Canada. Simple, but not easy.
This entailed looking with new eyes at existing mechanisms which connect Mathematics and Industry. It involved creating new opportunities for dialogue and collaboration in business sectors that have never before engaged mathematics, and seeing what amazing insights would come as a result.
It’s been three years of extraordinary possibility. Three years of facilitating the front-lines of sustainable, Canadian innovation in Agriculture, Oil & Gas, Quantum Computing, Banking, Resource Management, Minerals, Health, Big Data and so much more. We have seen entrepreneurs rise, companies grow, and new, powerful ideas come to life through this initiative.
The future of industry is intrinsically linked to the mathematical sciences, and through the IIP, that link now extends to Canada’s national priorities for the future.
Math Meets Quantum:
Canada, through the federal ministries of Science and Economy, is currently prioritizing the development of viable Quantum computing as well as innovative technologies surrounding quantum information. IIP funding has allowed us to organize industry workshops that have brought mathematicians together with leaders in the Quantum field. We engaged partners like D-Wave Systems, 1QBit, the Institute for Quantum Science and Technologies, and others to investigate the design of quantum gates and information channels, analyze quantum algorithms in simulated annealing, and graph theoretical methods in the design of a functioning quantum processor.
As we reach the limits of miniaturization in transistor-based computing, a Quantum solution is needed to usher in the next age of advancement. The work being done now is the future of Canada’s technological place in the world economy, and it cannot be achieved without applied mathematics.
Math Meets Aerospace, Finance, Resource Management, Big Data, Machine Learning:
With our partner institutes Fields and CRM, PIMS has sponsored collaborations and research projects with aerospace companies including Bombardier and Bell Helicopter, applying mathematical modelling to logistics and design. We’ve worked with financial institutions such as Scotia Bank, the National Bank of Canada and the Toronto Stock Exchange’s TMX Group in the areas of financial risk, market projection and best practices. In the health sector, we brought mathematics to organizations including the Toronto General Hospital and Optina Diagnostics. Resource companies such as Rio Tinto and Forest Products Innovations benefited from the application of mathematical modelling in planning, prediction and viability. With 1Science, Dassault Système and Mnubo, we tackled the areas of Big Data and Machine Learning — sectors with massive interdisciplinary potential.
The diversity of these projects perfectly demonstrates the versatility of the mathematical sciences in application. We challenged everything from using data science to design a better helicopter and to discover new ways to make use of the Internet of Things, to how to price securities and energy projects in a marketplace transitioning from fossil fuels to sustainable green technologies. We even worked on improving novel welding protocols and processes.
The one thing each of these projects had in common was a deep and immediate need for mathematical expertise.
Math Meets Sustainability
Soon after the IIP funding was issued, PIMS co-sponsored the Natural Gas Research Roundtable in November 2014, bringing together over 100 industry, government and university personnel to examine and create opportunities for mathematical research collaborations in all aspects of a greener, more sustainable LNG development. Topics included environmental challenges in waste water management, fracking, and green-house gas emissions; green technological advancement in exploration and production; societal challenges in creating the necessary workforce, infrastructure, and education to support the up-building of the LNG industry in a way that benefits both the economy and the environment.
PIMS also set to work organizing and sponsoring Industrial Problem Solving Workshops and graduate student internships to immediately address existing environmental concerns in the oil and gas industry. These workshops covered advanced technologies such as fibre optic monitoring — for largescale infrastructure projects like pipelines and rail lines — as a low-cost network of sensors that, in real-time, can detect pipe leaks, rail breaks, wheel failures, and sabotage for faster, more-effective emergency response.
Math Meets Minerals
Mathematics is catalyzing a data-driven technical revolution in the minerals industry. PIMS and the Centro de Modelamiento Matemático (CMM) in Chile have been working with industry leaders to use state-of-the-art data collection as well as existing data in sustainability, logistics, extraction, worker health and safety, and site topography to advance the practice of mining toward a 21st century renaissance.
In tandem with institutes like UBC’s BRIMM, our industry collaborators, the ten universities we represent and our international network, we are, by degrees, working to evolve the field. Improved ore extraction solutions have been discovered by applying mathematics to rock bursting and fragmentation dispersal ballistics that accurately predicts ore location and concentration after blasting. Technologies like wearable bio-metric sensors and GPS locators to monitor worker vitals and location while underground have been developed and implemented. Even satellite image comparison models have been deployed to track open-pit mining erosion on a year by year basis.
As the work to date has shown, there is no real limit to where mathematics can make an impact.
Changing a Culture: Solutions Canada
The institutes have worked together not just to tackle the problems of industry but to also match industry needs with relevant academic expertise. Our work has gone beyond targeted industrial workshops and networking events to include the launch of Solutions Canada, an initiative developed in collaboration with all five major Canadian mathematics institutes and funded in partnership with NSERC and Mitacs. Solutions Canada is designed for organizations to connect with talented mathematicians in pursuit of novel business solutions. Through this platform, potential industry partners can signal their interest in pursuing mathematical collaborations that will benefit their company and receive assistance in matching expertise to their interest as well as seek suitable research funding.
These are the development stages and backbone of a new start-up culture fueled by mathematics. A culture where entrepreneurs are using mathematical and statistical expertise to establish new and exciting companies that take on the problems facing economics, transportation, food production, health, and applications of artificial intelligence.
The IIP program has been fundamental to encouraging a similar change in culture among academic mathematicians and statisticians, highlighting the value of engaging in industrial collaborative research. Over the first three years of this program, resources have been made available to both young researchers and more established senior academics to take the chance on venturing into industrial projects, to invest time and energy in training their students for industrial careers, and to make long-term plans in their research programs that include a significant industrial component in their endeavors.
Where We’re Going Next
In just three years, the Institutes have demonstrated what can be done on a large scale. The results are nation-wide, market-shifting innovations that can vastly change and enhance Canada’s economic presence on the world stage. For his efforts in the IIP program, our very own Innovation Coordinator, Michael Lamoureux was recognized as a 2017 Peak Scholar.
We have proven that the Mathematical Sciences are key to the success of major federal investments in AI and Big Data, advanced manufacturing, digital technologies, and health.
Together, the Institutes and their partner universities are the talent sources for these ventures, and after seeing what we can do in three years, we are excited for where we’re headed next. PIMS has been developing larger, long-term initiatives in the mathematics of mining, green energy, environmental risk assessment and Canada’s massive agri-food industry; initiatives that will directly influence job creation, science, economics, and government policy across the nation.
The impact of the IIP program has surprised even us, but it has also inspired us to keep moving forward. It’s been three years of turning possibility into reality. And in this new meeting place of mathematics and industry, there are only more possibilities to discover.
