IMI Colloquium

10月 IMI Colloquium

日時：2014年10月15日（水）
16:45-17:45
場所：九州大学 マス・フォア・インダストリ研究所
大講義室１（数理・IMI図書館棟３F）
講師：Prof. Martin Grötschel (Zuse Institute, TU, and MATHEON Berlin, Germany)

講演タイトル：Is mathematics useful?
講演要旨：
Calculating percentages, profit margins, areas, volumes, and other simple computations are obviously useful. Is
this all the mathematics that people encounter in daily life? Is there more mathematics “contained” in the
products that surround us? Do industry and commerce really need mathematics? Is the mathematics taught at
universities useful at all? Should it be?

I will address these questions in my lecture.

My view: Mathematics plays a very important role in the modern world and mathematicians have a much higher
responsibility (than many of us are aware) in the world-wide efforts to solve the big challenges of our time.
Mathematics is one of the most important intellectual endeavors of mankind but is also a versatile tool to
support whatever is done in science, technology, business, society, etc. significantly.

In my lecture I can’t cover all the issues involved but will try to elucidate how a combination of application
specific mathematical modeling, simulation and optimization is affecting industry and business. I will
demonstrate by means of many examples where and how the mathematical methods developed in my research
environment in Berlin (TU Berlin, DFG Research Center Matheon and Zuse Institute) is already affecting our lives.