Mission and vision
The Center for Research in Mathematical Engineering (CI²MA) at the Universidad de Concepción brings together the most active researchers from the Departamento de Ingeniería Matemática of this institution, together with researchers-collaborators from other departments and faculties of the Universidad de Concepción and other universities. The main purpose of the center is to create an environment of excellence in research that is perceived by the scientific and industrial communities as a solid instance of consultation and collaboration that is much more visible and approachable than a typical academic unit. The creation and implementation of CI²MA is one of the most important goals of an initiative awarded in early 2008, in conjunction with the Center for Mathematical Modeling (CMM) of the Universidad de Chile, for the CONICYT Program on Baseline Financing for Scientific and Technological Centers of Excellence.
In the strictly scientific front, the main objective of CI²MA is to reinforce already existing partnerships, in particular with the CMM, and to establish new ones aimed at modeling, mathematical analysis and computational simulation of phenomena that appear in Engineering Sciences, in Physics and other disciplines of interest. In this way, there arises the expectation of generating a much more propitious environment for the development of diverse research topics within Applied Mathematics, which will have significant impacts on the external environment (ecology, economics, education, medicine, natural resources and others), and at the same time contribute significantly to increase, in both quality and quantity, the scientific production of the center. In particular, CI²MA is offered to the community as a unit ready to provide services and to inject first-hand mathematical knowledge to solve specific problems arising in various fields.
The CI²MA research team will be a dynamic entity in which the membership of each of its members will be evaluated periodically. In turn, to the extent necessary and in order to strengthen the respective interdisciplinary work, new scientists and professionals from other areas of interest may be incorporated into CI²MA. Our ultimate goal is the establishment of a research center of excellence in Applied Mathematics, with the active participation of mathematicians, engineers and other researchers. It is also expected that members of CI²MA will be permanently involved with the undergraduate and postgraduate courses of the participating universities, at least through the management of dissertations and dissertations, so that the training of professionals and graduates and the research work of the center nourish and benefit each other.
The main scientific support of CI²MA is currently the Research Group on Numerical Analysis, which has long been a productive and competitive group. However, the center also has specialists in the areas of: Non-linear Analysis and Partial Differential Equations; Discrete Mathematics; Optimization and Variation Calculation; Dynamic Systems; And Theory of Probabilities and Stochastic Processes. In this respect, it is expected that a strong interaction between research areas, and an appropriate balance between theory, computational simulations and applications, will give rise to important advances in the work of CI²MA, making it possible to consolidate it as one of the most important research centers of the Universidad de Concepción.