Partnership 1: University of Bristol, Department of Mathematics, UK and Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny, UFR Mathematiques et Informatique, Ivory Coast
Lead contacts: Luca Giuggioli (Bristol) and N'ZI Yao Koffi Modeste (FH-B)
The original objectives of the partnership were:
- to deliver an advanced course in mathematical models for life sciences from the UK lead;
- to set up scientific collaborations between the partner and the mentor departments on mathematical biology projects;
- to select candidates for student fellowships;
- to organise a scientific visit to the UK from the African lead; and, optionally,
- to organise a scientific workshop.
In year 1, given the travel challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it was only possible to accomplish 1-3, while
objective 5 was left as optional depending on budget, and formed part of the activities for year 2.
Prof. Giuggioli visited the African partner in 2021 and delivered 15 hours of lectures in a summer school entitled ‘Tools and techniques to model random processes: from foraging animals to the spread of infection in humans’. As a result of the workshop, a scientific project with a graduating PhD student of Prof. N’Zi was set up.
Two students were selected as recipients of a £900 fellowship.
In year 2, the funding was used to help support in part the African Mathematical School in Ivory Coast, entitled Modèles mathématiques et traitement statistique des données. Prof. Giuggioli was one of the invited international speakers and gave a presentation entitled ‘Resolution of a hundred year old problem on lattice random walks and its impact on modelling interactions in complex systems’. Prof. Giuggioli noted that his approach, coming from a statistical physics perspective, was quite different from the (mostly) applied mathematics crowd, in particular in modelling the dynamics of epidemic spread. His presentation thus demonstrated a broadening of the quantitative narrative on how to represent epidemic transmission events, especially at short scales.
Following the visit in year 1, Prof. Giuggioli engaged scientifically with one of Prof N’ZI's PhD graduating students to work on deriving analytically the record statistics when correlated variables are bounded to be larger than a certain threshold.
Overall, the partnership was an excellent opportunity for Prof. Giuggioli to better understand and engage with the mathematical community in both the Ivory Coast and also in other African countries, via individuals he met. It was also a useful step to achieving his long-term goal of creating an African-UK consortium of applied mathematics in interdisciplinary sciences. The networking afforded by the MARM grant led to a separate co-proposal being submitted, this time for collaboration with a colleague from the Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) in Rwanda.
Partnership 2: Politecnico di Torino, Dipartimento di Scienze Matematiche, Italy and University of Namibia (UNam), Namibia
Lead contacts: Letterio Gatto (Torino) and Martin Mugochi (UNam)
During year 1, the following was acheived:
- A kick-off round table discussion with collaborators.
- Project HiDEA, the aim of which was to investigate the interdisciplinary connections among the algebra, geometry, physics and combinatorics of Higher Derivations on Exterior Algebras.
- Redaction of a book on algebraic methods for linear ODEs.
- Implementation of the first Namibian Olympiad in Mathematics, in collaboration with NCRST.
- Activation of the short course online 'Algorithmic Learning Theory', which was affiliated to the MARM project.
- Training of two PhD students from UNam.
- A visit by Prof. Gatto to UNam, during which he checked the progress of the projects mentioned above, gave mathematical talks and furthered professional relationships with colleagues.
In year 2, Prof. Gatto visited UNam twice. Beyond continuing the student training, delivering courses online and publishing papers, activities in the second year were focused on the implementation of the Namibian Olympiad of Mathematics and the first Spring International School in Mathematics.
The partnership was extremely fruitful in terms of creating sustainable, long-term collaboration and contributing to infrastructure in mathematics in Africa. For example, Prof. Gatto organised a meeting in 2021 entitled 'From MARM to NARM', whose purpose was to launch a network of African departments of mathematics. It involved diplomatic representatives from Italy and Britain, who committed to cofunding the MARM activities in the second year.