Support for US-based graduate students to attend the 2011 Gene Golub SIAM Summer School (G2S3), to take place on the two weeks of July 4-15 on the campus of the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, Canada. In 2011 the topic of the summer school will be "Waves and Imaging." The funds would be used to cover transportation, lodging, and meals for participating graduate students from institutions in the United States. The goal of the 2011 G2S3 is to offer four accessible mini-courses on the mathematical background of tomographic imaging, recent research developments, and applications to important industrial problems. The proposed topics are not normally found in doctoral courses: they represent a recent convergence of mathematical notions and interdisciplinary advances that has yet to appear in textbook format. The lecturers and the topics are as follows: Margaret Cheney, RPI, Foundations of scattering, Radar Imaging; Frank Natterer, U Muenster, Computerized Tomography, Medical Imaging; Laurent Demanet, MIT, Seismic Imaging, Compressed Sensing; Josselin Garnier, Paris VII, Imaging in Random Media, Time Reversal, Passive Imaging.
The topic of the summer school--tomography--is the essential concept under the hood of such imaging modalities as CT scans in medicine; synthetic aperture radar for defense applications; and seismic imaging for the oil and gas industry. The acquisition hardware and the datasets are evolving fast, but our ability to perform tomography is not. The summer school aims to interest a new generation of graduate students with quantitative backgrounds in the significant computational challenges associated with tomography. NSF support for US-based participants would have a positive impact on the continued strong competitiveness of the US in this important field of mathematical engineering with major industrial and defense applications.
(G2S3) took place on the campus of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, on July 4-15, 2011. The theme of the summer school was Waves and Imaging. A diverse international crowd of 50 selected graduate students took part in the event. Four mini-courses were given by Margaret Cheney (radar imaging, RPI), Frank Natterer (computerized tomography, WWU Muenster), Josselin Garnier (imaging in random media, Paris VII), and Laurent Demanet (seismic imaging, MIT). Lectures were given in the morning, and the afternoons were reserved for computer exercises. Generous funding for the event came from SIAM (Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics), PIMS (Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences), NSF (US National Science Foundation), and MITACS (Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems.) The funds were used to cover the travel and local expenses of all the participants who indicated a need. There was no registration fee. The focus of the summer school was on the interdisciplinary mathematics underlying different modalities of tomographic imaging such as radar, medical CT, and seismic. This format is not normally offered in a university setting. The summer school was a success by many accounts, including the feedback received from the SIAM survey, informal conversations, and the obvious engagement and hard work of the students toward learning the material. The social aspects of the school were also a success: the students had many extra-scholar activities (including weekend outings) and the group will keep in touch via a Facebook group and an email list. It was also nice to see that many students had extended their stay for the ICIAM conference, also in Vancouver and right after the summer school.
