It all adds up

Never the sexiest of subjects, advanced mathematics can often end up coming far down the pecking order when

technology companies are looking for ways to improve the development or commercialisation of a new product. Seemingly more useful for solving exquisitely difficult mathematical puzzles than real-life problems, maths suffers from a bad image.

However, an initiative was launched last week to encourage UK companies to integrate mathematics into their research and help make the most of their technologies. The DTI’s latest Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN), the Industrial Mathematics KTN will be managed by The Smith Institute for Industrial Mathematics and System Engineering. Based at the Surrey Technology Centre in Guildford, the Smith Institute was established in 1997 to help companies improve their products, processes and services through cutting-edge mathematical modelling.

Network director Roger Leese said that it will be taking the best bits from the Faraday Partnership which preceded it. In his opinion both small and large UK technology firms are not making the most of industrial mathematics and are often not aware of the benefits it could bring to their business. ‘A knowledge transfer network puts people together who would not normally work together,’ said Leese. ‘Small companies in particular often have well-defined problems that they need to find out how to solve, usually in the design stage.’