“To impact all sectors through mathematical sciences, it is important to have a diversity of profiles that understand and translate the challenges to be worked on by experts in the field focused on generating impact. The collaboration between SAMBa, UNAM and CIMAT has strengthened us in tools and techniques to visualize new perspectives of development and collaboration with a focus on generating value for other institutions. We continue working with Samsung and CNB in different projects. With the CNB we are an active part of the National Informatics Ecosystem for the Search of Missing Persons”
Ivete Sanchez-Bravo, Technology Services Coordinator Director of the office of development and innovation based on mathematical sciences
SAMBa has partnerships with a variety of countries and institutions worldwide, including in Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Mongolia, Paraguay, and Germany. The ITT model has been used very effectively to drive collaborative research and deliver impact in the partner countries and worldwide.
Research collaborations with Mexico, particularly the institutions of UNAM (UNAM | Portal UNAM) and CIMAT (CIMAT) were established in the Department of Mathematical Sciences for a number of years before SAMBa was created. Having the SAMBa focus allowed these collaborations and networks to be brought together and expanded and over the years many researchers from Mexico participated in Bath-based ITTs. In 2019, a joint ITT was delivered between SAMBa, UNAM, and CIMAT, held in Guanajuato in Mexico with academics, PhDs, and Master’s students participating from across the institutions.
Partners were Samsung, CENAPRED, the Mexican National Centre for Prevention of Disasters, and Comisión Nacional de Búsqueda (CNB), the government agency responsible for finding people who have been “forcibly disappeared”. Research has continued with these partners, in particular with CENAPRED who came back to a second Mexico-SAMBa ITT, this time including the Bath CDT for Accountable Responsible and Transparent Artificial Intelligence (ART-AI) (ART-AI – UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training (cdt-art-ai.ac.uk)), and additional partners from the Government of Jalisco (https://jalisco.gob.mx/en/inicio) and SACMEX, the water utility overseers for Mexico City. As a result of these ITTs with Mexico, joint research proposals have been funded, and joint papers published. There is also a steady stream of researchers moving between the institutions and, within Mexico, strong relationships have been developed with the partners which has led to direct funding for research and strategic relationships to build long-term activity.
Currently, the collaboration with Samsung and CNB continues through CIMAT’s academic staff working on research and technological development projects. In the case of Samsung through research and development and in the case of CNB through various projects that continue to provide useful information for the search of missing persons.
“We have a great track record of successful collaboration with SAMBa, as we share a common aim – applying the latest thinking in mathematics and statistics to solve real-world problems."
There were a couple of ongoing personal research collaborations with Novartis in the Department of Mathematical Sciences that were brought together to develop a set of challenges for Novartis’s participation in ITT12. These consisted of questions exploring modelling and data integration in pharmacokinetics models, and finding effective routes to drug development for liver disease.
"For a small company like ours, this research is vital in delivering our vision to create digital technologies that change what’s possible for clinicians and patients."
“Alongside the specific potential benefits to applied flood and coastal risk management, I have seen first-hand that the SAMBa CDT produces high calibre doctoral graduates with excellent skills in problem formulation and collaborative problem solving...”
"The students at SAMBa were engaging and motivated, above all interested in solving real world problems with their skills. As a result of SAMBa we have taken huge strides forward in a new technique in the assessment of arthritis related to psoriasis and the effect of treatment.
"Working with SAMBa students to relay how our industry understands the daily challenges in aerospace design and manufacture and for them to translate them into statistical/mathematical models and methods was a refreshing and rewarding concept."
"We are working with SAMBa to develop new tools for managing risk by combining deterministic and probabilistic methods."
"We found participating in the ITT to be an unique and engaging environment for exchanging ideas and it was also good fun. Above all it produced some truly innovative thinking."
