4th global conference on numerical analysis and optimization begins
MUSCAT: The fourth international conference on Numerical Analysis and Optimization (NAOIV-2017) commenced at Sultan Qaboos University on Monday under the patronage of Mohammed bin Salim al Toobi, Minister of Environment and Climate Affairs.
The four-day conference is organised by the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, College of Science at SQU, in association with the Department of Mathematics and Science, German University of Technology in Oman (GUtech) and Oman Mathematics Committee (OMC). Other international and local sponsors include COMSTECH (Pakistan), the British Council (Oman), AMPL (USA), and GUtech. This reflects a strong collaboration among local mathematicians and the academic community in Muscat and Oman.
NAOIV-2017 is the fourth conference in a series organised once every three years at SQU.
The purpose of the conference is to promote SQU as a centre of excellence by bringing together a group of worldwide experts, prominent mathematicians to stimulate the communication of new innovative ideas and knowledge in the fields of Numerical Analysis and Optimization. The conference features oral presentations of novel and advanced applications on their latest research work in engineering, science, medicine, commerce, etc, to facilitate interdisciplinary studies among various key sectors of pure scientific and applied knowledge.
The conference NAOIV reports on topics such as numerical analysis; mathematical programming and computational optimisation; approximation and optimal control theories; computational methods for ordinary and partial differential equations; derivative free optimisation methods; software algorithms; and applications to various types of computational optimisation methods.
The conference also provides opportunities for local Omani researchers and PhD research students at SQU to present their latest research work orally, to participate in informal and interactive discussions and social interaction, to exchange new innovative ideas and build up knowledge on new scientific methodologies, and to establish contacts with internationally experienced and distinguished researchers for further cooperation and collaboration.
Selected and refereed invited keynote lectures of the conference will be published in an edited book of Springer series on Proceedings in Mathematics and Statistics and selected contributed papers will be published in the (special edited) volume of Optimization Methods and Software and in SQU Journal for Science.
In his welcoming address, Prof Mehiddin Al Baali, Chair of the Organizing Committee of NAOIV 2017, said that the talks at the conference are to be presented by participants from 23 countries: USA with 5 talks, followed by Iran with 4, India and Italy with 3.
In her address, Prof Salma al Kindy, Dean of the College of Science, SQU, stressed on the importance of this conference that brings together mathematicians and scientists from all parts of the world for exchange of knowledge in Numerical Analysis and Optimization and establish links and research collaboration.
The Dean gave an overview of the academic and research activities of the College of Science.
This conference is also dedicated to the late Professors Mike JD Powell and Roger Fletcher, who were the pioneers and leading figures in the mathematics of nonlinear optimisation.
In the opening ceremony, Prof Philippe L Toint from the University of Namur, Belgium, gave a talk in memory of Fletcher and Powel.