(Konrad-Zuse-Zentrum für Informationstechnik)

Others?

The Konrad-Zuse Zentrum für Informationstechnik, or Zuse Institute Berlin (ZIB), is a non-university research institute of the State of Berlin that operates in the fields of information technology, applied mathematics, and computer science. It provides solutions for complex problems in science, engineering, environment, and society. In close cooperation with partners from science, economy, and society, ZIB develops mathematical models and efficient algorithms.

ZIB was created in 1986, when Professor Peter Deuflhard was recruited to Berlin. Now the institute includes about 200 people, including 3 professors, 100 scientists, and 60 students. The scientists are supported on soft money, most frequently on competitive projects lasting 3–4 years. The goal of the institute has been to be a center of high-level scientific computing, emphasizing mathematics where it matters and where it is difficult.

R&D ACTIVITIES

ZIB collaborates with Freie University Berlin, Humboldt University Berlin, the Technical University of Berlin, and the Weierstrauss Institute for Applied Analysis and Stochastics, in R&D activities of the DFG Research Center Matheon (http://www.matheon.de/index.asp). (DFG is the German Research Foundation Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, analogous to NSF, although it also supports research in medicine.)

The DFG Research Center Matheon was initiated in 2001 as a result of the Berlin consortium winning a major DFG funding initiative. The Matheon effort currently involves 40–50 professors of mathematics. It is funded through May 2010 and then has a possibility of extension into 2014, after which it must by the rules stop. DFG contributes €5.6 million per year, and the 5 other participating institutions contribute €3 million per year. This supports 6 new full professor positions, 7 junior research groups, 65 researchers, and 21 research students. Matheon funds projects and terminates the bottom 10% each year. To receive funding, each project does a 15-minute presentation every two years.

Fields of study at Matheon include optimization and discrete mathematics; numerical analysis and scientific computing; and applied and stochastic analysis. Organization is in terms of application areas: life sciences; logistics, traffic and telecommunication networks; production; circuit simulation and optoelectronic devices; finance; and visualization; education, outreach, and administration.

Matheon professors visit high schools to talk to the students and show them interesting applications of mathematics. They also have a program for embedding high school teachers into a research group to better equip them to bring more modern topics into the schools

Teaching loads for faculty in the participating departments are very high, at 8–9 hours per week; however, research professors in Matheon receive reduced teaching loads. There are few pure mathematicians in Matheon, but those who are involved are well-integrated.

ZIB and Matheon have an excellent track record of both significant mathematical accomplishments and collaborations with industry on cutting-edge problems.

The ZIB group has been very successful in obtaining funding. The bottleneck is people; where will they come from? The WTEC visiting team’s hosts reported difficulty in recruiting good people in applied mathematics. Very few ZIB students are non-German, although in Matheon, about 40% of the students are foreign.

The focus of ZIB is mathematics. The ZIB President, Prof. Peter Deuflhard, believes that the innovations of the future will have their roots in mathematics. ZIB is built around the philosophy that mathematical modeling is a source of innovation and understanding of problems, and that when mathematics gets translated into software, it makes an impact, and the real-world problems provide challenges, which in turn lead to advances in the mathematics. The problems ZIB researchers choose to focus on are very broad, often requiring substantial mathematical expertise. The ZIB has an excellent track record, substantial industrial collaboration that includes generation of successful spinoff companies, and good success in attracting funding. The only apparent limitation to its further growth is in obtaining appropriately trained people.