On September 14th and 15th, the Young Mathematicians Symposium of the Greater Region (YMSGR) took place for the third time. After the first two editions were held in Nancy (France) in 2018 and in Liège (Belgium) in 2019, this year the Technische Universität Kaiserslautern (TUK) has hosted the event. Nilusha Gamage and Maximilian Diehl, from the Financial Mathematics Group, were involved in organizing it.
The YMSGR is a conference organized by PhD students for other PhD students. Within a friendly environment, young mathematicians are given the opportunity to present their own research interests to other young scientists. Here, the focus lies on covering a broad spectrum of mathematical topics.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the conference could not take place in attendance at the TUK. Lots of planned activities including a guided tour at the Fraunhofer ITWM, a hike in the Palatinate Forest, and a conference dinner had to be canceled. Instead, the conference was held online in BigBlueButton, an open source web conferencing system. This new format of the YMSGR did not only reveal technical challenges but also new opportunities since participation was now also possible for scientists farther away from the greater region without any problems. Indeed, the conference was enriched with contributions from Austria and even from China.
The Financial Mathematics Group was very well represented by seven participants at this year's YMSGR. Fatlinda Avdullai, Ricarda Rosemann, and Lukas Müller contributed to the program with interesting talks from the fields of actuarial and financial mathematics.
In total, over 30 young mathematicians from more than five countries participated in the event. There were eleven talks, thematically divided into five sessions and assigned to the fields of algebra, optimization and combinatorics as well as financial mathematics. During a short test run around 11 a.m. on the first day, participants could test audio and webcam. Furthermore, functions of the available tools within the virtual conference room were explained. The official start was given by an opening speech with an integrated introduction of the participants at 12:30 p.m. Soon, the first presentations followed with vivid rounds of question. The second day of the conference started at 8:30 a.m. and ended at 2:50 p.m. During smaller and larger breaks in-between sessions, participants were given the opportunity to exchange ideas in a public chat. Except for a short connection failure to one of the speakers, there were no technical problems at all.
In summary, this online conference was a complete success. The first feedback was consistently positive. The organizing committee would like to thank all young mathematicians who made this conference possible through their active participation. Regarding the future of YMSGR, there are already good news: Some participants expressed their interest in helping to organize a fourth edition next year.
The YMSGR 2020 was organized by:
- Maximilian Diehl, TU Kaiserslautern
- Nilusha Gamage, TU Kaiserslautern
- Vanishree Krishna Kirekod, TU Kaiserslautern
- Suranimalee Jayantha Herath Mudiyanselage, TU Kaiserslautern
- Sogo Pierre Sanon, TU Kaiserslautern
- Arsha Sherly, TU Kaiserslautern
- Meiko Volz, TU Kaiserslautern
- Laurent Loosveldt, Université de Liège
- Andrea Thevis, Universität des Saarlandes