Integrative Think Tank (ITT) 2025 

Date: June 30 - July 4, 2025
Venue: Mathematikon & SAP AppHaus, Heidelberg
With partner companies INOVA+ & SAP 

Application deadline: May 3, 2025

 This event is organized under the Marie Curie doctoral network AIPHY and Flagship 3 of the 4EU+ European University Alliance

 

Transforming challenges from the industry into research projects 

What is an Integrative Think Tank (ITT)? 

The ITT is a 5-day challenge workshop with two industrial partners. Participants and experts from the companies work together to investigate R&D topics related to current developments at these companies. We adopted and adapted the concept from our colleagues at the University of Bath.

The goal of the event… 

… is to formulate research topics as thesis project outlines (PhD or Master). After the event, the university and the partner companies join forces to convert the project outlines into actual research projects.

Who can participate? 

The ITT is open to Master’s students, PhD candidates, and Postdocs at 4EU+ member universities. You should have a solid background in mathematics and computer science/machine learning. For this year's edition, a background in physics (quantum mechanics) is helpful. Typically, participants work in the STEM subjects, but economics, law, or the social sciences are also possible. The ITT is most successful if participants from various fields work together to analyze the challenges.

The benefits are:

• Insight into hot topics in R&D departments;
• Direct contact with companies for internships, practicals, or later employment;
• Certificate of participation over 2 ECTS;
• Possibility of using the resulting research questions for a thesis, dissertation, or other research project (subject to discussion between the company and home university).

Program

The preliminary program is available here (PDF)

 Overview:

Monday, June 30: Presentation of SAP challenges; group discussions
Tuesday, July 1: Presentation of INOVA+ challenges; group discussions
Wednesday, July 2: Group work - analyze the problems
Thursday, July 3: Group work - mathematical and computational tools
Friday, July 4: Presentation of project ideas with industry partners
All the time: open discussions, creative thinking, good vibes, and lots of coffee :-)

Application

Please apply here.

Required documents: CV and short motivational letter (15 lines) as one combined PDF file. The file name needs to feature your name as follows: lastname_firstname.pdf

Application deadline: May 3, 2025

We will inform you about the outcome of your application by May 20, 2025.

Organizers
Prof. Jürgen Hesser
Dr. Michael J. Winckler
Prof. Robert Scheichl
Contact HGS MathComp Office
Email: hgs@iwr.uni-heidelberg.de