MASCOS

Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Mathematics and Statistics of Complex Systems

The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Mathematics and Statistics of Complex Systems (MASCOS) was established in 2003, with the following research themes:

  • Risk Modelling
  • Critical Phenomena
  • Dynamical Systems
  • Complex Networks

Professor Ian Sloan of UNSW was Deputy Director of MASCOS, and was a Chief Investigator in the area of quasi-Monte Carlo Methods. Professor Gary Froyland was a Chief Investigator in the areas of dynamical systems and optimization.

Associate Investigators: UNSW

Dr Josef Dick
Dr Frances Kuo
A/Prof John Roberts
Benjamin Waterhouse
A/Prof Rob Womersley

Partner Investigator: UNSW

E/Prof Colin Rogers

Other investigators: UNSW

Dr Johann Brauchart (Research Fellow)
Dr Quoc Thong Le Gia (Research Fellow)
Dr Bernard Kachoyan (Industrial Fellow)
Amirah Abd Rahman Siti (PhD student)
Andrew Chernih (PhD student)
Shaun De Roza (MSc student)
Michelle Dunbar (PhD student)
Timothy Glass (PhD student)
Stephen Maher (PhD student)
Daniel Mansfield (PhD student)
James Nichols (PhD student)
Ognjen Stancevic (PhD student)
Robyn Stuart (PhD student)
Louise Wilkinson (MSc student)

As well as contributing to MASCOS research, several MASCOS events were held at the School of Mathematics and Statistics, UNSW, as described below.

Breakfast Briefing: Making the right decisions in Transport and Logistics

On 8 June 2010 in the MLC Tower, the heart of Sydney’s business centre, MASCOS and Industry and Investment NSW (I&INSW - NSW State Government) partnered in a Breakfast Briefing on, ‘Making the right decisions in Transport and Logistics’. Over 60 attended the Briefing from industry, government and academia. This was the first in our joint Industry Breakfast Briefing series 2010, and focussed on Transport and Logistics due to our increasingly complex world bringing enormous challenges to the sector in NSW. 

Keynote speakers were: Mr David Shteinman - Industry Projects Manager, MASCOS; Mr Fraser Johnson -Manager, Network Performance Development, Traffic Management, RTA; Mr Christian Chong-White - Traffic Algorithm Development Manager, Traffic Management, RTA; and Associate Professor Gary Froyland - School of Mathematics and Statistics, UNSW.

Macquarie Bank Linkage Grant on Financial Risk

MASCOS researcher Ian Sloan and his group held a Linkage Grant with Macquarie Bank for research into computational methods to improve the calculation of financial risk. See the news story for more about this joint venture.

Inaugural AMSI/MASCOS Industry Forum, July 21 2005

A major forum in Sydney on July 21 2005 brought together mathematicians and industry partners on the theme of the benefits of using the mathematical sciences to manage risk, resources and health. The key speaker was Professor Arvind Gupta (pictured left, with Ian Sloan at UNSW), Scientific Director of the very successful Canadian centre MITACS, and the Forum was opened by the federal Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources, Ian Macfarlane. At a reception hosted by the Canadian Consul-General, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed on collaboration between MITACS, MASCOS and AMSI.



Agreement with German Center and visit of Martin Groetschel

The German Research Center for Mathematics of Key Technologies (Matheon) and MASCOS signed a collaborative agreement in Berlin on Nov 1, 2004. As part of the agreement, the Director of the German Center, Professor Martin Groetschel (right, with Ian Sloan) visited Australia. He was in Sydney Feb 6-9, 2005, and a major event was held on Tuesday Feb 8. He also spoke at UNSW.

Under the agreement, Matheon provided personnel to assist a pilot project based at UNSW on port container unloading with Patrick. Thorsten Koch and Nicole Megow of Matheon visited UNSW. Thorsten presented a seminar at a reception at DSRD on 13 Sept 2005.

Past events

The Centre gratefully acknowledges the support of the New South Wales Department of State and Regional Development.