The first Scultetus summer school brought ten master students to Görlitz to study practical and theoretical aspects of approximating and interpolating functions in a packed four days. The event was an extension of a course held by CASUS Young Investigator Group Leader Prof. Michael Hecht at the Mathematical Institute of Wrocław University. The idea of Scultetus summer schools is to both familiarize aspiring talents with cutting-edge research topics and to make them aware of the first-class research conditions at CASUS.
The Scultetus summer school “Approximation theory and approximation practice” from June 17 to 20 focused on different aspects of approximating and interpolating functions by using high-order polynomials, trigonometric series, and rational functions. Approximating functions is the basis for spectral methods. In the course of the event, the students applied these functions by solving differential equations and other related challenges in scientific computing using minterpy, a Python package for multivariate interpolation developed at CASUS.
The program started with some introductory lectures. They were followed by practical introductions to the minterpy software package with a special focus on comparing the package with the chebfun Matlab package. Finally, contributions by the participants developed in several working groups advanced actual research projects of Wrocław University (group of Grzegorz Karch) and CASUS (group of Michael Hecht). Besides Michael Hecht and Grzegorz Karch (and their teams), also Scultetus Visiting Scientist Prof. Cristobal Lopez from the University of the Balearic Islands as well as the CASUS Young Investigator Group Leaders Dr. Ricardo Martínez-García and Dr. Artur Yakimovich shared their expertise with the students.
Despite being from Wrocław and its surroundings, most of the students have not been to the European City Görlitz/Zgorzelec which is only 170 kilometers (a 2 hour train ride) away. Hence, in the evenings, they explored the historic old town and its charm. After the course, the participants were particularly positive about the broad and exciting insights gathered on theoretical and applied mathematics and their direct impact in the sciences.
This summer school was selected within the Workshop and Symposium Program of the Scultetus Center, CASUS’ fixture responsible for study and research exchanges. Besides organizing summer schools, workshops, symposia, and conferences, the Scultetus Center also manages short research stay programs directed at scientists of all career levels.