Physicists on an intellectual vacation
Five-day workshop 'Physics with Industry' results in new insights and new contacts between researchers and companies.
Last week, FOM organised the workshop "Physics with Industry" together with the Lorentz Center and Technology Foundation STW. From Monday to Friday, researchers and companies (ASML, NXP, NIZO, Teijin and FrieslandCampina) worked together on the physical problems that these companies face. Wim van Saarloos, director of FOM and a participant in the workshop, summarised the results as follows: "Substantial progress was made in getting to the bottom of problems; new ways of providing solutions were also found and potentially valuable contacts were made by both the companies and the participants."
A total of 49 researchers participated in the workshop - 30 junior researchers (PhD students and post-docs) and 19 senior researchers. In five groups, the participants worked on cases from the R&D departments of ASML, NXP, NIZO, Teijin and FrieslandCampina. Each case was accompanied by researchers from the company itself and by several senior researchers whose specific contributions were requested for a given case. For the participants, it was a chance to see which physical problems companies face and to establish contacts in this field. "It was great to make contact with industry via this workshop," said participant Steven Klein, "I’m really interested in these companies". The companies made full use of the available knowledge throughout the week and for them it was an ideal opportunity to scout for talent.
After a plenary introduction of the problems on Monday, the groups spread over five different rooms in order to latch onto a single problem. After just two days, on Wednesday morning, the groups presented their solution strategies to each other. With this approach, the large amount of information could be structured and the groups could give feedback to each other. On Thursday, the adrenalin really started pumping as participants worked into the night to finish everything for the final presentations on Friday.
On the final day, some groups presented fully developed physical models with the problem described in detail. Other groups focused more on thinking "outside the box" and provided creative input for a solution. Both approaches led to fantastic results that the companies were really pleased with. After the event, Peter Steeneken of NXP said: "This problem wasn't easy, but the team was very flexible and approached it well. I was impressed." Teijin is also pleased with the results: "I've seen a lot of literature on this subject, but this approach is new to me!" said Hans Meerman enthusiastically.
Further information
For further information and pictures of the workshop please visit the Lorentz Center website.
You can download the report of the workshop in the upper right corner 'Proceedings Phyiscis with Industry 2010'.