First Congress of Young Researchers in Applied Mathematics

In order to create exchanges within their scientific community (all the more important in this period of global pandemic), doctoral students from the École polytechnique organised the first congress of young researchers in applied mathematics. The first French event reserved for young people in this discipline, this unique congress welcomed over 120 participants.

Three plenary lectures were given by renowned researchers. Anne-Laure Dalibard, professor at Sorbonne University and researcher at the Jacques-Louis Lions laboratory, gave the first lecture detailing the different partial differential equation models describing oceanographic phenomena, as well as the problems still faced by researchers in this field. The second lecture, given by Emmanuel Prados, an Inria researcher, gave an overview of the current state of the planet's ecosystems and resources. Following this, he presented a number of consequences concerning several major societal challenges: climate risk, immigration, supply, inequality, as well as the place of digital technology in our societies. Ninon Burgos, CNRS researcher at the Paris Brain Institute, presented in the last conference how mathematical machine learning tools are finding their place at all stages of the patient journey: from diagnosis (medical image processing) to personalised treatment.

Constantin Philippenko, a doctoral student at the Centre for Applied Mathematics (CMAP*) and chairman of the congress organising committee, is pleased with the success of the event: "With 39 speakers, 32 posters presented and three plenary lectures, we have succeeded in creating a congress in which the majority of registrants participate!" Co-organised with the Société de mathématiques appliquées et industrielles, the conference was also supported by several academic institutions such as INRIA, but also by industrial partners, with sponsors such as the DGA and Accenture, or Carrefour with the Next-Gen RetAIl Chair and BNP Paribas with the Stress Test Chair.

For Anne-Laure Dalibard, this conference is "an excellent initiative to bring the community together and structure it. Organising a conference also allows you to get to know your community in a different way and gives you a more global viewpoint. The participants came from institutions in the Ile-de-France region (Université Paris-Saclay, Université de Sorbonne Paris Nord, etc.) but also from the entire metropolitan area (ENS Lyon, Université de Toulouse, etc.). As this event was conceived with the aim of becoming a permanent event, the organisers of the congress hope that it will be reorganised next year and are looking for a non-Francilian laboratory to carry on the flame.

*CMAP: a joint research unit CNRS, École Polytechnique - Institut Polytechnique de Paris