The 149th European Study Group with Industry (ESGI) took place from March 4-8, 2019 at the University of Innsbruck. Initiated in Oxford in 1968, the ESGI brings together industrialists, students, postdocs and young academic researchers to work for a week in mathematical modeling and enhance their collaborative and communication skills in a multinational and multidisciplinary environment. During the week, researchers from around Europe work together with industrials on several intriguing problems in order to model and solve them. In this regard, the term “industry” includes Engineering, Material Sciences, Big Data Technology, Biotechnologies, Optimization of industrial processes, Transport, Services, Medicine and any other activity which has an economic or social value.

The objectives pursued for the ESGI in Innsbruck this year were:

1. Find solutions and bring new insights to challenging industrial problems;
2. Establish lasting and productive working relations between academia and industry;
3. Propose new lines of research based on business challenges;
4. Reinforce the importance of mathematics in industry and mathematical profiles companies stimulate greater awareness of the power of mathematics to provide solve real-world problems.
   
   

Prof. Markus Haltmeier and Prof. Alexander Ostermann from the Department of Mathematics of the University of Innsbruck organized the event together with AIANI´s partner institutions in Israel, Holon Institute of Technology and ORT Braude College. The Innsbruck hosts welcomed researchers from around Europe to the Technical Campus of the University of Innsbruck, including their Israeli colleagues and co-organizers Prof. Aviv Gibali from the ORT Braude College and Prof. Refael Barkan from the Holon Institute of Technology. Both came via the Erasmus+ staff mobility program to teach at ESGI and work along colleagues and students in finding solutions to five different problems posed to them by the industry. The stay of the two partners was organized via AIANI.
The study week was a great success and the researchers were able to find solutions for most of the projects or at least get closer in solving pressuring problems.

Prof. Dr. Sigal Kaplan from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem came as AIANI-Fellow to the University of Innsbruck in February 2019. She visited the Unit of Intelligent Transport Systems - Planning, Construction, Operation and Management of the Department for Infrastructure Engineering.
As an Associate Professor at the Department of Geography at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Prof. Kaplan's main research interest is behavioral geography as key for promoting a sustainable mobility by focusing on the link between transport behavior and new technologies, taking a socio-technical perspective. Her research focuses on how transport choices are shaped by people's needs and values with the aim to be better, do better and feel better. Her recent research focuses on the adoption of new technologies including electric cars, bike-sharing and multi-modal apps.
Prof. Kaplan has published 63 papers in scientific journals and her research spans across North, East and South Europe.
 
During her stay Prof. Kaplan gave a guest lecture at the Technical Campus of the University of Innsbruck. The topic of the lecture was “The Motivation for Using Advanced Travel Information Systems: a Socio-Technical Perspective”. In her talk, the efforts and need to reduce car ownership and car use were discussed. For this reason, cities are increasingly offering alternative transport modes, including major improvements in public transport, electric car-sharing and bike sharing. The next step would be the complete integration of these systems via multi-modal travel apps that provide integrated information, booking and payment options. Thus, urban transport is taking another step from product to “Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS)” solutions.
Prof. Kaplan’s presentation elaborated passenger's motivation to adopt the new multi-modal travel app for Copenhagen, which included a "green loyalty" program with the aim of encouraging travelers to choose sustainable transport options based on green and healthy gamification elements. Moreover, the current on-going research regarding the willingness to adopt “MaaS” in Innsbruck was also presented.
While Prof. Kaplan was here she was working on the project “Applying affective event theory to explain transit users’ reactions to service disruptions” in collaboration with VVT and IVB.
Her visit was supported by the state of Tyrol.
 
AIANI and the Department of Infrastructure Engineering of the University of Innsbruck were delighted to have Prof. Kaplan as a lecturer in Innsbruck and are looking forward to future cooperations.

Prof. Alex Retzker from the Racah Institute of Physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, came back to the University of Innsbruck for a second time as AIANI-Guest Professor. He already visited the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information at the University of Innsbruck in October 2018 and came back in February 2019. During his stay he gave a guest lecture about “Nano-NMR based flow meter”.

Prof. Retzker’s lecture was about the Microfludic channels that are now a well-established platform for many purposes, including bio-medical research and lab on chip applications. In his talk Prof. Retzker introduced a theoretical proposal which is based on a nano-NMR setup for measuring the mean drift velocity near the surface of a microfludic channel in a non-intrusive fashion. He discussed different possible protocols and provided a detailed analysis of the measurement’s sensitivity in each case.
 
AIANI and the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information at the University of Innsbruck were delighted to welcome Prof. Retzker again to Innsbruck and are looking forward to future collaborations!

The Ambassador of the State of Israel to Austria, H.E. Talya Lador-Fresher, visited the University of Innsbruck and AIANI for the third time during her term in office. The visit included a reception at the “Salon des Rektors” where the Ambassador was welcomed by Rector Tilmann Märk and Vice-Rector Ulrike Tanzer. Also attending were the head of the International Services, Dr. Barbara Tasser, the head of the „Transferstelle Wissenschaft“, Dr. Sara Matt-Leubner and the AIANI-Team.

In celebration of “70 Years of the State of Israel” and “5 Years AIANI”, the Ambassador gave a guest lecture later that day on “Israel @ 70: celebrating Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship”. Numerous well-known guests were present, including the mayor of Innsbruck, Georg Willi, Dr. Esther Fritsch, honorary president of the Jewish Community for Tyrol and Vorarlberg, as well as members of the university council, the different faculties and representatives from the industry and economy of the region.

The Ambassador talked about Israel and its development over the last 70 years and also emphasized how important it is to continue to strengthen the relationship between Austria and Israel.
H.E. Lador-Fresher stated that this year the Israeli embassy puts particular emphasis on further developing academic ties between the two countries, as well as science and academia in general. The evening came to a closing with a discussion panel with the Ambassador, moderated by Dean Prof. Dirk Rupnow and Prof. Noam Zadoff from the Indiana University in Bloomington. The audience was invited to ask questions. Presentations, book tables and a small reception allowed for an informal get-together and networking.

Prof. Celia Wasserstein-Fassberg from the Faculty of Law of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem came as AIANI-Fellow to the University of Innsbruck to give three very interesting guest lectures in January 2019.
The topics of the guest lecture series included “Property in Private International Law”, “Israeli Law as a Mixed Legal System”, as well as “Choice of Law Terminology in the Context of Non-Contractual Obligations”. Prof. Wasserstein-Fassberg was invited by Prof. Dr. Gregor Christandl from the Institute for Italian Law and Prof. Dr. Kristin Nemeth from the Institute for Civil Law.

In her first talk of the series, Prof. Wasserstein-Fassberg discussed the one universal choice of law rule, namely, the rule that property rights are subject to the lex situs (§31 IPRG). The discussion focused on the rationale of the rule and its implications in situations where the situs of movable property changes. It investigated and challenged the traditional assumption that giving priority to the lex situs at the time of the transfer protects vested rights.

Prof. Celia Wasserstein-Fassberg grew up in England and Jerusalem. She obtained a Ll.B. degree at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and an S.J.D. degree at Harvard Law School. After clerking at the Israeli Supreme Court she became a member of the Israeli Bar Association. Prof. Wasserstein-Fassberg is a Full Professor at the Faculty of Law of the Hebrew University, where she holds the Judge Harry M. Fisher Chair in Private International and Inter-Religious Law. Her primary area of research and teaching is Private International Law. In 2016 she was awarded the Justice Shneor Zalman Cheshin Prize for Academic Excellence in Law. She has been a Visiting Scholar at Harvard Law School, Georgetown Law School, Columbia Law School and UNIDROIT. She is a member of the International Association of Procedural Law and Vice-President of the World Society of Mixed Jurisdiction Jurists.
 
AIANI and the Faculty of Law of the University of Innsbruck were delighted to have Prof. Wasserstein-Fassberg as a lecturer in Innsbruck!

AIANI-Fellow Prof. Alex Retzker from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem gave a talk on Thursday, October 25, 2018 at the Technical Campus of the University of Innsbruck. The topic of the guest lecture was "Beating resolution limits with quantum sensing".
 
Prof. Retzker is a theoretical physicist and he was visiting the ion trapping groups on a Austria-Israel Academic Network Innsbruck fellowship. 
 
In his talk Prof. Retzker discussed the effects of projection noise on resolution problems. He showed that by utilising the fact that the projection noise could be designed to vanish for specific parameters, the frequency resolution limit of noisy signals could be increased by a few orders of magnitude.

Prof. Retzker's visit was supported by the City of Innsbruck.

For three weeks four students from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem came to Innsbruck to learn and improve their language skills in German. The students received a scholarship from the University of Innsbruck that covered the language course as well as accommodation.

AIANI met with them several times and showed them some sights in Innsbruck. The students also  visited the Jewish Community of Tyrol and Vorarlberg, where they heard about the history of the community and the synagogue in Innsbruck.

In December 2017, Dr. Aviv Gibalil from Braude College came to the University of Innsbruck as AIANI-Fellow.
Dr. Gibali is Senior Lecturer at the Mathematics Department at Braude College and Research Associate at the Center for Computational Mathematics and Scientific Computation at the University of Haifa. He got his PhD from the Technion in Israel.

Dr. Gibali was invited by Prof. Markus Haltmeier from the Department of Applied Mathematics at the University of Innsbruck. During his stay in Innsbruck, both researchers worked on joint projects and developed new ideas for future collaborations, such as a joint event in Innsbruck or in Karmiel, in the spirit of a Modelling Week or an Industrial Workshop. Plans for such joint endeavors are being made for the next year.

Dr. Gibali also gave a guest lecture on “Speedup of lexicographic Optimization by Superiorization and its Applications to Cancer Radiotherapy treatment” on December 7, 2017. Dr. Gibali invited Prof. Haltmeier to Braude College for the next step in the joint collaboration. His stay was made possible by a grant from the City of Innsbruck.

Dr. Rafal Zalas from the Technion in Israel came to the University of Innsbruck as “AIANI-Fellow” in November/December 2017 to work on joint research projects with Dipl. Ing. Dr. Christian Bargetz from the Department of Mathematics. The two scientists have known each other from previous stays of Dipl. Ing. Dr. Bargetz at the Technion and have started to work together on a joint research project with other collegues. Dr. Zalas studied Mathematics at the University of Zielona Gora in Poland and came as post-doctoral fellow to the Department of Mathematics at the Technion in Israel.

On December 5, 2017, Dr. Zalas gave a public guest lecture on “Projection methods in Feasibility” at the Department of Mathematics in Innsbruck. Students and colleagues enjoyed this interesting presentation. The stay of Dr. Zalas was supported by the City of Innsbruck.

In cooperation with the Holon Institute of Technology (HIT) and several departments at the University of Innsbruck, AIANI organizes an interdisciplinary workshop/hackathon for students, entitled “Enabling Music”. The workshop will take place at HIT in Israel in March 2018 and aims at developing interactive music instruments for children with motor impairments. As preparation for the workshop, an innovative course project was launched at the University of Innsbruck for the winter semester 2017/2018. The project is supervised by Prof. Alexander Ostermann, head of the Research Area Scientific Computing. Faculty from different departments take part in the teaching of the course and the preparation of the workshop. These departments include Applied Mathematics, Computer Science and Psychology. Students will work on the topic of “Enabling Music” from different perspectives, learn about Music Therapy, Machine Learning, Recommendation Systems, Mathematical Models of Music, Sound Engineering etc.

They will then be matched with Israeli students from HIT to form joint teams of four people. The course project is supported by the Vice Rector for Student Affairs and Teaching. The workshop in Israel is made possible by a grant from the "1669 Wissenschafft Gesellschaft - Förderkreis der Universität Innsbruck". It will be the first such interdisciplinary project carried out between the University of Innsbruck and a partner institution from Israel. AIANI is supporting and coordinating both, the course and the workshop.