In March 2019, close to 45 academics from all over the world attended the international conference about educational, political and cultural aspects of migration, at Beit Berl College in Israel.
 
As migration is a burning issue all over the world, the conference at Beit Berl was a unique opportunity to learn how various issues related to migration are being handled in different countries. The event was organized by Beit Berl in partnership with Ludwigsburg University of Education in Germany and Pedagogical University of Krakow in Poland. Faculty members from various academic institutions across Europe were attending, including Prof. Dirk Rupnow, Prof. Barbara Herzog-Punzenberger, Dr. Grit Alter, Claudius Ströhle and Laura Volgger from the University of Innsbruck.
 
Lectures and discussion sessions covered a wide range of pertinent subjects, including “Immigration in the Educational Context,” “Gender and Migration,” “Immigrant Children and Youth,” “Immigration in Art and Film,” and “The Politics of Immigration.” Each issue was addressed by a panel of international experts who brought a variety of interesting perspectives and insights to the table based on their personal involvement and academic research. The participants from the University of Innsbruck reported that they benefitted immensely from the opportunity to compare their research projects and exchange views with colleagues from other countries.
The conference participants were also taken to visit Israeli sights and moreover, Israeli NGOs involved with immigrants and refugees, including a school with a special program for integrating the children of newly arrived immigrants.
 
Find more information about the conference here:
www.beitberl.ac.il/english/international/conferences/migration

From March 3-10, 2019 the Tel Aviv Spring School took place in Israel with three students from the University of Innsbruck attending. AIANI supported the participants with a grant. Read the experience report from one of the students here:

Read Experience Report

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.