2001 - 2006: Winter Schools in Computational Mathematics

Winter schools in computational mathematics started as a four-year project (2001-2004) funded by the Research Council of Norway under grant number 137461/431 and was continued as a two-year project (2005-2006) under grant number 159868/V30. 

The aim of the project was to organise a series of annual winter school with different topics in modern computational methods with special emphasis on partial differential equations and high performance computing. The schools lasted one week and were aimed at graduate/doctoral students and researchers at universities, research institutes, or in industry. Advanced undergraduate students were also welcome.

The winter schools were held at Geilo - a popular Norwegian ski resort. An important aspect of the winter schools was to enable the participants to make new contacts with other researchers. The atmosphere of the winter schools has therefore been informal, with room in the programme for skiing and other social activities.

2007 - 2010: National Arena in eScience

To foster collaboration between researchers in eScience, the  Research Council of Norway has established an annual meeting series as part of the eVITA programme (project number 178774). The purpose of the meeting series is to establish a national meeting place where researchers can get updated on new ideas, methods, and theories within the eScience field and collaborate and exchange ideas and experience.

The annual meetings in the period 2007-2010 consisted of two parts:

• A two-day scientific meeting  for  researchers connected to  eVITA  and prospective applicants to the program, but also open for participants from universities, research institutions, government and industry who are interested in getting to know new results, theories and methods from the the eVITA program and eScience in general.
• A winter school for  young researchers within the eSciences. Although the schools were primarily aimed at graduate, doctoral, and postdoctoral students,  advanced undergraduate students and senior researchers have also been heartly welcome. The focus of the winter schools has been on new methods and theories within mathematics, statistics and computer science, but with an eye to applications of national interest.
• In addition, the program board of eVITA has held some of its meetings in connection with the scientific meeting.

'National Arena in eScience'  was run by SINTEF as a separate project under the eVITA program. SINTEF was responsible for organizing the meetings, but the scientific program is decided by a national program committee. 

Scientific Committee:

In the years 2007-2010, the eVITA programme organized a set of annual scientific meetings in conjunction with the winter school. The meetings followed the tradition established in the BeMatA program. The purpose of the meetings has been to present information and scientific results from the eVITA program and to foster interaction and collaboration among researchers in the eScience field, including prospective applications to eVITA, in particular. In addition, a few invited lecturer will provide insight into new hot topics or give overviews over existing fields within eScience: infrastructure, theory, and applications.

• First meeting, 29-30 January 2007
• Second meeting, 21-22 January 2008
• Third meeing, 27-29 January 2010

2011 - 2015: eVita Winter School

SINTEF organized five annual winter schools in the period 2011-2015 under project number 203376. Each winter school took place at Dr. Holms Hotel in the fourth week of January. This project was a continuation of the previous winter school in computational mathematics (2001-2006) and in eScience (2007-2010).

The winter schools are planned to follow the format of the first six winter schools. The schools are primarily aimed at graduate, doctoral, and postdoctoral students, but are also open for advanced undergraduate students and senior researchers. The purpose of the series is to establish an annual meeting place where young researchers can get updated on new ideas, methods and theories within the eScience field and collaborate and exchange ideas and experience.

Each winter school will consist of a series of 24-30 lectures (45 minutes each) and last from Sunday afternoon to Friday lunch. The lectures will focus on advanced methods and theories in computational mathematics, statistics, and/or computer science that are relevant to a wide range of applications of national interest. A new topic will be chosen each year by a scientific committee.

The daily schedule is as follows:

• On Sunday afternoon, we start by giving 2-4 introductory lectures.
• The next four days, there will be two lectures in the morning and four in the afternoon, with a long break in the middle of the day to enable skiing or other sports/outdoor/scienti c activities.
• On Friday, there will be 2-4 lectures before lunch.

All participants eat dinner together in the evening all days except Friday. The weather conditions are normally quite good at Geilo at the end of January, and there will be ample opportunities for outdoor activities (skiing) during the mid-day breaks.