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Report of Begoña Vitoriano (April 2013)

SPANISH COOPERATION ON MATHEMATICS 2012
Next activities are reported and mainly involve to Begoña Vitoriano and Mercedes Siles, who were chosen for president and secretary, respectively, of the Commission for Development and Cooperation of the CE-MAT (Spanish Committee of Mathematics).

  1. Spain-Venezuela:
    • Mercedes Siles was the CIMPA responsible person at the research school “Modélisation, systèmes non linéaires et applications”, which was held in Caracas April 16-27th 2012. This school had a small economical support of the Spanish Embassy in Venezuela (probably first time that a Spanish embassy give some support to this kind of events).
    • Project with the University of Caracas, leaded by Inés Gómez-Chacón (professor at the Complutense University) focused on courses for secondary teachers of “ranchitos” (underdeveloped suburbs) in order to improve their knowledge and skills and transmit them to the students. University access is through a proof, but usually these students have a worse preparation and access results are unsuccessful. This project was working for years, but unfortunately last year there were some problems (political problems between the Venezuelan university and the Government, economic difficulties…) so it was stopped for a while.
  2. Spain-Colombia
    A CIMPA school on “Teoría de Galois de Ecuaciones en Diferencias” was held in Santa Marta, July 23rd to August 3rd. It was organised by a Spanish researcher working in Colombia (David Blázquez Sanz), and several Spanish lecturers taught courses, as well as Mercedes Siles who was as responsible person of CIMPA.
  3. Spain-Peru:
    There is a research group (ECSING) including people of University of Valladolid and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Perú. As a regular activity, the V Doctoral School on “Ecuaciones Diferenciales y Singularidades” was held, April 17-27th. Also this project includes the co-supervision of PhD. Students.
  4. Spain-Paraguay:
    Last years, the main activity of the Committee for Development and Cooperation of CE-MAT has been focused on the cooperation with the Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales (FaCEN) from the Universidad Nacional de Asunción (Paraguay). This cooperation was focused on a Master on Mathematics (courses finished on 2010, and there are still students doing their master thesis), and a Master on Statistics (finished on 2011, and there are still students doing their master thesis). Now, there is a project to organise a Master on Mathematics and Applications, involving CEMat-CIMPA-UMALCA-FaCEN, but until now, nothing clear has been reached.
  5. Spain-Mexico
    • II Meeting Royal Mathematical Spanish Society and Mathematical Mexican Society, was held in Málaga. January 17-20th 2012. More than 300 participants. Mercedes Siles was in the organizing committee.
    • Begoña Vitoriano is advisor in a doctoral thesis of a Mexican student whose supervisors are from University of Málaga and from University Autónoma de México. The topic is Mathematical Models for Disaster Response.
  6. Spain-Panamá
    EMALCA proposal (with CIMPA support), who was approved by UMALCA. Mercedes Siles travelled twice to Panamá in 2012 to develop the proposal.
  7. Spain-El Salvador:
    In 1994, began the first edition of a Master on Statistics and a Master on Mathematical Education in the Univesity of El Salvador, involving spanish lecturers. First editions included only Spanish lecturers, later also some lecturers from the University of El Salvador are teaching courses. The Master on Education had 2 editions (1994-1995, 1996-1997), and the Master on Statistics has had 4 editions (1994-1995, 1996-1997, 2008-2009, 2010-2011). Also, 2 students of the Master on Statistics have gone to Complutense University for doctoral studies (one finished in 2011, and now he is the director of the School of Mathematics of University of El Salvador, and the other one is studying right now with a grant of the Spanish Government, probably finishing this year). During the year 2012, most of the cooperation with University of El Salvador has been focused on supervision of master thesis and some courses not included in the master (stochastic programming, computational algebra…). As results of the 2012 activities, another edition of the Master on Statistics has begun in 2013, with most of the lecturers being from El Salvador (only few courses will be taught by Spanish professors), and a new master programme on Mathematics (focused on algebra, geometry and topology) has begun with all the teachers being Spanish (it is a master with less courses and more personal work). Both masters will be supported by the University of El Salvador, with some help of the Complutense University.
  8. Spain-Nicaragua:
    In 2011-2012 a project was developed between Complutense University (leaded by Juan Tejada) and University of León (Nicaragua). The project focused on improve the education of secondary teachers in the most remote area of Nicaragua (Caribbean cost), where there is a lack of opportunities for teachers and students improving their knowledge and skills, limiting their access to higher education. The project was supported by Complutense University and GIRA network.
  9. Spain-Central América
    GIRA network: a network of universities from Madrid and some countries of Central America and Caribe has been created on the base of existing projects more than future projects. Universities from El Salvador (Universidad de El Salvador), Nicaragua (Universidad de León), Honduras (Universidad de San Pedro Usula), Guatemala (Universidad de San Carlos), Costa Rica (Universidad de Costa Rica), Madrid (Universidad Complutense, Universidad de Alcalá)… The network is not specific for mathematics, but this is one of the main topics of the cooperation developed until now.
  10. Spain-Senegal:
    • In 2012, a Master on Algebra, Geometry and Applications, began into the University of Dakar, with European lecturers and organised by Mercedes Siles. Economic support for 2012 was mainly from a cooperation Project of AECID, which closed the projects at the end of 2012. Other projects will cover the second course in 2013.
    • A CIMPA school on “Structures Géométriques et Théorie du Contrôle” was held in Dakar, May 7-19th, being Mercedes Siles the scientific responsible person of CIMPA.
    • An international conference is being organised with a wide participation of Spanish researchers into the different committees, and many of them also will be speakers at the conference (to be held in Dakar, 2014).
  11. Spain-Mozambique:
    In 2010 and 2011, two postgraduate courses on Statistics were taught in the Universidade Pedagógica de Moçambique, by Spanish lecturers (organised by Begoña Vitoriano), with the support of the Spanish Cooperation. The idea was to prove if it was possible to have a master programme similar to those ones of El Salvador and Peru (1998-2007), and if language was not a drawback (Portuguese-Spanish). As the courses run successfully, a master programme on Statistics begun on 2012, with the support of Complutense University, Spanish Cooperation and University Pedagógica. The course begun with 23 students (an admission process was driven by Begoña Vitoriano resulting in 26 admitted students, and finally 23 enrolled into the programme). Currently, after 15 of the 20 courses included in the programme, 20 students are still assisting regularly and most of them successfully. Unfortunately, Spanish cooperation cut the programme for interuniversitary cooperation (even when the plan for this programme was for 4 years…), and the second year was seriously threatened. Finally, at least the 6 courses of this second year will be covered by Complutense University, CIMPA and Universidade Pedagógica.
  12. Spain-India and West Asia
      Indo-European study group on Mathematics and Industry: the first indo-european study group on Mathematics and
    • Industry, organised by the University of Laappeenranta (Finland) and the University of Badora (Gujarat, India), was held in Vadodara (Gujarat, India) in April 2011. Begoña Vitoriano was invited to participate as instructor and keynote speaker. In 2012, the second study group was organised in December 2012, and the lecturer Federico Liberatore from University Rey Juan Carlos (Madrid) participated as instructor.
    • Also in this region, Professor Jorge Jiménez Urroz, from Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña, is very active, being the Regional Scientific Officer of CIMPA, with different activities in Iran, Pakistan, Nepal, Butan, Turkey and Irak. The professor himself has participated in some workshops and activities supported by CIMPA in this area.


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