Dear Colleagues,
NATCOR is the EPSRC-funded national taught course centre in Operational Research for doctoral students. Registration for NATCOR's 2009-2010 programme opens today. All course registrations should be made via the website at http://www.natcor.ac.uk.
Further details are given in the letter below and on the website. NATCOR does not operate a formal deadline for registrations, but we do expect demand for the courses to be strong and early sign ups are encouraged.
Best wishes, Kevin Glazebrook
Prof Kevin Glazebrook
Director, NATCOR
Dept of Management Science/Maths & Statistics
Lancaster University
Tel: 01524 592697
Fax: 01524 594020
September 2009
Dear Colleague
NATCOR: National Taught Course Centre in Operational Research (OR)
(EPSRC funded)
NATCOR, a national centre providing taught courses in Operational Research (OR) for PhD students is one of a range of taught course centres in the mathematical sciences supported by EPSRC. These are now in their third year of full operation. Our courses operate on a two-year cycle and are primarily intended for students in their first two years of doctoral study. Hence we have just seen our first cohort of students complete the full suite of NATCOR courses. When we asked them what they thought of the programme, 88% said that they would recommend NATCOR to others. The response to the programme has far exceeded our expectations. The total number of registrations for the five residential courses delivered to date has been well over 400 and the student feedback extremely positive. A summary of the feedback we have received from students completing the programme is now available on our website at http://www.natcor.ac.uk.
One point we continue to emphasise is that this EPSRC-funded provision springs from an acknowledged need to both broaden and deepen doctoral provision within the UK. Hence it is very much not the case that students should feel that they will only profit from material which is close to their research topic. Our courses are all designed for a broad doctoral audience. This will include, for example, mathematics students not taking PhDs in OR but who wish to be exposed to topics of direct industrial relevance for career reasons.
NATCOR courses for 2009-10
There will be two one-week (Monday to Friday) residential courses. Web-based materials will be made available to participants in advance to assist with preparation. The courses are as follows:
Heuristics and Approximation Algorithms
University of Nottingham
April 12 - 16, 2010
Convex Optimisation
Brunel University
June 28 - July 2, 2010
Detailed course outlines may be found on the website. Please note that the Heuristics and Approximation Algorithms course will immediately follow a two-day conference (SCOR) for PhD students in OR, also to be held at Nottingham. Further details of the conference will be available from the organisers shortly.
Costs
The cost associated with each residential course attendance has two elements. The first is a registration fee and is payable for all participants. The second is an accommodation fee. The latter is NOT payable for EPSRC funded students (nor for those who do not require accommodation). The details are as follows:
Registration Fee (payable for all students)
£70 registration fee per course
A reduced registration fee of £120 is offered if both courses are booked
Accommodation (bed & breakfast for four nights), if required
Non EPSRC funded students - £140 per course
EPSRC funded students - no charge
A course dinner will also be held, the cost of which is included in the registration fee. All other meal costs will be met by the student.
Important notice on accommodation charges
When en-suite accommodation cannot be offered for a particular course at the standard charge, students will be given the option to upgrade to ensuite accommodation at an additional fee of £60. For our 2009-2010 courses, en-suite accommodation is offered as standard at Brunel. However, students will need to upgrade if en-suite is required at Nottingham (making an accommodation charge there of £200 in total). We will make it clear at registration that students will bear the responsibility for meeting any such additional fees.
Registration and payment
Registration via our website will be open at the end of September for NATCOR's programme for the 2009-10 session. We expect demand for the courses to continue to be strong and encourage early registration. Once registration is complete, an invoice will be raised for the amount payable and sent direct to the department/institution. Payment details will accompany the invoice.
Travel costs
Funds are also available to assist in the defraying of the costs incurred by EPSRC funded students in travelling to and from the residential courses. Details may be found on the website.
Please consult our website in the first instance for any questions you have about NATCOR's provision. If questions remain, please get in touch with either Lindsay Newby or myself with any queries. Contact details are to be found below. I would be very grateful if you could encourage your PhD students to look at the website.
Yours sincerely
Kevin Glazebrook
Professor of Statistics and Operational Research, Lancaster University,
Director, NATCOR
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(01524 592697/593187 ( 01524 593863
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