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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
(01524 592697/593187 ( 01524 593863
Prof Kevin Glazebrook
Dept
of Management Science/Maths & Statistics
Lancaster
University
Tel:
01524 592697
Fax:
01524 594020
