Peruvian Conference on Scientific Computing
The project Peruvian Competence Center of Scientific Computing (www.pec3.org) is funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (www.daad.de) and it brings several German and Peruvian universities together. It has the goal to foster research and education in applied mathematics. Although most of the time (the project ran from 2019 – 2022) the project was badly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, we could successfully organize several summer schools, support online conferences and opened several lectures of German universities for Peruvian students.
In 2022 the Peruvian Conference on Scientific Computing (www.pec3.org/cusco2022) that we organized in October 2022 in the Andean city of Cusco in Peru was the highlight of the project. We brought together more than 150 participants from all over the world. Nearly 50 lectures and about 25 posters were presented. The presentations showed that the role of applied mathematics is substantial in Peru and the surrounding countries. Some of the striking problems of the continent, such as the origins and the effects of climate change or the spread of tropical diseases and measures against them like mosquito control were the topic of many contributions.
Figure 1 Parallel Lectures
The support of the German Academic Exchange Service made it possible to support travel and accommodation costs of participants from two Peruvian partner universities. In addition, the support of the International Council for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM) allowed us to award 11 ICIAM Fellowships to participants from neighboring developing countries. Both sources of support have been essential to provide fair opportunities for joining the event.
Figure 2: Conference venue
Three days of the conference were mainly reserved for talks and poster sessions with a pretty dense program. It was our goal to allow as many participants to present their topics as possible. One afternoon and the complete fourth day was reserved for the social program to give time for discussion and networking. Since Cusco is an old Inca settlement with world-class artefacts and ruins, (also in close proximity to Machu Picchu) interesting destinations are close by. One afternoon the complete conference went for a little hike to the ruins of Sacsayhuamán directly atop the center of Cusco.
Figure 3 Group photo during the hike to Sacsayhuaman
On the final day of the conference, the local host, the Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco,organized an excursion to the Inca complex at Písac. This gave the participants plenty of time for discussion and exchange of ideas for future collaboration.
Figure 4 Trip to Pisac
