Uni Siegen is a Partner in the New Mathematics SFB

At the start of the year 2017, the German Research Foundation (DFG) is launching a new Transregio collaborative research center (SFB) in mathematics. Scientists from seven different universities are jointly implementing the project.

Research success for the University of Siegen! The university is a partner in a new Transregio-Sonderforschungsbereich (SFB) of the DFG – German Research Foundation. "Symbolic Tools in Mathematics and its Application" deals with questions of computer algebra. One of the scientists’ goals is to develop a modern computer algebra system, which can perform highly complex calculations. Prof. Dr. Mohamed Barakat from the "Chair of Pure Mathematics" is participating in the research project on behalf of the University of Siegen. With his working group, he will work on two projects within the framework of the new collaborative research center. The DFG will invest more than 500,000 euros in this project. In total, the Transregio-Sonderforschungsbereich will be funded with 7.5 million Euros over the next four years.

The participation in the new SFB is a further research success for the University of Siegen after the establishment of the special research area "Medien der Kooperation" in January 2016. "A great achievement of Prof. Barakat and his working group, which deserves the greatest recognition. Just another expresssion of the quality of research and the possibilities existing here in Siegen, "said Prof. Dr. Peter Haring Bolívar, Prorector for Research and Junior Scientific Staff.

"The participation in this new Transregio collaborative research center is a great opportunity for us to continue our research work of the past years on the highest level," says Prof. Barakat. The growing complexity of some areas of modern mathematics increasingly requires the use of computers as experimental tools: "Since quite some time ago, paper and pencil just aren’t enough anymore!" The new SFB will cover subjects from the fields of algebra, number theory, algebraic-, and convex geometry. These four areas are increasingly growing together, explains Barakat. The goal of the new computer algebraic system is to meet the emerging new requirements.

One of the two projects of the Siegen Working Group around Prof. Barakat deals directly with the development of the new computer algebra system. In the second Siegen project the aim is to bring previously unachievable abstractions into the reach of computer algebra. "This will allow us to create completely new types of experimentation and computing that are not possible up to now," says Barakat. For the human brain, such calculations are too complex, "but if we teach computers our way of thinking, they could lose this complexity in the future." The Siegen projects are two of a total of twenty projects within the Transregio SFB , Both were rated "excellent" by the DFG in the application form.

Background:
Mathematicians of the TU Kaiserslautern, the University of Saarland and the RWTH Aachen University of Technology work together in the new Transregio collaborative research center. The associated universities are the TU Berlin, the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen, the University of Stuttgart and the University of Siegen. The planned total duration of the project is 12 years.

Contact Person:
Prof. Dr. Mohamed Barakat of the “Chair of Pure Mathematics”
e-mail: mohamed.barakat@uni-siegen.de
Tel: +49-271-740-3577