The University of Regina will host the second Prairie Industrial Problem Solving Workshop, May 28-June 1, 2001. It's modeled after highly successful workshops held at Oxford University in England for more than 20 years. Prior to the workshop, companies submit the problems they wish to have considered.
Organizers select five or six for discussion.
During the workshop, representatives of the companies selected make detailed presentations of the problems. Workshop participants then split up into groups to consider individual problems. On Friday, June 1, the entire workshop will reconvene into a single body and the groups take turns presenting their achievements. Workshop participants range from graduate students to professors with considerable industrial experience, including Dr. Huaxiong Huang from York University and Dr. Marc Paulhus from the University of Calgary. Among the issues considered at last year's workshop was Atomic Energy Canada's desire to find optimal ways to test the massive software routines used for its reactors, and problems PCS encountered when producing potassium chloride as a fertilizer and industrial chemical.