Istituto di Matematica Applicata e Tecnologie Informatiche
"Enrico Magenes"
CONSIGLIO NAZIONALE DELLE RICERCHE

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IMATI, Institute of Applied Mathematics and Information Technology, is a result of a merger of three existing Institutes, which had already a solid reputation, at the international level, within the field of Mathematics and its Applications, namely: IAMI (Institute for the Application of Mathematics and Computer Sciences) in Milan, IAN (Institute of Numerical Analysis) in Pavia,and IMA (Institute of Applied Mathematics) in Genoa.

The Institute itself has three divisions (Milan, Pavia and Genoa) with its main offices in Pavia. The merger of the former Institutes into a single one has enabled IMATI to carry out research activities in numerous fields of Mathematics, Information Technology and their applications:

  1. Mathematical Statistics and Probability, with research programs focusing on the development and study of methodologies and models for the description of random phenomena, both in parametric and non-parametric frameworks, with applications to energy distribution, population dynamics, option pricing, decision problems, image analysis, reliability data analysis, seismic data analysis, climatic data analysis, farmacological and clinical data analysis. This field is mainly studied in Milan.
  2. Geometric Modelling and Computer Graphics, with research programs concerned with the development of methods of shape analysis and synthesis applied to CAD, GIS systems, health, cultural heritage and virtual reality techniques, as well as methods for curve and surface reconstruction. This field is mainly studied in Genoa, and there are active researchers in Milan as well.
    3. Computing Architectures and High Performance Computing, with research programs aiming at developing methodologies, algorithms, models and tools for an efficient and effective use of innovative computing architectures. This field is mainly developped in Genoa and in Pavia.
  3. Information Technologies, with research work concerned with training programs, teaching of scientific subjects, and the development of procedures and programming languages that allow mathematical and scientific documentation to be dealt with via the Internet. Researchers from Genoa and Milan are involved in this field.
  4. Modelling of Biomedical Phenomena, with research activities dealing with the design and development of methods that aim at solving problems arising in electrocardiology as well as problems of identification of biological and physical systems. In this research area, it is particularly innovative the modelling approach based on the integration of techniques of Qualitative Reasoning, developed in the Artificial Intelligence research framework for incomplete knowledge representation, with methods of learning from data, with classical methods of qualitative analysis of nonlinear dynamical systems, and with methods of feature extraction from experimental data. Researchers from Pavia are mainly involved in this area.
  5. Differential Modelling, considered from different points of view: theoretical (existence, uniqueness and regularity of the solutions), numerical (approximation schemes, stability and adaptability) and computational (algorithms and computing methodologies). The results of these research programs are widely used to deal with applied problems coming, for instance, from fluid dynamics, electromagnetics, semiconductor devices simulation, elastic and elastoplastic material properties, including shape memory alloys. This wide field is mainly studied in Pavia, and there are active researchers in Genoa and Milan as well.
Within IMATI, the variety of strengths of the three original components opens the way to several very innovative perspectives both for basic research activities as well as for applications. Actually the expertises of the new Institute vary from theoretical and computational modelling to informatics and to probability and statistics, considering also teaching and training activities. The synergetic merging of these abilities allows IMATI to deal in a better way with the changing needs of applied research and, at the same time, to increase its contribution in the field of basic methodologies.

The Institute takes part intensively in International Research Projects, as main contractor or as partner. It is worth mentioning two projects funded as a “Starting Independent Research Grant” by the European Research Council: the Project “Innovative compatible discretization techniques for Partial Differential Equations” (GEOPdES), which aims at developing isoparametric techniques based on NURBS for simulating PDEs arising in electromagnetics, fluid dynamics and elasticity; and the Project “Mathematics for Shape-Memory Technologies in Biomechanics” (BIOSMA), which aims at developing modeling, analysis, and simulation of shape memory alloys (SMA) for biomedical applications. Within the study of shape memory alloys, it is also active the Project "SMARTeR: Shape Memory Alloys to Regulate Transient Responses in civil engineering", funded by ESF within the Eurocores Programs. Moreover, as activity 2007 – 2008, it is worth mentioning the Network of Excellence AIM@SHAPE aimed at coordinating research on processing knowledge related to digital shapes; the Coordination Action FOCUS K3D promoting the comprehension, adoption and use of knowledge intensive technologies for coding and sharing 3D media content; the TED project, concerned with the development of decision support systems for electronic democracy.

The Institute takes also part in various projects financed with Government funds, such as: “SHALOM”, with the objective of studying innovative methods for the analysis and synthesis of digital shapes, and “CASHMA: Context Aware Security by Hierarchical Multilevel Architectures” both funded by the Ministry for Research; "Monitoring and simulation of Plasmopora viticola epydemiology in Lombardia”, funded by Regione Lombardia. Furthermore, the Institute takes part in Goverment agreements, like, the INGV and Department of Civil Protection projects on the assessment of the risk of earthquakes and the CNR - Regione Lombardia project on new technologies and tools for energetic efficiency and use of renewable energy for end civilian purposes.