Sixteen members of the Numerical Linear Algebra group on the College of Manchester lately attended a two-day creativity workshop with the intention to generate concepts for our analysis and different actions. The workshop was facilitated by Dennis Sherwood, who’s an skilled in creativity and has run many such workshops. Dennis and I’ve beforehand collaborated on workshops for the Manchester Numerical Evaluation group (2013), the EPSRC NA-HPC Community (2014), and the SIAM management (2018).
A creativity workshop brings collectively a gaggle of individuals to deal with questions utilizing a structured strategy, through which folks share what they know in regards to the query, ask “how may this be completely different” in regards to the facets recognized, after which focus on the ensuing prospects. A key function of those workshops is that each concept is captured—on flip charts, colored playing cards, and post-it notes—and concepts will not be evaluated till they’ve all been generated. This strategy contrasts will the all-too-common scenario the place wonderful concepts generated in a dialogue are immediately dismissed due to a “that can by no means work” response.
At our workshop a variety of matters have been addressed, overlaying strategic plans for the group and plans for future analysis tasks and grant proposals, together with “Blended precision algorithms”, “Being a magnet for expertise”, and “Conferences”. Many concepts have been generated and assessed and the group is now planning the subsequent steps with the assistance of the detailed 70-page written report produced by Dennis.
One concept has already been applied: now we have a brand new emblem; see A New Brand for the Numerical Linear Algebra Group.
For extra on the creativity course of talked about right here, in addition to particulars of creativity workshops, together with pattern briefs that can be utilized at them, see the brand new guide by Dennis and me: Find out how to Be Artistic: A Sensible Information for the Mathematical Sciences (SIAM, 2022).
