BUJUMBURA June 7th (ABP) – The doctoral school of the University of Burundi (UB) is preparing to launch the international post-doctoral research program in pure and applied mathematics, we learned on Monday June 6, 2022 from Director of that school Professor Juma Shabani.
The sector of pure and applied mathematics is a discipline in which the doctoral school has already established mutually beneficial partnerships with several mathematical research institutions in Africa and other regions of the world.
Since its creation in 2017, said Professor Juma, the doctoral school has organized several events in that discipline. For example, in 2017, the doctoral school of the University of Burundi organized an activity called “an African mathematical school” (EMA) on the theme: “Analysis and Applied Geometry” in collaboration with the Department of Mathematics from the University of Burundi and the African Mathematical Union with financial support from the International Center for Pure and Applied Mathematics (CIMPA).
In addition to participants from Burundi, this school mobilized teachers and researchers from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Benin.
Professor Juma Shabani is also delighted that the doctoral school of the University of Burundi organized in 2019 the 17th Seminar of the Inter-African Group for Research in Analysis, Geometry and Applications (GIRAGA). That activity was organized in collaboration with the Institute of Mathematics and Physical Sciences and the African Center of Excellence in Mathematical Sciences, Computer Science and Applications of the University of Abomey Calavi in Benin, the University of Yaoundé I in Cameroon and the Mathematics and Physics Research Center of the University of Burundi. In addition to Burundian participants, the seminar brought together teachers and researchers from the DRC, Benin, Cameroon, France, South Africa, Kenya and Uganda.
In the same perspective, in 2020, the doctoral school of the University of Burundi organized an online workshop on the application of the cultural-techno-contextual approach to the teaching of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in collaboration with the African Center of Excellence in STEM Education at Lagos State University in Nigeria.
The management of the UB doctoral school also indicates that in 2021 it organized an activity called “International Center for Pure and Applied Mathematics of Nice in France”, (CIMPA school) on “Groups and Lie algebras, the theory of representations and their applications”, in collaboration with the Department of Mathematics of the University of Burundi, the University of Paris and the University of Burgundy in France, with the financial support of CIMPA. That school, which was organized in hybrid mode, brought together more than 100 participants from African countries and other regions of the world, said Juma Shabani.
The school was led face-to-face by two Professors respectively from the Universities of Burgundy and Paris in France and online by Professors from the Universities and Research Centers of Côte d’Ivoire, Brazil, the United States of America and Italy, he said.
That post-doctoral research program aims to give teachers and researchers from Burundi and the East African region the opportunity to strengthen their research and supervision capacities for doctoral theses in promotion; to strengthen the quality of supervision of theses at the doctoral school of the University of Burundi; promote a culture of university research in Burundi. Regarding the mode of operation of this post-doctoral research program, Professor Juma Shabani indicates that it will be implemented under the coordination of the doctoral school, through a network of institutions and research centers in pure mathematics and applied located in Africa and in other regions of the world on the basis of partnership agreements signed between these institutions and the doctoral school.
The launch of that research program is a solution to the challenges related to the rapid increase in the number of doctoral students, the diversification of training courses, the insufficient number of teachers from the University of Burundi eligible to supervise theses to which the doctoral school of the University of Burundi faces. That program will also provide opportunities for teachers and researchers in Burundi to continue to improve in their respective fields of research. Those post-doctoral research programs will be gradually extended to other areas of research.