In accordance with the launch of the IMI Australia Branch on 1 March, the inaugural meeting “Kick-off Meeting of IMI Australia Branch in La Trobe – Mathematics Bridge over the Pacific for Competitive Edge in Industry” was held on 12-13 March at La Trobe University (Melbourne). There were more than 60 participants from Australia, New Zealand and Asia-Pacific area including Prof. Tim Marchant, President of the Australian Mathematical Society. Kyushu University sent Executive Vice Presidents Masato Wakayama and Reiko Aoki, 15 academic staffs from IMI and Faculty of Mathematics, 17 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, and 2 office staffs.

First, Welcome Party was organized from 17:30 of 11 March at Eagle Bar in La Trobe University, which relaxed the tension of the graduate students with little experience of going abroad.

At the meeting held at the Institute of Advanced Studies in the campus, there were 13 talks by the leading scientists of applied and industrial mathematics in Asia-Pacific area, as well as the staffs of IMI and La Trobe University, where new researches or concrete examples of collaborations with industry were reported.

On the first day, 7 talks were given in total, starting from Prof. Fukumoto, Director of IMI. Then from 15:30 the official opening ceremony was held with the attendance of The Hon Adem Somyurek MP, Minister for Small Business, Innovation and Trade of Victoria, and Ms. Keiko Haneda, Consul-General of Japan in Melbourne, at Sir Redmond Barry Room, Level-46 ANZ Building, Collins Street in Melbourne CBD. There were about 80 participants from various universities and industries including Prof. Keith Nugent, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of La Trobe University, Profs. Masato Wakayama and Reiko Aoki of Kyushu University. Participants had hot and friendly discussions on collaborations between La Trobe University and Kyushu University, or future activities of industrial and applied mathematics in Australia, Japan and Asia-Pacific area, enjoying a fantastic view from the top floor of the skyscraper in the middle of Melbourne.

On the second day, there were 6 talks and announcements of the study group workshops of Australia, New Zealand and Japan in 2015. Further, the poster session by graduate students and postdoctoral fellows of Kyushu and La Trobe Universities was organized, together with the short-talk session where each presenter gave a talk within two minutes. The presenters from Kyushu University were successful in presenting high quality posters with fluent English, which was impressive to the participants. The presenters certainly gained confidence by their poster presentations.

In the closing, participants had some discussions on the future collaborated activities of industrial mathematics in Asia-Pacific area moderated by Prof. Philip Broadbridge and Prof. Kenji Kajiwara, who were engaged in establishment of the IMI Australia Branch. In this occasion, some experiences of studying abroad were spoken by Hiroto Inoue, who is now visiting La Trobe University from Kyushu University, and Alexandra Hogan, who was visiting Kyushu University from Australian National University (Canberra) for a month in last February. Alexandra is serving as a secretary of Asia-Pacific Consortium of Mathematics for Indusry (APCMfI) established in last October, and she introduced APCMfI and its activities. Here, it is remarked that expenses of Inoue were supported by the Kyushu University Leading Ph.D Program in Mathematics for Key Technologies.

From 12:00 on 13 March, the BBQ party was organized at the Wildlife Sanctuary in La Trobe University. The participants enjoyed the party in the preserved precious nature. Unfortunately, we could not meet Kangaroos, who might have been sleeping in the depth.

The inaugural meeting has finished successfully. Student exchanges and research collaborations with La Trobe University and other universities in Australia and New Zealand have already started, and the IMI Australia Branch will promote further internationalization and activation to the researches of IMI and Graduate School of Mathematics of Kyushu University.