Technical reports

Some of the Focus Areas within the Centre publish Technical Reports to assist various national and international industry sectors with problems that plague their sectors from a mathematical standpoint. This work is exceptionally important in that it benefits industry, and thus society, as a whole. The technical contributions have assisted the following industry sectors in making improvements including, but not limited to, the following:

• Mining (preventing truck falls in open cast mines; economic value modelling; rock fracture development modelling; rock strength and blast fragmentation; performance of composite liners)
• Energy (exploding lakes; methane gas extraction; spontaneous combustion of stock-piled coal; utility pricing)
• Wildlife and environmental management (fishing exclusion zones; rhino poaching; birds of prey near wind farms; electronic animal tracking; photograph matching for plant conservation)
• Health (optimising best distribution routes for blood product to blood banks; refuse disposal sites effecting health)
• Agriculture (pollination phenology; sugar cane production optimisation; bagasse stockpiling and spontaneous combustion; hard boiling)
• Climate change (reducing urban heat islands with green roofs; carbon capture)
• Socio-economic development (counting houses using LiDAR; economic cost of hazardous landfill sites)
• Transport (traffic light synchronisation; air traffic rerouting; minibus taxis using RBT routes)
• Shipping (chessboard wave dangers; rogue waves)
• Sport (lane choices in swimming; decision making in football)
• Entertainment (optimising movie scheduling)
• Manufacturing (automating tempered glass quality control)

2022

The report below provides an executive summary of each problem investigated as part of the 2022 Mathematics in Industry Study Group South Africa:

MISG 2022 Executive Summaries

2021

The Technical Reports listed below are outputs of the Mathematics in Industry Study Group – South Africa (MISG-SA) which the Centre has co-funded since 2015. You can read more about MISG-SA in their MISG 2021 Information Booklet, or alternatively watch their introductory video about how MISG-SA works.

2020

• Hocking G C. (2020) Mathematical model for chessboard waves. Proceedings of the Mathematics in Industry Study Group South Africa (MISG-SA2020). /media/wits-university/conferences/misgsa/documents/Mathematical%20Model%20for%20Chessboard%20Waves.pdf
• Hocking G C, Fowkes N. (2020) Sugar Holdup in a Diffuser. Proceedings of the Mathematics in Industry Study Group South Africa (MISG-SA2020). /media/wits-university/conferences/misgsa/documents/Sugar%20Holdup%20in%20a%20Diffuser.pdf
• Myers T G, Fowkes N, Fareo AG, Goqo S. (2020) Estimating the Effect of Green Roofs on a City’s Energy Footprint. Proceedings of the Mathematics in Industry Study Group South Africa (MISG-SA2020). /media/wits-university/conferences/misgsa/documents/GreenRoofReport1.pdf
• Video: 5-minute Overview of MISG 
• Video: 2-minute overview of MISG
• Video: MISG 2020 - What happens to blossoms when the bees arrive late?
• Video: MISG-SA 2020 - How can maths help in sugar cane processing?
• Video: MISG 2020 - What is the urban heat island, and how can green roofs help?
• Podcast: MISG 2020 - Bees and Blossoms
• Podcast: MISG 2020 - Green roofs and the urban heat island
• Podcast: MISG 2020 Podcast - How can maths help with sugar cane processing?
• Pocast: MISG 2020 Podcast: Lake Kivu

   

2019

• Fowkes ND, Mason DP. (2019) Modelling the Surface Water Pollution in Lake Kivu. Proceedings of the Mathematics in Industry Study Group South Africa (MISG-SA2019). /media/wits-university/conferences/misgsa/documents/2019/kivupollution19.pdf
• Hocking G, Please C. (2019) Rogue Waves. Proceedings of the Mathematics in Industry Study Group South Africa (MISG-SA2019).  /media/wits-university/conferences/misgsa/documents/2019/Report_Rogue-Wave
• Myers T. (2019) Modelling Carbon Capture by Absorption. Proceedings of the Mathematics in Industry Study Group South Africa (MISG-SA2019). /media/wits-university/conferences/misgsa/documents/2019/Carbon_Capture-Report.pdf
• Sejeso SS, Ali AA. (2019) Urban Farming Coordinated Logistics and Transportation of Farm Produce. Proceedings of the Mathematics in Industry Study Group South Africa (MISG-SA2019). /media/wits-university/conferences/misgsa/documents/2019/Report-Roof-Farming.pdf

2018

• Ali M, Atherfold JM, Prag K. (2018) Stope boundary optimisation for underground mines. Proceedings of the Mathematics in Industry Study Group South Africa (MISG-SA2018). /media/wits-university/conferences/misgsa/documents/2018/new-main.pdf
• Fowkes ND, Mason DP, Hutchinson AJ. (2018) Gas emissions from Lake Kivu. Proceedings of the Mathematics in Industry Study Group South Africa (MISG-SA2018). /media/wits-university/conferences/misgsa/documents/2018/LakeKivuReportRefereedFinal.pdf
• Hocking G, Mitchell S. (2018) Diffuser tracer test interpretation. Proceedings of the Mathematics in Industry Study Group South Africa (MISG-SA2018). /media/wits-university/conferences/misgsa/documents/Diffuser%20Tracer%20Test%20Interpretation.pdf
• Josias S, Bekker R, Laurie H. (2018) Algorithm to count modern houses from LIDAR data sets over rural areas in Mpumalanga. Proceedings of the Mathematics in Industry Study Group South Africa (MISG-SA2018). /media/wits-university/conferences/misgsa/documents/2018/Lidar.pdf
• Myers T, Florio B. (2018) Spontaneous combustion of coal. Proceedings of the Mathematics in Industry Study Group South Africa (MISG-SA2018). /media/wits-university/conferences/misgsa/documents/2018/Coal.pdf

2017

• Fowkes N, Hennessy MG, Moyles I, Thomson S, Fareo G, Atherfold J. (2017) Hard to boil massecuite. Proceedings of the Mathematics in Industry Study Group South Africa (MISG-SA2017). /media/wits-university/conferences/misgsa/documents/Hard%20to%20Boil%20Massecuite.pdf
• Hale N, Josias S. (2017) MISG 2017 TV-Scheduler report. Proceedings of the Mathematics in Industry Study Group South Africa (MISG-SA2017). /media/wits-university/conferences/misgsa/documents/MISG_2017_TV_Scheduler_Report.pdf
• Hocking G, Hutchinson AJ. (2017) The effects of lane position in a swimming race. Proceedings of the Mathematics in Industry Study Group South Africa (MISG-SA2017). /media/wits-university/conferences/misgsa/documents/The%20effects%20of%20lane%20position%20in%20a%20swimming%20race%20(cont).pdf
• Myers TG, Mitchell SL. (2019) Safe storage of sugar bagasse. Proceedings of the Mathematics in Industry Study Group South Africa (MISG-SA2017). /media/wits-university/conferences/misgsa/documents/2018/SAFE%20STORAGE%20OF%20SUGAR%20BAGASSE.pdf
• Please CP, Omer R, Kirsten G. (2017) Pollution from hazardous landfill sites. Proceedings of the Mathematics in Industry Study Group South Africa (MISG-SA2017). /media/wits-university/conferences/misgsa/documents/Pollution%20from%20Hazardous%20Landfill%20Sites.pdf

2016

• Alockukwu AS, Getachew F, Campbell I, Adewumi A, Ali MM. (2016) Air Traffic Flow Management Rerouting Problem (ATFMRP). Proceedings of the Mathematics in Industry Study Group South Africa (MISG-SA2016). /media/wits-university/conferences/misgsa/documents/Air%20Traffic%20Flow%20Management%20Rerouting%20Problem%20(ATFMRP)%20Sept%202017.pdf
• Fowkes ND, Hocking GC, Mason DP. (2016) Rock strength, brittleness and blast fragmentation. Proceedings of the Mathematics in Industry Study Group South Africa (MISG-SA2016). /media/wits-university/conferences/misgsa/documents/Rock%20strength,%20brittleness%20and%20blast%20fragmentation.pdf
• Hutchinson AJ, Gibson E, Phaweni T. (2016) Utility pricing death spiral. Proceedings of the Mathematics in Industry Study Group South Africa (MISG-SA2016). /media/wits-university/conferences/misgsa/documents/MISG%202016%20Utility%20Pricing%20Death%20Spiral.pdf
• Myers TG, Kgatle MRR, Fareo AG, Mitchell SL, Laurie H. (2016) Spontaneous combustion of stored sugar cane bagasse. Proceedings of the Mathematics in Industry Study Group South Africa (MISG-SA2016). /media/wits-university/conferences/misgsa/documents/Spontaneous%20Combustion%20of%20Sugar%20Cane%20Bagasse.pdf

2015

• Fowkes N, Hocking GC, Ali M, Mitchell SL.  (2015) The effect of allowing taxis to use bus lanes on BRT routes II. Proceedings of the Mathematics in Industry Study Group South Africa (MISG-SA2015). /media/wits-university/conferences/misgsa/documents/Busesandtaxis.pdf
• Hocking G, Gibson E, Mitchell S. (2015) An energy efficiency index for the south african sugar industry. Proceedings of the Mathematics in Industry Study Group South Africa (MISG-SA2015). /media/migration/files/cs-38933-fix/migrated-pdf/pdfs-2/sugarenergy15.pdf
• Mason DP, Fowkes ND, Yemata RM, Nnakenyi CA. (2015) The use of spray on liners for wall stabilisation in mines. Proceedings of the Mathematics in Industry Study Group South Africa (MISG-SA2015). /media/migration/files/cs-38933-fix/migrated-pdf/pdfs-2/misgliners2015a.pdf