The project has engaged with companies in the UK, Finland and Romania to identify areas of potential collaboration. We have also been collecting applications of mathematical logic and are developing learning materials to address these areas.

Company interviews
 
Each MALog university partner selected at least 2 company partners for co-operation as sources of learning materials. Companies’ advices and requirements will be asked regularly and taken into account in the course of the project.

Overall in TAMK

TAMK interviewed not only the company partners but also professional lecturers. During the interviews, mathematical logic was easily identified as an important topic of mathematics. Much difficult was to point exact use of mathematical logic in companies.
 
Interviews for lecturers showed that mathematical logic should be taught. Especially Boolean algebra was pointed as a critical topic in mathematical logic. Mathematical logic studies should be added to curriculum in TAMK according to representatives’ point of view.

Overall in UWAR
 
UVAR interviewed the company partners from different fields of activity. As a result of the discussions some categories of problems were pointed out. One of them was the 'repeater' problem where a fault occurs repeatedly over an extended period of time but with a varying frequency. For each instance of the fault the reported symptoms are similar but do not necessarily imply the same underlying cause. Knowledge of these problems and their potential solutions are gained over time. Another type of fault was the 'new/difficult' problem where a series of unexpected and/or seemingly unconnected observations are made. With this type of problem, it can take far longer to identify the root cause and can require non‐standard tools, techniques and knowledge to resolve the problem.
Solving these kinds of problems implies reasoning about them and for that, the most important thing to be done is to establish a baseline – something to base the reasoning on. The discussion partners did recognize that the problem solving and logic thinking skills required seemed to be very difficult skills to learn if somebody did not already have them. They emphasized that they did not have any problem solving training. They have been investigating some problem solving courses but that this was not being delivered yet.

Overall in TUCB
 
TUCB interviewed the company partners and also professional lecturers and teachers. During the interviews with the lecturers and the teachers the importance of mathematical logic was underlined.

Following the discussions with the companies, the idea that mathematical logic plays an important role in the field of civil engineer was also pointed out. Today’s civil engineers have more responsibility than ever. They build skyscrapers that reach thousands of feet in the air. They hang suspension bridges that support tons of cars and trucks each day. They create water systems that support millions of city dwellers. If you study civil engineering, you’ll learn what you need to know to work on the projects that make modern life possible. Civil engineering majors learn how to use math and science to design big construction projects. They are problem-solvers who are creative, curious, logical and fans of math.
Engineering means to be able to model different real life problems and to find solutions or optimal solutions to these problems. This means the knowledge must be analyzed, synthesized and manipulated logically and mathematically.

Conclusions

Mathematical logic was easily identified as an important topic of mathematics. Mathematical logic plays an important role in the field of engineering. Much difficult was to point exact use of mathematical logic in companies but all agreed to participate further in the project when learning materials are available and ready to be evaluated. The most important to handle logical and engineering tasks is to think logically. If there are some mistakes in there work, mistakes have to find by thinking logically.

Some ideas for real life problems according to needs analysis:

• Truth table visualizations with LEDs
• Traffic lights – control, two one way street
• Combinatorial circuits
• Network connections
• Connections between databases and set theory

Documents

• Companies - available in PDF format
• Report of the Conclusions - available in PDF format