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Marcos Escobar-Anel has a theory. A professor specializing in applied mathematics for the finance industry, he believes that one of the reasons behind the global financial meltdown of 2008 was the industry's reliance on models that are too simplistic to assess the risk of complex products. Collateralized debt obligations (an arrangement that raises money mainly by issuing its own bonds and then investing the proceeds), the products behind the collapse, did not take into account the probability that thousands of people could default simultaneously on their mortgages.

"That's what happened in the U.S.," says Escobar-Anel, a Ryerson professor who is researching multi-dimensional dependence structures. "You need a model that gives you more reasonable probabilities of the joint behaviour of many individuals. Of course, it was a very-difficult-to-understand crisis but I think one of the reasons for the crisis was the banks' failure in understanding the complexities of the products they were creating and the naivete of the models they were using."

Ryerson University introduced its Master of Science in Applied Mathematics program in 2009 and its faculty and students have been conducting research in some of the most dynamic fields of applied math. "Ours is the only applied mathematics department in the GTA," says Anthony Bonato, professor and chair of the department.

"We have experts in financial mathematics, discrete mathematics, networks, biomathematics and fluid mathematics. Biomathematics is particularly hot right now. It looks at everything from protein interaction networks in cells to how diseases such as SARS and H1N1 spread. Fluid dynamics, another hot area, has applications in everything from oceanography to the flow of blood in the body. Discrete mathematics is being applied to the study of online social networks Facebook and Twitter."

Bonato himself researches this last area. "It's an exciting topic and it's unique," says Bonato. "Not many researchers in Canada are focusing on it. People are learning that some of the advantages of Google as a search engine when it first came out were the mathematics underlying it, the analytics. By taking the next step and modelling online social networks, we can understand better the underlying mechanisms, community structure and social influence."

One of his students, Amanda Tian, is working with Bonato modelling online social networks using state-of-the-art computer algorithms. Her research could lead to better understanding of the potential for using online social networks to extend the reach of advertising by identifying and targeting intended audiences, and, possibly, isolating terrorist cells.

"I have been working in computer science for years and I'm thinking about continuing in that field," says Tian. "My research has given me a very open view to the world. It's also helped me develop my analytical skills. I prefer the practical over the theoretical. I want to put the math to work."

The program is designed to do just that. Students must complete five courses plus a thesis over two years. The first year builds a foundation based on principles and techniques that will qualify them to further study modern applied math. The second year is spent working on the thesis. "We are a new department but more than half of our faculty of 19 has research grants and that number is growing," says Bonato. "We feel the cutting-edge research our faculty is involved in really enhances the experience of our students, because it gives them an opportunity to be hands on."

Much of that research happens in the RAMLab, a computer lab established by Escobar-Anel with a federal research grant. The lab serves as a research tool for students and faculty who use it for simulations and to test theories.

For example, Silvana Ilie is a researcher in computational biology. "I'm working on developing efficient and reliable computational tools that assist scientists in their research. With the amount of data they have now in biology, they need mathematical and computational models to be able to understand and predict what will happen in a cell. Applied mathematics is critical in providing the techniques for answering key biological problems with revolutionary speed."

The demand for applied mathematics with a specialization in finance is also growing. "In this globalized world, finance is going to be more and more complicated," says Escobar-Anel. "And we are going to need increasingly complex models to understand it. In financial services, everyone from the CEO down will have to understand the instruments and the mathematics behind them." In fact, in almost every field, applied mathematics is going to become critical.

"Our students can take the skills they've learned and do more or less anything they like in the field they want," says Bonato. "It gives them confidence and a template to work from."

For more on math at Ryerson, visit www.math.ryerson.ca.