MEI's latest conference venue debuts with the first day of Computational Modelling '19

Yesterday was the first of 4 days of conferences at MEI's brand new venue, the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth, Cornwall. Ironically Computational Modelling '19 has turned out to be the smallest conference in the series, which began in Cape Town in 2005, while Physical Separation '19, which starts on Thursday, the 7th in the series, has a record number of attendees.

The National Maritime Museum

Over the next few days we will have well over 100 delegates in Falmouth from all over the world. Many will have had long journeys to London, followed by a 5 hour train journey to Falmouth. It's worth reflecting, however, that before the railway came to Cornwall in the late 1850s the journey to and from London must have been formidable, travellers often updating their wills before departing, so dangerous was the journey, with the ever-present fear of highway robbers, as well as the elements, on the inhospitable moors of Bodmin and Dartmoor.

The mid 19th century was the heyday of Cornish tin and copper mining, and mine owners would have to make regular journeys to London, the most prestigious service being the London to Falmouth Royal Mail Coach. This left Falmouth at 1.45am and after travelling through Cornwall via Truro, St Austell, and Liskeard, crossed the river Tamar and headed for an overnight stop at Devonport.

Departing the following morning at 9.30am it then passed through Plymouth, Ashburton, Exeter, Honiton, Ilminster and Amesbury that day, departing from Andover at 12.19am the following morning and after another overnight stop, arriving in London at 7.05am, a total journey time of nearly 3 days!! So maybe relaxing for a few hours on one of Britain's most beautiful train journeys puts into context how times have changed.

For eight of the Computational Modelling '19 delegates this was their first visit to the UK so we were hoping to showcase Falmouth at its best, but unfortunately the weather has been unseasonably atrocious and we are hoping for more clement weather later in the week.

UK debutants Guichao Wang (China), Alireza Eslamian (Austria), Dmitrii Maiorov (Russia),
Jane Mulenshi (Sweden), Mapilane Madiba (South Africa), Aaron Young (USA) and Derek Machalek (USA)

Dr. Guichao Wang is our only Chinese delegate this week, and the first ever from the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen. He will be presenting a paper today (Wednesday) on the simulation of particle-bubble collisions in flotation, and I hope to see more of him and his colleagues at Flotation '19.

And Dmitrii Maiorov is our sole delegate from Russia, and the first from Rusal, the world's second largest aluminium company by primary output. He works on the modelling of various sub-processes and is in Falmouth to network with world leaders in CFD and DEM.

Conference regulars Bertil Palsson, Pablo Brito-Parada and Luis Cisternas
with Jane Mulenshi

Yesterday began with an excellent keynote from one of the world's leading experts on mineral processing simulation, Dr. Paul Cleary, of Australia's CSIRO, who reviewed the recent developments and future of modelling in mineral processing using particle methods, after which there were nine presentations from Australia, Chile, Netherlands, South Africa, Sweden, and UK. A full technical report will be published on the blog early next week.

The day ended ended with a guided walk by Jon Wills around the beautiful Fal estuary to awaiting local ale in the 17th century Chain Locker pub.

The fifteen hardy delegates who braved the wintry conditions around the Pendennis Headland

Twitter @barrywills   #ComputationalModelling19