Scientific Focus Within the realm of mathematical and computer modeling of physiological processes, attention has been traditionally given to direct problems, i.e. to the process whereby, starting from known facts and reasonable assumptions on the system structure, the behavior of a simplified, hypothetical system is predicted. While fundamental for the understanding of the involved mechanisms, direct modeling does not answer, in and by itself, the main experimental question, which is to infer the system structure given the experimentally observed behavior. The Acireale 2009 summer school will be dedicated to the study of modeling from the side of parameter estimation (when the investigator presumes a functional form for the family of models representing the system, and is trying to identify the relevant parameter values) and from the side of qualitative study of the models, both deterministics and stochastic (with the goal of assessing congruency of behavior of the model with the known features of the experimental system under investigation)

Educational Focus This school will be one of the first events to address mathematical modeling and statistical estimation in a single framework; will tightly integrate methods and applications; and will provide a thorough understanding of the methodological problems in this field and a frame of reference for more individually focused study after-school.

Event Overview The event consists of two components: (a) a 13 days summer school aimed at PhD and Post-Doc students (b) a 3 days scientific workshop with current researchers involved with the same scientific topic as the school. The last 3 days of the summer school are merged with the scientific workshop allowing students to learn about up to date research with current researchers in the field.