The main goals of an IPSW are to build connections between researchers in industry, non-profit organizations, and academia.  Organizations based in Atlantic Canada and elsewhere present problems related to their interests, and participants break into teams to explore solutions to these problems.  Problems come from a variety of subject areas, but all are designed to be approachable by students and postdocs with backgrounds in pure mathematics, modelling, scientific computing, computer science, or data analysis.  Each problem group is led by one or more university faculty members with expertise relevant to the technical challenge at hand, but participants with a wide range of interests and expertise are welcome.  Over the course of each, problem groups work collaboratively to explore possible solution strategies to the technical challenges and propose longer-term research directions, as well as make connections to a larger group of companies and academic researchers with similar interests.