The activities of the Evaluation Committee for the ECCOMAS award for the best PhD theses in 2020 were carried out in an online format due to the mobility restrictions resulting of the Covid-19 pandemic. As an answer to the call for tender, the ECCOMAS member associations nominated 18 theses. The Evaluation Committee was composed by Manolis Papadrakakis (chairman), Sonia Marfia, Stéphanie Chaillat, Rubén Sevilla and Pedro Díez (secretary).
After a discussion, all the candidate theses were assessed by the members of the Committee, accounting for the different relevant aspects of all of them. The assessment grids of all the members were added up and a shortlist of the six best ranked ones was analyzed again in detail. Two theses ranked above the others and therefore the committee has unanimously agreed on selecting them as the two winners.
The two winners are:
- Dr. Carolina Furtado (Portugal) for the thesis “Damage and fracture in advanced composite laminates: thin-ply and nanoengineered composites”.
- Dr. Francesco Regazzoni (Italy) for the thesis “Mathematical Modeling and Machine Learning for the Numerical Simulation of Cardiac Electromechanics”.
These theses are outstanding works in Computational Methods in Applied Sciences combining excellent knowledge of both theory and practice, with special insight in the fundamental and computational aspects. The panel has appreciated the complementary on the focus of the scientific contributions: the first advancing in the modeling of composite laminates, combining state-of-the-art experimental and numerical techniques, contributing with original and important developments of data-driven models and simulations, and the second dealing with the numerical modelling of the heart’s electromechanical function, bringing original mathematical and algorithmic contributions to a complex and challenging problem of high socioeconomic relevance. Both, the two winners are pieces of research that extend the frontiers of the fields of ECCOMAS, and open our community to new problems and methodologies. The award decision was based on the relevance of the topics, the originality of the theses, their scientific content, the innovative numerical developments and the personal involvement of the candidates. Moreover, both theses are very well written and meticulously presented.
All nominees will be recognized by a special diploma that will be sent directly to the candidate. On behalf of ECCOMAS we would like to thank you for your cooperative efforts in this selection process.
| Author | Title of the theses | Local Association | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| Giulia Bertaglia | 1D augmented fluid-structure interaction systems with viscoelasticity: from water pipelines to blood vessels | AIMETA / GIMC | Italy |
| Denis-Gabriel Caprace | Modeling of lifting-dragging devices for large eddy simulation of space-developing wakes. Application to wings, rotors and formation flight | BNCTAM | Belgium |
| Emina Hajdo | Ultimate load analysis of steel structures including geometric nonlinearities and localized failure | CEACM | Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, The Czech Republic |
| Filippo Masi | Fast-dynamic response and failure of masonry structures of non-standard geometry subjected to blast loads | CSMA | France |
| Maximilian Grill | Computational Models and Methods for Molecular Interactions of Deformable Fibers in Complex Biophysical Systems | GACM | Germany |
| Roland Maier | Computational Multiscale Methods in Unstructured Heterogeneous Media | GAMM | Germany |
| Ioannis Kalogeris | Advanced surrogate modeling and machine learning methods in computational stochastic mechanics | GRACM | Greece |
| Dana Bishara | Computational multiphysics model for electro-active polymers | IACMM | Israel |
| Anouk Bomers | Hydraulic modelling approaches to decrease uncertainty in ood frequency relations | NMC | Netherlands |
| Mohamad Bayat | Multi-Scale Multiphysics Simulation Of The Thermo-Fluid-Metallurgical-Mechanical Conditions During Metal Additive Manufacturing | NOACM | Denmark, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, Iceland |
| Jakub Sawicki | Memetic exploration of the objective insensitivity regions in continuous global optimization | PACM | Poland |
| Amanda María Carreño Sánchez | Integration methods for the time dependent neutron diffusion equation and other approximations of the neutron transport equation | SEMA | Spain |
| Alberto Badias | Simulated Reality: Physics-Based Mixed and Augmented Reality for Intelligence Augmentation | SEMNI | Spain |
| Emma Hubert | Interactions and incentives: between contract theory and mean–field games | SMAI-GAMNI | France |
| Lucas Frérot | Bridging scales in wear modeling with volume integral methods for elastic-plastic contact | SWICCOMAS | Switzerland |
| Robert Bird | A hp-adaptive discontinuous Galerkin finite element method for accurate configurational force brittle crack propagation | UKACM | United Kingdom |