Plenary Speakers
Prof. Luís Eça - University of Lisbon, Portugal
On the Challenges of Verification Exercises of Viscous Flow Simulations
Prof. Luís Eça is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) of the University of Lisbon. He received the M.S, Ph.D. and “Agregação” degrees from Technical University of Lisbon in 1987, 1993 and 2009 respectively. He has been working in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) for the last 35 years in cooperation with the Maritime Research Institute Netherlands (MARIN). The main topics of the research have been the simulation of high Reynolds number flows around complex geometries and Verification and Validation in CFD. In the last few years, RANS modelling of low Reynolds number flows and surface roughness effects have been addressed within the MARIN-IST cooperation..
Prof. Laura Mainini- Imperial College London, UK
Data assimilation for sustainable futures: Engineering challenges and computational pathways.
Prof. Laura Mainini holds the Chair in Aerospace Computational Design at the Department of Aeronautics and is Associate Director of the Brahamal Vasudevan Institute for Sustainable Aviation, where she is responsible for industrial engagement and collaborations. She is Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and Member of the Royal Aeronautical Society. She serves with leadership roles on the AIAA Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Technical Committee, the AIAA Digital Engineering Integration and Outreach Committee, and several international task groups. Prof. Mainini earned her BSc, MSc. and PhD in Aerospace Engineering from Politecnico di Torino, she received a Fulbright grant to conduct research at MIT during her doctoral studies. Prof. Mainini is passionate about developing solutions for the sustainable development of air transportation and space exploration, with focus on advanced computational and mathematical methods that permit to safely unlock novel designs.
Prof. Wim van Rees - Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
Analysis of flow past a porous net-like screen through high-fidelity simulations
Prof. Wim M. van Rees is Associate Professor in the department of Mechanical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute
of
Technology. He is affiliated with the Center for Ocean Engineering. He received his BSc and MSc from Delft
University of
Technology in Marine Techology, and his PhD from ETH Zurich in 2014. In 2015 he performed research as a
postdoctoral
fellow in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University, and joined the MIT faculty
in 2017. At MIT, he received Early Career awards from the Department of Energy in 2020, and from the Army
Research Office in 2021.
Wim's main research interests are to apply advanced numerical simulations to solve bio-inspired forward and inverse
problems in fluids, solids, and fluid-structure interaction.
Prof. Yin Lu (Julie) Young- University of Michigan, USA
Fluid-structure interaction modeling for maritime applications
Prof. Yin Lu (Julie) Young is a Professor in the department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering of the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on the dynamic fluid-structure interaction response and stability of smart/adaptive multi-functional marine structures such as marine propulsors, turbines and control surfaces. One of her research focus is the fluid-structure interaction response and stability of marine and coastal structures. She is the current director of the Aaron Friedman Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratory. Her research has been supported by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), and the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Prof. Wei-Xi Huang, Tsinghua University, China
Mechanism of lift/thrust generation and vortex dynamics in biomimetic flying and swimming
Prof. Wei-Xi Huang is a full professor in Department of Engineering Mechanics at Tsinghua University. His research focus is on numerical study of turbulent flows on the complex boundaries. Prof. Huang is also interested in computational biofluid mechanics. He has been developing computational methods for fluid-flexible body interactions, with the goal of simulating and obtaining physical insight into problems from biomechanics. Prof. Huang received the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars in 2024. He is now the Associate Editor of Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology, and in the Editorial Boards of the International Journal of Heat and Fluid Flow, the Journal of Hydrodynamics, Advances in Aerodynamics, and Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Letters.