Modelling and Simulation
Research
Modelling and Simulation
Advanced modelling, simulation, and automation significantly impact business and everyday life. They have the potential to positively transform every aspect of society by improving efficiency and productivity and increasing safety. In addition, computer simulations in conjunction with advanced computational techniques such as Machine Learning and Deep Learning can advance our knowledge in complex scientific and technological processes and reduce uncertainty.
Autonomous systems, including robotics, have been used for many years across industries. However, they are gradually entering the mainstream with smart interconnected devices, drones, self-driving cars, and many more applications, amplified by the increasing processing power of artificial intelligence, computational modelling and simulations.
Research at the Frontier of Modelling and Simulation
Researchers at Defence and Security Research Institute’s (DSRI) are working at the frontier of Modelling and Simulation for a broad range of multidisciplinary problems, including multi-physics flows and heat transfer, acoustics, AI and machine learning, and uncertainty quantification. They have developed state of the art high-resolution and high-order methods that can provide high accuracy at a fraction of the computational cost offered by conventional lower order methods.
Furthermore, these methods significantly reduce modelling uncertainty, thus providing better scientific insight and confidence to industry and decision-makers. They have applied these methods to unmanned air vehicles (UAVs); high-speed flows and aeroacoustics; combustion; and multiphase modelling of airborne viruses transmission; amongst other applications.
Furthermore, the team develops process-driven Machine Learning (ML) to advance conventional ML methods. The paper on “Machine-Learning Methods for Computational Science and Engineering” by Professor Dimitris Drikakis et al. received the “Computation 2020 Best Paper Awards”. It was one of the most viewed papers in 2020 and top-cited in the last two years in Computation, a peer-reviewed monthly computational science and engineering journal.
Defence and Security Research Institute
The Defence and Security Research Institute’s (DSRI) mission is to undertake research and training activities on dual-use technologies with applications ranging from defence and security to biomedical and energy. DSRI performs these activities in collaboration with international academic and research centres, industry and governments.
DSRI’s mission is fully aligned with the European Union’s actions on research and development in the framework of the Horizon programme and Europe’s plan to invest in defence and security capabilities of strategic importance.
DSRI’s activities contribute to advancing research at the frontier of science and technology, particularly in computational science and engineering and Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning. Examples of multidisciplinary research include the studies by Prof Drikakis et al. on airborne virus transmission, which received coverage from hundreds of media outlets worldwide and influenced policies in different countries, studies on the aeroacoustics of drones, and the effects of rocket emissions on the climate. The Institute draws expertise from across UNIC’s Schools and Departments and UNIC’s international long-standing collaborators, including the US Air Force and ETH Zurich.
