33rd ECMI Modelling Week in Darmstadt: How to find a lost airplane and other challenges of modeling, simulation and optimization

Result of the simulation of an electrical machine

The simulation of an inductive hotplate (shown is the calculation mesh used as well as the temperature distribution calculated with CST EM Studio) was one of the topics dealt within the modeling week. Image: CEM / TU Darmstadt

A total of 36 Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD students (half men and half women) and nine instructors from more than ten European countries, joined the 33rd ECMI Modelling Week, which took place at the Centre for Computational Engineering (CCE) from February 24 to March 2, 2019 in Darmstadt. Besides ECMI, the event was supported by the Graduate School CE, the Transregio Collaborative Research Centers TRR 146 and TRR 154 as well as Robert Bosch GmbH and Dassault Systèmes Deutschland GmbH.

‘A great opportunity to challenge your knowledge,’ said Lorenzo Tedesco, master student of mathematics from the Università degli studi di Milano. Together with his team, he was working on a mathematical characterization of water consumption in Portugal, which can ultimately lead to a more efficient distribution of water. This was just one of the nine projects

Result of the simulation of an electrical machine

Solving a problem as a team effort. Image: Christian Schmitt
  • Uncertainty quantification of chemical kinetic reaction rate coefficients (Éva Valkó, ELTE Eötvös University, Budapest)
  • How to exploit losses – Heating by magnetic induction (Sabine Zaglmayr, CST GmbH, a Dassault Systèmes Company, Darmstadt)
  • The monitoring problem in Smart Grids (Stefania Tomasiello, University of Salerno, Fisciano)
  • Optical excitation of metallic nanoparticles by light (Gerhard Unger, Graz University, Austria)
  • Characterizing outdoor water consumption (Conceição Amado, Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Lisbon)
  • Modelling of erythrocyte sedimentation (Ivana Vojnovic, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad)
  • Optimal strategies in crowd evacuation problems (Giacomo Albi, University of Verona, Verona)
  • How to find a lost airplane? (Marek Teuerle, Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Wrocław)
  • Forecasting of Energy Spot Prices (Matthias Ehrhardt, Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Wuppertal)

As complex as the tasks were, as short as the time the teams had to work on them – in just one week, sustainable concepts were to be developed and implemented on a pilot basis.

‘The best way to motivate yourself is to work with people from different countries who have different perspectives’ was one of the conclusions of Mariana Costa, a student at the Instituto Superior Técnico of the University of Lisbon. She recommends her participation without reservation. The next modelling week will take place in June 2019 in Grenoble, France.