Armour College of Engineering’s Department of Mechanical, Materials, and Aerospace Engineering will welcome Herbert S. Winokur, Jr. Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Area Chair for Applied Mathematics Petros Koumoutsakos from Harvard University to present a lecture titled, “AI/Scientific Computing: Alloys for Flow Modeling and Control.” This seminar is open to the public and a part of the Midwest Mechanics Series. It will take place on Wednesday, April 12, 2023 in room 104 of the Rettaliata Engineering Center from 12:45–1:45 p.m.

Abstract: Over the last thirty years, we have experienced more than a billion-fold increase in hardware capabilities and a dizzying pace of acquiring, and transmitting massive amounts of data. Scientific computing and, more recently, artificial intelligence (AI) have been key beneficiaries of these advances. In this talk, I will offer a perspective on forming alloys of AI and simulations for the prediction and control of complex flows. I will present novel algorithms for learning the Effective Dynamics (LED) of complex systems and a fusion of multi-agent reinforcement learning and scientific computing (SciMARL) for modeling and control of turbulent flows. I will juxtapose successes and failures, and argue that the proper fusion of fluid mechanics knowledge and AI expertise are essential to advance scientific frontiers.

Bio: Petros Koumoutsakos is a Herbert S. Winokur, Jr. Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences and area chair for Applied Mathematics at Harvard’s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). He studied naval architecture (B.S. National Technical University of Athens, M.Eng University of Michigan), aeronautics and applied Mathematics (Ph.D. Caltech) and has served as the chair of computational science at ETH Zurich (1997–2020). Petros was elected as Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the American Physical Society (APS), and the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM). He is recipient of the Advanced Investigator Award by the European Research Council and the ACM Gordon Bell prize in supercomputing. He was also elected International Member to the United States National Academy of Engineering (NAE). His research interests are on the fundamentals and applications of computing and artificial intelligence to understand, predict, and optimize fluid flows in engineering, nanotechnology, and medicine.