Our researchers report from the 16th USNCCM
The 16th United States National Congress on Computational Mechanics (USNCCM) was planned to be held in Chicago in person but because of Covid-19 it was this year a fully virtual event.
Still, the conference provided a forum for researchers all over the world to get in contact and to discuss the latest advancements and future directions in fields pertaining to computational engineering and sciences. Plenary speakers, over 100 mini-symposia and a lot of other interesting activities were offered to the participants. Furthermore, PhD students from our IRTG contributed with a presentation to the conference:
Andreas Hegendörfer (PhD student of Project C) presented a novel system simulation method based on the finite-element method for piezoelectric energy harvesters. The simulation method combines the structural simulation of nonlinear piezoelectric structures together with the simulation of nonlinear electric circuits.
Gabriel Stankiewicz (PhD student of Project B) presented an approach for coupling topology and shape optimization using an embedding domain discretization technique. This approach offers the possibility for both the topological and shape updates in a single optimization run. This way, structures can be designed with full topological flexibility and an exact boundary representation, simultaneously.
Overall, the USNCCM conference provided an excellent opportunity to stay connected within the computational mechanics community during this special time. Although it was a pity the conference was not in person in Chicago the international scientific exchange was of extraordinary value for the participants.