This summer, or late summer by Mediterranean standards, the SEED Summer school took place in Pavia, Italy. The main goal of the course was to introduce to us innovative computational methodologies and issues they face from both the engineering and mathematical point of view.
The course was broken down in three parts, each one introducing a new subject. The first one regarded insurmountable computational errors. To put it simply, due to assumptions of the models used and very strict implementation of the conditions of the problem, the computation is not flexible enough to find the correct solution. The difference between engineers and matematicians in tackling such problems was very intriguing and informative.
The second part was all about the Virtual Element Method. The introduction and the laying of the foundations was done in a fun and informative session by Franco Brezzi. Then we moved to an application-oriented session on Stokes and Navier-Stokes flow problems with heavy focus on the methodology adaptation. The day closed with a bit of a hands-on session to get familiar with Virtual Element Method codes.
The third and last part was about Isogeometric Analysis. In a similar fashion with the Virtual Element Methods, the day started with an introduction on the concept behind the methodology, the basics and its pros and cons. After that a session on the coding perspective of Isogeometric Analysis took place and the day came to an end with a talk on the mathematical aspects of IGA.
Getting to attend such a course, interacting with researchers there, as well as enjoying Pavia the beautiful city of Pavia was a privilege.