International PhD programme in NUMERICal Simulation

Project Information

NUMERICS

Grant agreement ID: 800945

DOI

10.3030/800945

Project closed

EC signature date 22 May 2018

Start date 1 October 2018

End date 31 March 2025

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 7 848 000,00

EU contribution

€ 3 924 000,00

Coordinated by

COMMISSARIAT A L ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES
France

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - NUMERICS (International PhD programme in NUMERICal Simulation)

Reporting period: 2022-10-01 to 2025-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Numerical simulation and scientific computing will face major challenges in the coming years, such as the development of hardware and software architectures able to deliver very high computing power, the development of specific simulation algorithms that run on HPC computers, the generation of data “simulation experiments”, data analysis with adequate multi-D visualisation systems, statistical analysis, modelling methods combining different scales and physical models and the management of large and complex data sets (BigData).
CEA has been recognized as an expert in scientific and technological research in this strategic area but ambitions to increase its competitiveness by renewing its research organisation and training capabilities, thus developing its expertise, accelerating development, and internationalizing its position. In this context, the NUMERICS project promoted cutting edge research in scientific domains with real prospects yet still poorly developed at CEA by proposing an innovative PhD training that focuses on “numerical simulation and scientific computing” as transversal research activities that will act as leading stakeholder for CEA and further outline the existing PhD programme.
Thus, 45 international fellowships have been awarded for PhD projects taking place in CEA laboratories stimulating base camps for all PhD students. The project strongly contributed to the development of European research and human resource capacities as well as knowledge transfer between academic, research institutions and industry. In this regard, NUMERICS strengthened the development and innovation of EU industries in many competitive areas impacted by numerical simulation, e.g. energy, transport, health, climate. Training NUMERICS PhDs to the high standard set out in the programme lead to introducing a new generation of researchers able to answer the societal challenges addressed by European Commission. Indeed, NUMERICS fellows contributed to health, energy and transport challenges with 5 patents being filed. Most of the NUMERICS students successfully pursued their professional life, the majority (85%) in R&D companies, start-ups or academic research (40% as post-doc). A few of them oriented their professional life more into higher education or science administration.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Since the beginning of the program, 4 calls for the selection of candidates have been launched. Overall, 45 junior researchers have been recruited within the 4 calls for applications. The recruited 45 NUMERICS fellows are 14 women (31 %) and 31 men (69%) from 26 different nationalities. The thematic areas adressed by the PhD projects are very diverse and cover all domains of expertise at CEA. They range from climate and environmental sciences, complex fluids and processes, electronics, nanoelectronics and spintronics, energy systems, batteries and materials for energy, health and life sciences, high-energy physics, astrophysics and plasmas, instrumentation, computer sciences and software, to solid state physics, materials and structures. The programme proposed “welcome days”, soft skills trainings and career guidance to all NUMERICS students in order to favor their integration and professional development. In particular, the CEA-INSTN conceived a specific training programme aiming at supporting PhD fellows during the whole thesis duration. NUMERICS students had also open and free access to the newly implemented CEA-INSTN Saclay FabLab. On a voluntary base they were also invited to join the CEA COSCINUS community. Indeed, in 2022, within the CEA Digital Mission, a digital sciences community, COSCINUS, has been created to reinforce synergies and transversalities between the digital sciences and among the CEA's departments. In term of tangible, measurable results, the NUMERICS programme allowed the implementation of :
- more than 80 scientific publications on peer review journal
- 5 patents (3 on the health, 1 on the energy and 1 on the transport area)
- participation to over 60 scientific international and national conferences and workshops.
- 42 PhD thesis defense (two NUMERICS students took a position before the end of the thesis and one thesis will be defended in July 2025)
The overall communication of the NUMERICS project was done mainly on the NUMRICS website and via the INSTN LinkedIn profile. The final project completion has been highlighted on March 20 in Grenoble at the GIANT Innovation Campus during the "Junior Scientist & Industry Annual Meeting, 2025", a networking day for young researchers from industry and start-ups. At this occasion the NUMERICS fellows were invited to share their experience as PhD students of a Marie-Curie COFUND Doctoral EU project. A poster with the output of the NUMERICS project has been presented. Paula Kleij and Gerardo Emanuel Granados acted as ambassadors of the project. They were present at this event together with the management staff.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The development of the NUMERICS PhD projects at CEA not only strengthened scientific cooperation in EU but it is also provided socio-economic impact and societal implications. Indeed, interesting results obtained so far in different areas e.g. materials for the future, climate studies, personalized health devices, innovative therapies for disabled, might certainly have wider societal and environmental impacts. Out of 45 PhD subjects finally included in the NUMERICS projects, three of them have a potential short-term impact:
- "Development of a lifetime estimation methodology for electric vehicles Li-ion batteries", PhD candidate: Marc Haber. The goal of this PhD thesis is to improve the lifetime estimation and aging models of Li-ion batteries for electric vehicles application by developing more reliable and representative accelerated aging protocols. A long-term vision of battery lifetime has economic and environmental impact.
- "Artificial intelligence for real-time decoding of motor commands from ECoG of disabled subjects for chronic brain computer interfacing", PhD candidate: Maciej Śliwowski. The goal of the PhD project is to create an innovative Artificial Intelligence (AI) based system using Machine Learning to decode motor commands from ECoG signal of disabled humans and apply it to real-life experiments.
- "Numerical methods for an autonomous personalized device for monitoring transpired gases", PhD candidate: Maria-Paula Comsa. The project aims at the development of an individual device, which can monitor the level of carbon dioxide in the blood in a robust and quantitative autonomous way.

Indeed, the work of NUMERICS PhD students have received attention in an international setting. The effort of Maciej Śliwowski (CEA/DRT CLINATEC) obtained the 2021 3rd place award at the BEETL competition. Paula Kleij (LSI, CEA) received at the 2021 47th EPS Plasma Physics conference the Student Poster Prize for the poster on "Ultra short electron bunches from tunable surface plasma wave excitation by laser with wavefront rotation". Finally, Simone Braccio thesis work on batteries got the CODEGEPRA thesis prize. His thesis work focused on the “Numerical and experimental study of a combined cycle of cold and electricity production”, and has been done in collaboration between the LOCIE laboratory of the University of Savoie Mont-Blanc and the CEA-LITEN at INES.

NUMERICS thesis defence

Resultats NUMERICS