Increasing the scientific excellence and innovation capacity in Data-Driven Simulation of the University of Luxembourg

Project Information

DRIVEN

Grant agreement ID: 811099

DOI

10.3030/811099

Project closed

EC signature date 27 June 2018

Start date 1 October 2018

End date 31 March 2022

Funded under

• Twinning of research institutions

Total cost

€ 1 157 475,00

EU contribution

€ 1 000 000,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITE DU LUXEMBOURG
Luxembourg

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - DRIVEN (Increasing the scientific excellence and innovation capacity in Data-Driven Simulation of the University of Luxembourg)

Reporting period: 2020-01-01 to 2022-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

H2020 DRIVEN was a three and a half year EC funded project entitled “Increasing the scientific excellence and innovation capacity in Data-Driven Simulation of the University of Luxembourg”. The project ran from October 2018 until March 2022. In the era of big data the use of modern IT solutions has a direct impact on various fields of sciences and technology.

The project helped to increase the overall knowledge in data-driven simulation of the European and international partners namely: the University of Luxembourg (UL), the Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (Inria), the University of Limerick (ULIM) and the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin).

To achieve this aim, the project built upon the existing strong research and innovation base of UL and its Twinning partners. The partners implemented a research and innovation strategy focused on three sub-topics:

1. Mathematical foundations for data-driven simulations – UL with UT Austin,
2. Data-driven simulations for computer-assisted therapy – UL with Inria, and
3. Data-driven simulations for functional composite materials – UL with ULIM.

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

Increased research excellence of UL in data-driven simulation:
The consortium partners published 33 papers in international, peer-reviewed journals with results related to the DRIVEN project. This included papers published in prestigious publications such as IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering and Computational Mechanics. Furthermore, the consortium partners presented papers at 10 international conferences – with results related to the DRIVEN project – such as WCCM-ECCOMAS and Technical Conference on Composite Materials.

A total of >63 participants attended the training workshops in Luxembourg which was far higher than expected. The Coordinator UL invited a large number of international and national experts to the workshops.

Enhanced reputation, attractiveness and networking channels of UL:
The project contributed to the reputation of both the coordinator and the UL team:

• 2022 Fellow of the prestigious Learned Society of Wales
• 2022 Editorial Board Member of Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering (Elsevier, Impact Factor 7.56).
• 2021 Subject Editor of the Applied Mathematical Modelling (Elsevier, Impact Factor 5.129; ranked 8/108 in Mathematics Interdisciplinary Applications).
• 2021 Founding Member of the European Crucible
• 2021 ISI Highly Cited Researcher in Cross fields–multidisciplinary research
• 2020 ISI Highly Cited Researcher in Computer Science (world top 150)
• 2020 Award for International Leading Scientist in China (the most prestigious award for foreign scientists in China)

Prof. Stéphane Bordas’ team organised and participated in regular seminars about machine learning open to the participation of the DRIVEN consortium partners. The aim of the seminar series was to foster presentations of fundamental and methodological advances in data science and machine learning as well as to discuss application areas presented by domain specialists. The prolific seminar series included not only speakers from UL (e.g. Dr. Lars Beex and Arnaud Mazier) but also many speakers from other universities (e.g. Leibniz University, ETH Zurich, Oxford-Brookes University and Copenhagen University) and industry (e.g. BMW, Ceratizit and Microsoft). In total, 54 training lectures were held by the DRIVEN project.

The DRIVEN project profited from the ECCOMAS Congress - held virtually during 11-15 January 2021 - and its 3000+ participants to organise a special symposium on Patient-specific biomechanics modelling and simulation, which was organised by: R. Baier, O. Barrera, S. Bordas, S. Cotin, K. Erleben, J. Llorca, J. Rodrigues, M. Sacks. The DRIVEN event consisted of ten (10) presentations, which had all been pre-recorded in accordance with the new format of the ECCOMAS Congress. In addition to the DRIVEN scientific event, the partners presented in other sessions and symposiums covering different topics of data science and applications. In total, the partners pre-recorded twelve (12) other presentations.

Dr. Lars Beex (UL) chaired a EUROMECH Colloquium 618 dedicated to Uncertainty Quantification in Computational Mechanics during 13-14 December 2021. This free virtual colloquium was focused on the exploitation of data for increasing confidence in computational mechanics simulations. The Colloquium attracted 60 participants and 19 international presenters.

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)

Increased capability to compete successfully for national, EU and international competitive research funding:
A high number of national and international proposals were submitted to research funding programmes including the following:

• Invitation of team members to participate in several Horizon Europe MSCA- Doctoral Network calls.
• 3 H2020 MSCA Postdoctoral fellows submitted projects with the team and were successful
• 1 FNR-ANR (Agence nationale de la recherche)
• 1 FNR-CORE project together with the UL/Department of Physics and Materials
• 1 UL funded project Call Institute of Advanced Studies with Andreas Husch LCSB

Contribution to the SMART Specialisation Strategy of Luxembourg via in data-driven simulation:
Prof. Bordas’ seminar series about machine learning involved speakers from other Luxembourg-based research institutes (e.g. LISER and UL’s SnT) and companies (e.g. Ceratizit and Microsoft).

His team initiated new industrial collaborations in Luxembourg and Germany:

• 2 FNR projects with Luxembourgish company Ceratizit (500k€), coordinator: Eleni Koronaki
• 1 FNR project with Luxembourgish company Goodyear, coordinator: Jorg Baller (300k€)
• 1 FNR project with German company Kiswire, coordinator: Lars Beex
• Industrial partnership with company SISTO ARMATURE (1.200k€)

Also, his team was involved in the COVID-19 Task Force for Luxembourg (including e-Health and Statistical Modelling).

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