Hussein Rappel uses a mathematical learning approach to try to predict and simulate physical phenomena. The Iranian national came to Luxembourg in 2014 to join the team of Prof Stephane Bordas at the University of Luxembourg, where he is now in the 3rd year of his PhD in Computational Science – and sees great potential in Luxembourg as a research destination.
Hussein Rappel has a thirst for learning new things, and in research has found the ideal job for a curious, knowledge-hungry computer scientist. Since 2014, Hussein has been working with Prof Stephane Bordas, a renowned computational science researcher at the University of Luxembourg. ‘Computational science’ is a broad term nowadays, so what exactly does Hussein do for his PhD work?
Simulating physical phenomena
“We try to simulate physical phenomena (e.g. fracture, deformation and etc.), using mathematics and computer programming.
“In my research I am trying to use a mathematical learning approach called ‘Bayesian inference’ to identify the parameters for the material behaviour laws. The approach is very similar to what we do in our regular life to learn about an event and predict the next step. As an example you can imagine yourself driving your car, for any action that you are going to take for the next step you combine the current state information (the car speed, its position etc.) with the information from your surroundings ( such as the other cars, road situation…) and then you make your decision.
“This is almost what I do in my research by combing the measurements, the information that I already have and my physical model I identify the parameters for governing physical laws.”
In terms of what this looks like on in practice, Hussein explains that apart from reading up on the latest findings in his field and developing the mathematical models and codes needed for the simulation, discussing his findings and progress with his supervisors Dr Lars Beex and Prof. Stephane Bordas is a significant part of his regular activities.
Learning how to do original research in an up-and-coming research location
Being just over halfway through his PhD and thus still at the beginning of his research career, Hussein’s main goal as a researcher at the moment is mainly to learn how to do original research independently and publish the associated results – he adds: “Furthermore I would like to improve my skills by learning to write research proposals which would let me to convert my ideas from a simple idea to a research project.”
Hussein relocated from Iran to Luxembourg for his PhD, which he explains was more due to the chance to work PhD supervisor Stephane Bordas, (who himself came to Luxembourg a few years ago with his then newly-awarded ERC grant), than due to Luxembourg itself. As Hussein points out, however, the University of Luxembourg is slowly but surely building a reputation for itself:
“Considering the condition in Luxembourg and available resources I believe the country is going in the right direction and has great potential to become a very popular destination for researchers from various countries in the world.
“The University of Luxembourg is quite young but it gets recognised every year more than the previous year as it is a research-oriented university. Furthermore the possibility of creating various research centres in the university framework can help it to get even more research-oriented and as result more recognised.
“As an example you can consider creation of the Centre of Excellence in Scientific Computing which can help to do lots of interdisciplinary projects. These research projects can be in fields of finance, engineering, physics and so on.”
About Spotlight on Young Researchers
Spotlight on Young Researchers is an FNR initiative to highlight early career researchers across the world who have a connection to Luxembourg. This article is the 21st in a series of around 25 articles, which will be published on a weekly basis. You can see more articles below as and when they are published.
Spotlight on Young Researchers: Yamila Mariel Omar
As part of her Industrial Fellowship – a collaboration between the University of Luxembourg and company Husky – PhD candidate Yamila Mariel Omar helps industry to monetize their proprietary data by means of big data analytics. We speak to the Argentinian national who also became a mother during her PhD.
Spotlight on Young Researchers: Thomas Schaubroeck
Thomas Schaubroeck specialises in sustainability assessment of products. We speak to the Belgian national about the research he is undertaking in the framework of an Industrial Fellowship between the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) and company Tarkett; how working with industry differs from academia; and how he hopes his research can help industry steer toward a more sustainable future.
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Spotlight on Young Researchers: Assessing the sustainability of Luxembourgish agriculture
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Spotlight on Young Researchers: Svenja Bourone
Svenja Bourone is a chemist who has always had a fascination for natural sciences. During her master studies at RWTH Aachen, she became captivated by functional nanomaterials and as chance would have it, a doctoral position opened up in just that field. During her AFR PhD, Svenja developed a new protocol to help with the synthesisation of gold nanoparticles, which she is now putting to use in her work as a Postdoc. The Luxembourg national has a strong desire to return home to the Grand Duchy to continue her work on nanomaterials.
Spotlight on Young Researchers: Martin Řehoř
In industry, computer simulations and optimizations are established approaches to inform and improve engineering designs. As part of his Industrial Fellowship, Postdoc Martin Řehoř works on numerical solvers that could help solve design problems that involve the processing of fluids.