Dr. Alisa Shpak

Current professional background

I am a scientific associate and a teacher in Applied Mathematics at the Kuban State University in Krasnodar, Russian Federation.

Field of research

The main field of my research is mathematical modelling of mechanical phenomena. A lot of engineering applications are based on the theoretical calculations made with the help of mathematical models. I use numerical and analytical methods to develop mathematical models and to afterwards write computer implementation for them.

Purpose of your last research visit

My last visit to the University of Siegen was in November 2016. As I said before, my research field is mathematical
modelling. And in order to be sure that the developed mathematical model is reliable and trustworthy one has to verify it. There are different ways to verify a model: you can compare the results with the same calculations published by other scientists. But in this case, you have to calculate the same values as that done by other research. The other way to verify a mathematical model is to perform experiments and compare the theoretical results with the data gained from the experiments. That is exactly what I am doing here. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Fritzen has a very nice lab here in the University of Siegen. I am able to make the set of experiments with piezoelectric actuators in order to verify my mathematical model. That is what I did during my last research visit.

Relation to the University of Siegen and the local host

I think the collaboration between Prof. Dr.-Ing. Fritzen’s working group and my working group back in Russia started before I came to Professor Glushkov’s group as a PhD student. From my perspective, we mainly do mathematical modelling in different fields of elastodynamics. In Siegen they have projects related to the real problems in industry. Such collaboration allows us to take part in the solving of the real-world problems. This enables us to model something which is really interesting and urgent.

Future projects and Activities

Since the collaboration of the two working groups started, several joint papers have been published. The first one was published in 2012. I hope the results of my current work here will lead to another joint paper. Moreover, I would like to continue the collaboration between our working groups.

Impressions of Siegen

I love the University and the lab. Everything is made so that nothing interrupts me from my project. All the conditions to work and research are fulfilled in the University. And of course, I love Prof. Dr.-Ing. Fritzen’s working group! Everyone is so nice to me! They always try to help me. I really appreciate this opportunity to work with such kind people. Even though I have to admit that the weather here is too rainy from my point of view. But this is even better for research purposes: no temptation to go outside.