Mathematical and computational models, also usually referred to as in silico models, are becoming increasingly useful to aid biological experiments, make quantitative and testable predictions of physiological and pathological conditions. In silico models have been successfully used to generate and test new hypotheses in medicine, to propose new guidelines for disease diagnosis and progression monitoring, as well as for pre-treatment planning by incorporating pertinent anatomical and functional data.

In this talk Prof. Vavourakis will outline the research work of his group to simulate cancer and cardiovascular problems of in silico models that span across multiple spatio-temporal scales (from cell scale to soft tissue to organ-scale). He will also present applications they have been developing for treatment planning, and will conclude with his group's future plans for research.

Before joining the University of Cyprus (UCY), Dr Vavourakis was a Senior Research Associate at the University College London, a Visiting Lecturer and Research Associate at UCY, and a Postdoctoral fellow at the Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas.

He holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering and a Diploma in Aeronautics, both awarded by the University of Patras. Dr Vavourakis scientific expertise is in continuum solid mechanics and biomechanics, mathematical biology, and computational modelling in bioengineering. He is leading the In Silico Modelling Group (ISMG) at UCY, the research interests of which span from scientific computing, systems biology, and medicine.

He has published more than 40 journal papers and book chapters, and has been the PI of 5 EU and national R&D projects (participated in 15 projects) including a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship. Dr Vavourakis is a member of the Virtual Physiological Human Institute, the International Assoc. of Computational Mechanics, the European Society of Biomechanics, the Marie Curie Alumni Association, and the UK Association of Computational Mechanics in Engineering.

 
About the EuroCC-2 project

EuroCC 2 will work to identify and address the skills gaps in the European High Performance Computing (HPC) ecosystem and coordinate cooperation across Europe to ensure a consistent skills base.

The role of EuroCC 2 is to establish and run a network of more than 30 NCCs across the EuroHPC Participating States. The NCCs act as single points of access in each country between stakeholders and national and EuroHPC systems. They operate on a regional and national level to liaise with local communities, in particular SMEs, map HPC competencies and facilitate access to European HPC resources for users from the private and public sector.

EuroCC 2 delivers training, interacts with industry, develops competence mapping and communication materials and activities, and supports the adoption of HPC services in other related fields, such as quantum computing, artificial intelligence (AI), high performance data analytics (HPDA) to expand the HPC user base.

This project has received funding from the European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (JU) under grant agreement No 101101903. The JU receives support from the European Union’s programme Digital Europe and Germany, Bulgaria, Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg , Slovakia, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey, the Republic of North Macedonia, Iceland, Montenegro and Serbia.