Mathematics

The course focuses on mathematical tools for the study of the mechanics of continuous media, with applications to mechano-biology and bio-robotics, with topics extracted from the following syllabus:

 

 - Review on basic concepts from biology from a mechanics perspective.

 - Review of the mechanics of deforming solid bodies.

 - The notion of target metric and spontaneous curvature. Residual stresses. Active strains and active stresses. Morphogenesis and differential geometry.

 - Slender active structures: rods, plates, and shells.

 - Selected case studies from the recent literature inspired by morphing and shape control in soft robotics and mechano-biology.

 - Review of the mechanics of Newtonian fluids.

 - Swimming at low Reynolds numbers as a control problem for the Stokes system.

 - Control principles for swimming micro-robots.

 - Selected case studies from the recent literature inspired by swimming unicellular organisms and bio-inspired swimming micro-robots.