Perfectly predicting defects of designs in manufacturing, construction, and various biological aspects with attractive colour maps has always fascinated me and made me curious to know how it is done. That is why I was interested in pursing computational mechanics.
I chose my undergraduate programme in Mechanical Engineering at SCSVMV, Kanchipuram, where things started to dawn upon me. Dr. Ratna Kumar Annabathula, Assistant Professor, IIT Madras, identified my interest towards Finite Elements as well as research. He encouraged me to pursue masters in computational mechanics through the programme called Erasmus Mundus.
An Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree, is an integrated, international study programme, jointly delivered by an international consortium of higher education institutions. Subsequently, I applied and got selected in the Erasmus Mundus MSc in computational mechanics programme with funding which was more than enough to cover my monthly living expenses.
The course is designed for students who wish to develop their knowledge in the field of computational mechanics with applications in solids, fluids, and other interdisciplinary fields. The programme also includes a component of entrepreneurship and innovation.
It provides the skills for the modelling, formulation, analysis, and implementation of simulation tools for advanced engineering problems, as well as skills for understanding these approaches in the broader context of business and innovation. Mostly students may take the Master’s as a professional terminal degree, or in preparation for a Ph.D.
This course is provided by international consortium of four leading European Universities in computational mechanics: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Spain; Swansea University, the U.K.; Ecole Centrale Nantes (ECN), France; Universität Stuttgart, Germany.
One programme, two institutions
Usually, students study in two universities: the first year in Barcelona, Spain or Swansea, the U.K.. The remaining two semesters will be spent at any of the other three institutions which is different from that of the first year. I did my first year at Swansea University and second year at UPC. Swansea University is considered as the birthplace for finite element analysis and its computational engineering department is named Zienkiewicz Centre for Computational Engineering after Professor Olgierd Zienkiewicz, who is the father of finite element methods. It is now lead by Professor Perumal Nithiarasu, an Alumni of IIT Madras. Both universities have excellent on-going research works and amazing teaching faculties.
Swansea University, in particular, is very student-friendly. A faculty is appointed as a tutor who meets each student once in two weeks during which they can share all their personal and professional issues.
Also, being an exchange programme, students benefit from interacting with different groups of academics in an exciting international environment. It provides an amazing platform to understand different research collaborations happening in European universities.
Sai Chandana Divi is currently a doctoral student at Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands.
