GRAPES doctoral school

The innovative training network (ITN) on "learninG, pRocessing, And oPtimising shapES" (GRAPES), funded by the EU's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, with 17 partners from all over Europe, will come to Lugano for its second doctoral school, hosted by the Faculty of Informatics and organized by Prof. Hormann.

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From June 13 to June 17, young researchers as well as renowned keynote speakers from all over the world will come to USI's Campus Est to participate in the second GRAPES doctoral school.

The thematic focus of the event is on Computer-Aided Design in its broadest sense, covering the historical development of the field, latest research results, applications, and the relevance for industry.

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GRAPES is part of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions and has received funding from the EU under the Horizon 2020 framework for educating 15 PhD candidates as Early Stage Researchers (ESRs).

GRAPES aims at considerably advancing the state of the art in Mathematics, Computer-Aided Design, and Machine Learning in order to promote game changing approaches for generating, optimising, and learning 3D shapes, along with a multisectoral training for young researchers. Recent advances in the above domains have solved numerous tasks concerning multimedia and 2D data. However, automation of 3D geometry processing and analysis lags severely behind, despite their importance in science, technology and everyday life, and the well-understood underlying mathematical principles. The CAD industry, although well established for more than 20 years, urgently requires advanced methods and tools for addressing new challenges.

The scientific goal of GRAPES is to bridge this gap based on a multidisciplinary consortium composed of leaders in their respective fields. Top-notch research is also instrumental in forming the new generation of European scientists and engineers. Their disciplines span the spectrum from Computational Mathematics, Numerical Analysis, and Algorithm Design, up to Geometric Modelling, Shape Optimisation, and Deep Learning. This allows the 15 ESRs to follow either a theoretical or an applied track and to gain knowledge from both research and innovation through a nexus of intersectoral secondments and Network-wide workshops.

One essential part of the network is the organization of two doctoral schools, where the ESRs focus on a specific topic for a whole week. While the first doctoral school, which took place online in February 2021, was focussing on machine learning for shapes, the main topic of the second doctoral school in Lugano is CAD. It features keynote talks by invited high-profile speakers, both from industry (Meta and ITI) and academia (University of Cambridge and TU Darmstadt), and GRAPES members, short presentation by the ESRs, work package meetings, supervisory board and educational committee meetings, and social activities.