By Dr Jakub Lengiewicz
Individual Fellow at the University of Luxembourg
Dr Lengiewicz, graduated in Informatics from the University of Warsaw, obtained his PhD in Computational Mechanics (computational contact mechanics in large deformations) from the Institute of Fundamental Technological Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IPPT PAN). As an assistant professor in IPPT PAN, in 2012, he secured a competitive Polish research grant, and, with his team, he led a research project on the concept of Programmable Matter – autonomous shape-shifting systems that are made of millions of interacting tiny robots. His unique approach combining computer science, robotics and engineering, proved to be capable of overtaking some important obstacles to build the shape-shifters. As a follow-up, in 2018 he won a competitive Maria Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship, and pursued his topic at the University of Luxembourg. This allowed him to greatly extend the idea and put it into a wider context, opening even more to other disciplines and approaches. Since 2020 he has been chairing the weekly Machine Learning Seminars at the University of Luxembourg.
The research expertise of Dr Lengiewicz covers wide areas of Informatics, Mathematical Modelling, Theoretical- and Computational Mechanics, and Modular Robotics. Currently, in parallel to pursuing his original Programmable Matter project, he continues his research in large-deformation contact mechanics (in application to tribology, biomechanics and physics). Recently, he is more and more interested in machine learning approaches to modelling and control.