Mathematics

The course focusses 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.