"An inverse problem for partial differential equations with application in burried object detection" Nguyen Trung Thanh, VUB.
This talk introduces an inverse problem for partial differential equations which arises in the detection and classification of buried objects using thermal infrared images of the ground. It consists of two main parts: thermal modeling and inverse problem. The aim of the thermal modeling is to simulate diurnal distribution of the soil temperature using a partial differential equation-based thermal model. Topics considered in this part are: (i) formulation of the thermal model; (ii) numerical methods for solving it; (iii) methods for estimating necessary input parameters of the model in practical situations using in situ measurements; and (iv) validation of the model for landmine detection by comparing simulations with outdoor experimental data. The inverse problem is aimed at detecting buried objects (anomalies) and classifying them by estimating their thermal and geometrical properties (shape, size). This part includes: (i) mathematical setup of the inverse problem using a least squares approach; (ii) its simplification for the case of cylindrical objects and a two-step method for solving it; (iii) gradient-based optimization algorithms with the formulation of the objective function’s gradient using a discrete adjoint method; and (iv) application in the detection of buried landmines.
Short CV: Nguyen Trung Thành was born in Hatinh, Vietnam in 1980. He received the Bachelor and Master in Mathematics at Hanoi University of Science, Vietnam in 2002 and 2003, respectively, and PhD in Engineering at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium in 2007. He is currently working as a postdoc researcher at department of Electronics and Informatics, Vrije Universiteit Brussel. His main research interests involve: (i) inverse and optimal control problems of systems governed by partial differential equations (PDEs); (ii) optimization algorithms; (iii) numerical methods for partial differential equations; (iv) modeling and simulation; and (v) inverse scattering theory.
Two OPTEC professors have been awarded three "Gouden Krijtjes", the yearly teaching awards given by the organization of engineering students (vtk). Prof. Lombaert was awarded the prize for the best course in civil engineering, and Prof. Diehl the prizes for the best professor and the best course in mathematical engineering (where he teaches numerical optimization). They received these awards at the yearly "proffentap" where experienced students taught them how to draft beer professionally.
