Dr. Andrea Dziubek, Professor of Applied Mathematics at SUNY Polytechnic Institute, recently spoke at the "Geometric Mechanics Formulations for Continuum Mechanics" conference at the Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation and Discovery (BIRS).

Her talk, titled "An Exciting and Challenging Time for the Geometric Mechanics and Structure-Preserving Discretization Communities," explored advances in geometric mechanics (GM) and structure-preserving discretization (SPD). Dr. Dziubek discussed how both fields use tools from differential geometry, algebraic topology, and numerical analysis to model complex materials, such as those described by Cosserat theories.

She also highlighted current challenges in discretizing differential forms valued in vector bundles — a key obstacle in further unifying GM and SPD frameworks. Her presentation reinforced SUNY Poly’s active role in leading-edge mathematical research.