Please join us on Wednesday, October 8, 2025 for the Pierce Seminar at 4 PM in Room 1-131 with Prof. Antoine Jerusalem. 

Abstract Title: From Mechanical Integrity To Tissue Injury, The Case For AI-Mechanical Coupling

Abstract: 

The field of Computational Mechanics of Materials – and in particular it extensive use of the finite element method – has allowed countless predictions of mechanical states in a wide range of disciplines. By knowing precisely the shape of a solid body, its material composition (along with the associated constitutive material behaviour) and the applied boundary conditions, one can a priori predict the level of stress and deformation (and their evolutions) within the body of interest. When considering the design of a physical system whose primary function is to sustain a mechanical load without failing structurally, e.g., a bridge, the success of the method is hard to refute. In many other situations, however, the final function of the physical body is not directly its mechanical integrity. For example, a helmet aims at protecting the brain against trauma, even if it means breaking in the process. In fact, any application with a multiphysics dimension relying on an underlying mechanical design to perform a function of different nature, e.g., electrical, chemical, thermal, or – as is the case for the examples discussed in this talk – clinical, cannot be designed or predicted solely through mechanical considerations. Instead, in a seemingly ever-increasing number of cases, AI has shown promises that seem to bypass the need altogether of mechanical understanding. Unfortunately, the sacrifice of causation for correlation comes at a price and – as we all know – AI is not without limitations. In this talk, we focus on how coupling mechanics and AI together may allow to circumvent the limitations of one another while improving their overall performances. We first present the proposed approach and illustrate it with a few clinical applications involving tissue injury predictions in the context of assaults, sport, and vaginal labour.

Bio:

Professor Antoine Jérusalem graduated in 2004 with a double degree from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace with a Diplôme d’Ingénieur, and from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a Master of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics. In 2007, he obtained his Ph.D. in Computational Mechanics of Materials from MIT, where he stayed as a Postdoctoral Associate for an additional year.

Professor Jérusalem was the group leader of the Computational Mechanics of Materials Group in Madrid’s Advanced Studies Institute of Materials (IMDEA Materials) from 2008 to 2012, after which he moved to the University of Oxford where he is currently a Professor of Mechanical Engineering. 

Professor Jérusalem's research activities focus on the computational modelling of many types of materials and structures, ranging from metals to composite materials with a major interest in the multiphysics of neurons and brain with applications in Ultrasound Neuromodulation and Traumatic Brain Injury. His modelling activities involve the development and use of state-of-the-art advanced numerical techniques with a focus on novel design optimisation methods and AI-mechanical coupling. Professor Jérusalem has active collaborations with many institutes and universities around the world.