Silvia Gaastra-Nedea

Silvia Gaastra-Nedea is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). She is affiliated with multiple research groups including Energy Technology, EAISI (Eindhoven Artificial Intelligence Systems Institute), and EIRES (Eindhoven Institute for Renewable Energy Systems).

Her research focuses on the intersection of fluid dynamics, heat transfer, and materials science, with particular emphasis on:

• Rarefied gas dynamics and non-equilibrium systems
• Molecular dynamics simulations of liquid-vapor interfaces
• Machine learning applications in fluid mechanics
• Perovskite materials for renewable energy applications
• Multi-physics modeling of energy systems

Dr. Gaastra-Nedea's recent publications demonstrate expertise in developing hybrid computational approaches that combine molecular dynamics with continuum methods. Her work often involves novel applications of machine learning techniques to model complex physical phenomena, particularly in the domain of gas-surface interactions and thermal transport. She has made significant contributions to understanding evaporation/condensation coefficients and the degradation mechanisms of perovskite solar cell materials.

Her scientific contributions include:

• Development of novel methods for determining evaporation coefficients using transmission probability theory
• Creation of hybrid Gaussian mixture/DSMC approaches for studying rarefied gas flows
• Investigation of degradation mechanisms in perovskite solar cell materials

Dr. Gaastra-Nedea is actively involved in educational activities at TU/e, teaching courses on microscale modeling of heat storage materials, machine learning for multi-physics modeling and design, and machine learning for fluid mechanics.