University of Eastern Finland
Partner Description
The University of Eastern Finland (UEF) is one of the largest universities in Finland, and home to approximately 15,000 students and 2,800 members of staff in three campuses (Kuopio, Joensuu and Savonlinna). In 2017, it was ranked to top 301-400 Universities in Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), and in position 46 among the World’s Top Young Universities (QS World University Rankings).
The UEF partner represents Computational physics and inverse problems groups, which operate in the Department of Applied physics in the Kuopio campus of UEF. The research groups form a part of the Centre of Excellence in Inverse Problems Research granted by the Academy of Finland (years 2006-2011, 2012-2017 and 2018-2025). In the UEF Strategy, “Methods and Applications of Uncertainty Modelling”, a field represented by the computational physics and inverse problems groups, is acknowledged as one of the emerging research areas.
The research by computational physics and inverse problems groups covers a wide range of methodologies (including numerical and statistical modelling, uncertainty quantification and inverse problems) and applications (including, e.g., various tomographic imaging modalities and their applications to medical engineering and industrial process monitoring, remote sensing, and monitoring groundwater reserves based on seismic signals). The research on electrical impedance tomography (EIT) was started in Kuopio already over 20 years ago, and the group is among the world-leading groups in this area. Especially, the development of statistical and computational methods for handling uncertainties of systems and incorporating application specific prior information into EIT image reconstruction have led to success in several practical applications of EIT in the recent years. The computational physics and inverse problems groups run a research laboratory that concentrates on industrial process tomography. During the last ten years, the group has produced three spin-offs which are commercialising industrial tomography and scientific computing.
Role in the Project
In this project, the UEF partner studies the feasibility of electrical tomography for the non-destructive testing/structural health monitoring of concrete materials and structures used for sealing in geo-energy applications. The aim is to develop tools both for detection of damages in sealing structures and for testing the transport properties of concrete materials.
Contact
Associate Professor Aku Seppänen, PhD
Email:
Web: www.uef.fi
Team
Dr. Aku Seppänen is an Associate Professor at the Department of Applied Physics in UEF. His expertise is in computational physics and inverse problems. The applications include non-destructive testing, industrial imaging, remote sensing and atmospheric aerosol physics.
Dr. Tuomo Savolainen is a Laboratory engineer/manager at the Department of Applied Physics in UEF. He has over 20 years’ experience in developing and testing measurement equipment for, e.g., industrial imaging applications.
Jyrki Jauhiainen is a PhD student who develops electrical impedance tomography (EIT) for structural health monitoring. His focus is on EIT-based surface sensing system, or sensing skin, for detecting cracks and other damages in solid structures.
Petri Kuusela is a PhD student working on electrical capacitance tomography (ECT). Especially, he focuses on characterizing the fluid transport properties of cement-based materials used in geothermal applications.
Antti Voss is a PhD student who works on computational methods and experimental studies of electrical tomography. In his thesis work, he has developed experimental setups for imaging moisture flows in cement-based materials using ECT.
