We are pleased to invite you to a public webinar on March 17th, 2026 at 13:00-15:00 EET (UTC+2). The webinar will feature a keynote talk “Bayesian methods in rheology of complex fluids” by Mikko Alava who is a professor of physics at Aalto University. The RheoMaTe project team will also present highlights from the first year of the project.
Schedule of the webinar (times in Eastern European Time, UTC+2)
13:00 Opening of the RheoMaTe webinar and welcome words
13:05 Keynote talk by Mikko Alava (Aalto University), “Bayesian methods in rheology of complex fluids”
14:00 RheoMaTe project introduction and highlights from the first project year
- RheoMaTe project overview – Olli-Ville Laukkanen (VTT)
- Biopolymers as rheology modifiers – Melissa Agustin (VTT)
- Flow visualization and velocity profiling – Ari Jäsberg (VTT)
- Development of extensional viscosity measurements – Baranivignesh Prakash (VTT)
- CFD modelling of complex fluids – Otto Kontkanen (VTT)
- Machine learning in rheological analysis – Mikko Seppi (VTT)
- From lab to pilot: Multiscale rheological characterization – Antti Koponen (VTT)
- Company perspective: Rheology at Mirka – Simon Sandén (Mirka)
15:00 RheoMaTe webinar ends
About the keynote speaker:
Professor Mikko Alava is a world-class expert in material physics, having worked extensively on materials science data analytics and applications of modern machine learning approaches. He holds a PhD in nuclear engineering from the Helsinki University of Technology (1993). Since 2009, he is a full professor of physics at Aalto University, Finland.
Prof. Alava has worked on statistical physics applications to the physics of materials and on challenging computational problems in understanding fracture, friction, plasticity and other complex properties, typical of functional materials and their dependence on structure. In 2012-2017 he was a vice director of the Academy of Finland’s Center of Excellence in Computational Nanoscience (COMP), and in 2019-2024 he served as the director of the NOMATEN Center of Excellence at the National Centre for Nuclear Research (NCBJ) in Poland.
Prof. Alava’s group at Aalto University focuses on applying statistical physics, computational modelling, and materials science to understand and design complex materials and systems. Their work spans both fundamental physics and application-oriented materials research. Rheological properties of cellulose-based materials are actively studied in Prof. Alava’s group, recent research focusing on the application of various machine learning techniques in viscoelastic data analysis and data-driven material design.