University Assistant Professor in Applied Mechanics
Academic Division: Mechanics, Materials and Design
Research group: Applied Mechanics
Telephone: +44 1223 7 48527
Email: ac685@cam.ac.uk
Research interests
Current positions (since 09/23):
- University Assistant Professor in Applied Mechanics in the Engineering Department (part of the Dynamics and Vibration Research Group),
- Lecturer and Fellow, and Director of Studies in Engineering at Churchill College.
Alice's research group (founded in 2017) is the Data, Vibration and Uncertainty group and her research is focused on three Engineering overarching grand-challenges:
(i) Design under uncertainty and nonlinearity;
(ii) Monitoring and modeling complex systems for remaining useful life assessment under uncertainty, nonlinearity and sparse noisy data;
(iii) Development of explainable and interpretable machine learning strategies for engineering applications.
Alice enjoys exploring exciting new techniques based on physics-enhanced machine learning, uncertainty quantification, dynamic testing and advanced physics-based models… including those of spiders! She has experience working on research challenges related to energy, automotive, aerospace and civil engineering. She has also worked on cross-disciplinary research challenges related to Artificial Intelligence and Animal Vibration.
Other positions
Alice is currently also:
- Part of the Core Team in the Centre for Climate Repair
- Part of the Centre of Smart Infrastructure and Construction
- Executive Board member of the European Association of Structural Dynamics (EASD) - 2023-present.
- Editorial Board member for:
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Member of the organizing committee of international events, including
- EUROMECH Colloquium 662: “Physics-enhanced machine learning and data-driven nonlinear dynamics” 28–30 April 2026 at Villa del Grumello, Lake Como, Italy.
- IAM26: "Innovation in Applied Mechanics", 23-25 September, Institute of Physics, London, United Kingdom.
- Member of the Scientific committee of the:
- The 32th International Conference on Noise and Vibration Engineering, ISMA 2026, 7-9 September 2026
- 12th European Workshop on SHM – EWSHM 2026, July 7-10, 2026, Toulouse, France
- 10th International Symposium on Reliability Engineering and Risk Management, ISRERM2026, Sapporo, Japan, June 2026
- 11th International Workshop on Reliable Engineering Computing, REC2026, Dortmund, September 2026
- 13th International Conference on Structural Dynamics, 27th September - 1st October 2026, Hannover, Germany, EURODYN 2026
Alice is also very passionate about teaching, and she was awarded the Bronze for Excellence in Teaching for the academic year 2018/19 at the Oxford Engineering Science Department.
Biography
- 2013, PhD, University of Cambridge
- 2009, MSc, University of Messina
- 2007, BEng, University of Messina
Previous (academic) positions:
- 2020 - 2023: Associate Professor and Section Head in Mechanics and Physics of Structures, TU Delft
- 2017 - 2019: Departmental Lecturer in Dynamics and Vibration, Engineering Science Department, University of Oxford
- 2017 - 2019: Career Development Fellow in Engineering, Balliol College, University of Oxford
Alice was a Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Experienced Research Fellow (2023- 2025), and has held visiting positions at several research institutions, including MIT, University of Oxford, Sandia National Laboratories, the Alan Turing Institute and the University of Auckland. Alice was Honorary Lecturer at the University of Liverpool and an IAS Open Programme Fellow at Institute of Advanced Studies (Loughborough University).
Alice has organized and chaired technical sessions at international conferences, technical workshops and online seminar series. Alice was part of the organizing committee of international conferences, including RASD 2024, EURODYN 23, and MPSVA 2022. Alice was a member of the scientific committee of several conferences (including EWSHM 2024, ISMA2022-USD2022, ISMA2024-USD2024, UNCECOMP 21, 23 and 25, and PASC 23). Alice organized and chaired the Physics-Enhancing Machine Learning Workshop at the Institute of Physics in 2022, 2023 and 2024, and the Data-Centric Engineering @ CAM event at the Cambridge University Engineering Department in 2025. Alice chaired the first 3-day Physics-Enhancing Machine Learning event at the Institute of Physics (1-3 October 2025).
Alice has given invited talks/keynotes and plenary lectures in the area of Physics-Enhanced Machine Learning for:
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Uncertainty Quantification, (Latest Developments in Physics-Informed Machine Learning Workshop, AIUK2024),
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Nonlinear system identification (European Nonlinear Dynamics Conference (ENOC 2024, 9th edition of the Workshop on Nonlinear System Identification Benchmarks, 2025, Tribomechadynamics Conference, 2025, Colloquium 657 – Recent Advances in Non-Smooth Dynamics (NSD2025)
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Structural Health Monitoring (Sixth Structural Dynamics Workshop, University of Sheffield, 2024, 5th Macao International Conference on Smart City Technologies 2025),
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Noise and Vibration (Akustikkens Dag 2025, 54th International Congress & Exposition on Noise Control Engineering, INTERNOISE 2025, 2025).
Alice will give keynote/semi-plenary lectures at:
- EURODINAME III - An International Symposium on Dynamic Problems of Mechanics that will be held in Giens (Fance), 8-11 June 2026.
- UNCERTAINTIES 2026, 7th International Symposium of Uncertainty Quantification and Stochastic Modeling – 26th to 29th July 2026 in Brasília.
- EURODYN26, 13th International Conference on Structural Dynamics, 27th September - 1st October 2026, Hannover, Germany.
Please note that the DVU group website is regularly updated with links to open access papers, codes and experimental dataset used in papers, learning resources about Machine Learning, Uncertainty Quantification and Structural Dynamics, and tips for early career researchers and early career academics. If you found these resources useful, it would be nice to know!
Department role and responsibilities
Lecturer for the courses:
- 4C11, Data-driven and learning based methods in mechanics and materials (4th year course) - Alice's lectures can be found here
- 3C5, Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Mechanics (3rd year course)
- IB, Lagrangian Dynamics (2nd year course)