Research Fellow · School of Metallurgy and Materials
University of Birmingham, UK

I am a researcher and computational scientist at the University of Birmingham, one of the leading research-intensive universities in the world and a member of the Russell Group.

My research sits at the intersection of engineering and data science, with a focus on accelerating scientific discovery through high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, and large-scale data analysis. I develop scalable computational methods and open-source software tools designed to bring modern machine learning and big data capabilities to engineering and materials science workflows. I hold a Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and am a member of the Birmingham Environment for Academic Research (BEAR) Champions group. Alongside my primary research, I am an advocate for open-source software, reproducible research, and the adoption of GNU/Linux in academic environments.

• Computational mechanics — finite element analysis, phase-field fracture mechanics, elasticity, plasticity
• Materials processing — residual stress prediction in additive manufacturing, martensitic phase transformations
• High-performance computing — large-scale simulations on HPC clusters (BlueBEAR); accelerated computing on TPU hardware
• Scientific machine learning — JAX-based numerical methods for materials science
• Research software engineering — development of open-source Python/JAX packages for the scientific community

Languages — Python · Julia · C · Fortran · x86 Assembly · Bash
Python Frameworks — NumPy · SciPy · scikit-learn · scikit-learn-extra · JAX/XLA
Julia Frameworks — Clustering · BenchmarkTools
HPC Tools — Slurm Workload Manager
Infrastructure — HPC clusters · TPU (v4, v6e) · Docker · Podman · Apptainer
Other — Finite element analysis · Phase-field modelling · Numerical linear algebra

Primary OS: Debian GNU/Linux — used across local workstations, home servers, and HPC-adjacent workflows.

I write technical posts on Medium covering scientific computing, GNU/Linux workflows, and research software topics. Selected posts:

• Setting up VSCodium for Python and Julia on Debian GNU/Linux
• Sharing files between host and virtual machine

• BEAR Champion — University of Birmingham Advanced Research Computing
• Chair, JuliaSIG — Julia Special Interest Group at the University of Birmingham
• Co-Chair, PythonSIG — Python Special Interest Group at the University of Birmingham

Email — v.brachetta@bham.ac.uk
University profile — birmingham.ac.uk
LinkedIn — linkedin.com/in/vincenzobrachetta
Medium — @vincenzo.brachetta

School of Metallurgy and Materials, College of Engineering and Physical Sciences
University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom