Dr. Ergys Çokaj completed his Ph.D. in Mathematical Sciences at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway. His doctoral work was conducted within the Differential Equations and Numerical Analysis group of the Department of Mathematical Sciences. Dr. Çokaj’s Ph.D. was part of the European Training Network THREAD titled “Numerical Modeling of Highly Flexible Thin Structures” and composed of 14 Ph.D. candidates, mathematicians and engineers, spread across 12 universities and research centers throughout Europe.
His primary interest lies in numerical methods that preserve geometric properties and machine learning (ML) methods for mechanical systems whose dynamics evolve on Lie groups and differential manifolds. During his Ph.D., he had the direct opportunity to collaborate with many renowned researchers in the field, including pioneers of geometric methods, often referred to as the “Norwegian School of Lie Groups and Geometric Numerical Methods.”
Through the THREAD project, he participated in advanced research training, transferable skills training, and seminars with industrial partners, all of which contributed to enriching his development as a scientist. A key moment during his Ph.D. was his direct contact with industry during an internship at TechnipFMC, Lysaker and Kongsberg, Norway, where he worked on supervised time series classification for anomaly detection in subsea engineering systems in the oil industry. During his Ph.D., he completed two one-month research periods: at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Institute of Applied Dynamics at Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen-Nürnberg in Erlangen, Germany, where he worked on discrete mechanics of beams, and at the Institute of Mathematics at Martin-Luther University, Halle-Wittenberg in Halle, Germany, where he worked on B-stability of numerical methods on Riemannian manifolds. Dr. Çokaj has participated in numerous international conferences, workshops, and seminars.
Recently Dr. Çokaj has joined the Western Balkans University (WBU) where he will engage in scientific research and the teaching of several subjects in the field of mathematics, among them Numerical Analysis, Machine Learning (ML), Statistics and Introduction to Data Science.
He strongly believes that mathematics is at the foundation of everything around us and is deeply passionate about exploring new areas where it can be applied. Recently, he has developed a keen interest in machine learning and artificial intelligence.
