Dr. Eng. Sandra Zarychta has been awarded the Prime Minister’s Award for an outstanding doctoral dissertation in the discipline of mechanical engineering, titled "Numerical Method of Constrained Control Optimization for Discontinuous Systems Based on Fourier Series."
Dr. Eng. Sandra Zarychta has been awarded the Prime Minister’s Award for an outstanding doctoral dissertation in the field of mechanical engineering, titled "Numerical Method of Constrained Control Optimization for Discontinuous Systems Based on Fourier Series."
She defended her thesis in 2025 at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of Lodz University of Technology. The dissertation was developed within the Department of Machine Dynamics, initially under the supervision of Prof. Andrzej Stefański and subsequently Prof. Jerzy Wojewoda, with the support of co-supervisor Dr. Marek Balcerzak.
The award-winning dissertation addresses a significant challenge in control theory: the motion optimization of mechanical systems whose dynamics undergo abrupt changes due to phenomena such as impacts and friction. The developed method utilizes Fourier series to determine optimal control functions without the need to pre-define their form. It accounts for both open-loop control and feedback, and its effectiveness has been verified through computer simulations and experiments. Research findings indicate the method's potential for application in advanced robotic systems, including in the field of biomedical engineering.
Between 2021 and 2024, Dr. Zarychta led a research project funded by the National Science Centre under the PRELUDIUM grant scheme. Her research results have been published in prestigious journals—such as the *International Journal of Mechanical Sciences* and *Nonlinear Dynamics*—and presented at international conferences, including ENOC, NODYCON, and Dynamics Days Europe. In 2023, she received the Young Researcher Award for Best Poster Presentation at the Dynamics Days Europe conference in Naples.
She gained international experience during a research internship at the Università Politecnica delle Marche in Italy and by participating in international summer and winter schools organized by institutions such as the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italy), the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (Spain), and Imperial College London (UK).
Her research interests include nonlinear dynamics, control optimization, and medical robotics. She also works on medical image analysis, the 3D reconstruction of anatomical structures, and the use of mixed reality in visualization and medical education.