My professional interests include electromagnetic and multiphysics modeling, scientific computations, and optimization in various interdisciplinary areas involving high frequency electromagnetics. I am particularly interested in applications of microwave power engineering as well as microwave imaging (i.e., non-destructive evaluation and testing of materials from the characteristics of the electromagnetic field). I run the Industrial Microwave Modeling Group (IMMG), which I established in 1999 as a division of WPI's Center for Industrial Mathematics and Statistics (CIMS). This structure allows me to enrich traditional research activities by direct interaction with the real world – with engineers, practitioners, and industrialists.
Oftentimes, people involved in development of related technologies do not have adequate support from mathematical and computer models and do not use modern resources for virtual prototyping. My group is focused on remedying this problem, cooperating with a wide range of institutions (from global corporations to small businesses) – especially, in recent years, the food industry and technologies related to materials science.
Students joining IMMG activities never do their projects just in order to stay busy and earn a grade; student work is designed as an integral (incremental or principal) part of our programs at-large. This approach opens the door for early interaction with industry, publications, and other outreach practice, allowing the students to gain important experience facilitating their upcoming postgraduate emergence into a complex world.
S. Vaucher, V.V. Yakovlev, and H. Yeung, Materials with required dielectric properties: computational development and production of polymer-ceramic composites, Polymer Engineering and Science, vol. 57, 2017.
K.A. Lurie and V.V. Yakovlev, Energy accumulation in waves propagating in space- and time-varying transmission lines, IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 15, pp. 1681-1684, 2016.
E. M. Moon, C. Yang, and V.V. Yakovlev, Microwave-induced temperature fields in cylindrical samples of graphite powder - experimental and modeling studies, Intern. J. Heat & Mass Transfer, vol. 84, No 8, pp. 359-368, 2015.
E. K. Murphy and V. V. Yakovlev, Neural network optimization of complex microwave structures with a reduced number of full-wave analyses, Intern. J. of RF & Microwave Computer-Aided Engng, vol. 21, No 2, pp. 279-287, 2011.
T. V. Koutchma and V. V. Yakovlev, Computer modeling of microwave heating processes for food preservation, In: Mathematical Modeling of Food Processing, M.M. Farid, Ed., CRC Press, pp. 625-657, 2010.
A.V. Brovko, E.K. Murphy, and V.V. Yakovlev, Waveguide microwave imaging: neural netwrok reconstruction of functional 2-D permittivity profiles, IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 57, No 2, pp. 406-414, 2009.