LASCA

In 2008, ITA's Professor Marcos Aurélio Ortega envisioned the creation of a laboratory devoted to numerical simulations in aerodynamics. He then began to offer graduate-level courses on advanced methods for computational fluid dynamics (CFD), covering high-resolution and high-order schemes such as spectral element methods. Shortly thereafter, he started the supervision of two ITA students which had the potential to carry out his vision in the long run. These two, namely André Fernando de Castro da Silva and Rodrigo Costa Moura, had just joined the Brazilian Air Force as part of ITA's last years of engineering formation. After graduating with honors, both were allowed to stay at ITA as instructors and joined ITA's master's program focusing on high-order simulations of compressible flows with shocks, again under the supervision of Prof Ortega.

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Subsequently, André and Rodrigo went abroad to pursue doctoral-level studies at Caltech and Imperial College, respectively, finally returning to ITA after around 10 years of Prof Ortega's initial vision. At this time, they started to coordinate the activities of the lab because Prof Ortega decided it was time for him to retire for good. During this whole time, the lab's physical structure was gradually built and supercomputers (clusters) were brought to the lab via different projects and sponsors. The lab's current resources are summarized below.

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