Computer Science Department News

COMPUTER SCIENCE COLLOQUIUM: FRIDAY FEBRUARY 25 - TOPIC: Large-Scale Parallel Finite Element Computing For Engineering/Science Applications: Research (Part 1) and Education (Part 2) Activities

E & C S BUILDING AUDITORIUM (1ST FLOOR)

TIME: 10:30 (DONUTS) 10:40 (TALK)


SPEAKER: Dr. Duc T. Nguyen
Old Dominion University
Professor, Civil & Environmental Engineering Department
Founding Director, Multidisciplinary Parallel-Vector Computation (MPVC) Institute
135 Kaufman Hall
Norfolk, VA 23529
Tel. 757-683-3761, Fax. 757-683-5354, Email: dnguyen@odu.edu
http://eng.odu.edu/cee/directory/dnguyen.shtml

SUMMARY (Part 1)

Fundamental and numerical intensive equations arise naturally from StructuralAnalysis, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Design Sensitivity Analysis(DSA), Optimal Design, Aerospace/Automobile Design, Mathematics, OperationResearch, Ground Water Flows, Electromagnetics, Acoustics, ComputationalBiology, etc. are identified.

Effective numerical (simultaneous linear equations, eigen-solution ...)algorithms to solve such (large-scale) numerical intensive equations haverecently been developed. The developed algorithms take full advantages ofparallel and/or vector/cache capabilities provided by modern/high- performancecomputing (HPC) platforms.Practical NASA engineering problems, such as stress analysis of the SolidRocket Booster (SRB, 1989 International Cray Gigaflops Award ODU-NASA TeamMembers), High Speed Civil Transport (HSCT) aircraft, NASA LaRC Acoustic,automobile models etc. have been solved to evaluate the performance of thedeveloped algorithms.

Parallel scalable speed on NASA Langley's finite element acoustic models,ranging from 10 million to 25+ million dof (complex numbers) using up to 384parallel processors (under finite element domain decomposition formulations)will also be demonstrated. The above research activities have been supportedmainly by NASA Langley Research Center grants, during the period 1985-2005.

Recent results for large-scale "Computational Biology (Sequence Alignments)"under parallel computer environments will also be presented.

Finally, discussion will be focused on the needs and benefits by incorporatingthe developed state-of-the-art (parallel domain decomposition) solvers intogeneral (commercialized) finite element engineering application codes, such asANSYS, ABUQUS, NASTRAN etc..., or any in-house application/research codes forlarge-scale engineering/science applications (such as biomechanics,computational biology, Hungarian Algorithms = Combinatorial Optimizationalgorithms to solve ASSIGNMENT problems ...).

SUMMARY (Part 2)

"Internet Instructor, Tireless Grader, Endless Self-Assessment Tests, andGame-Based Learning For Improving US-STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering,Mathematics) Education"

Useful/innovative strategies/tools and visualized software (including"educational" GAMES) to enhance students' learning in undergraduate/graduate"numerical methods" are also explained and demonstrated. These educationalresearch activities have been sponsored by recent/current NSF grants during theperiod 2005-2011.

http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu/people.html#Duc_Nguyen
http://www.lions.odu.edu/~skadi002/cee305.html (see YOUTUBE videolectures #23 and #25)
http://www.lions.odu.edu/~skadi002/work/cholesky.html
http://www.lions.odu.edu/~skadi002/work/symbolic_integration.php
http://www.lions.odu.edu/~amoha006/Fillinterms/FILLINTERMS.html
http://www.lions.odu.edu/~amoha006/

Prof. Duc T. Nguyen (http://eng.odu.edu/cee/directory/dnguyen.shtml) hasbeen a Civil Engineering faculty at Old Dominion University (ODU) since1985. His teaching activities (including his 4 textbooks, published in1999, 2002, 2006 & 2010, respectively), and research works with over 150published articles (in referred journals, conference proceedings, andtechnical reports) & funded projects (approximately $3.5 million fundedprojects, from various government research laboratories, industrialsectors, and universities) in Numerical Methods, Large-scale ParallelAlgorithms & Software developments, Finite Element Analysis & OptimalDesign, Linear/Nonlinear Equation & Eigen-Solutions ... have led to severalinternational (1989 Cray Research, Inc. GigaFlops award), national ( NASALangley Research Center Tech Brief Award, in 1993; Recipient of NASA-ASEESummer Faculty Fellowship Awards [11 summer awards] and regional awards (A.Rufus Tonelson Distinguished Faculty Award, in 2001; ODU Shining StarAward, in 2010; ASCE Faculty of the Year Award, in 1990).


As a "senior investigator" of the (already completed) NSF "educationalgrant" (August 2004 - August 2007) and 2 on-going "STEM educationalgrants", as a PI (February 2009 - July 2011) and Co-PI (June 2008 -December 2011), respectively, Dr. Nguyen's team has developed the StiffnessMatrix Method (SMM) modules on the internet for teaching purposes, whichincludes theoretical, computer simulation & computer self-assessment test(with automated grading test scores, delivered to students by Emails). Moredetails can be found at http://www.lions.odu.edu/~amoha006. Preliminaryresults for Game-Based Learning (GBL) for reordering, and symbolicfactorization phases of Simultaneous Linear Equations (SLE) can beviewed/played at http://www.lions.odu.edu/~amoha006/Fillinterms/FILLINTERMS.html, and alsoat http://www.lions.odu.edu/~skadi002 (then SELECT/click CEE-305, and viewthe YOUTUBE Lectures #23, #25).

Practical/large-scale applications of parallel-sparse matrix computation incomputational biology, finite element numerical modeling of oceans etc.have also been considered as areas of interests by Dr. Nguyen'sMultidisciplinary Parallel-Vector Computation Institute's researchactivities in the past recent years.