Computational Science & Engineering



NSF: Computational Facilities for MTU's CS&E Program S. Seidel (PI), and Co-PIs C. Friedrich, J. Jaszczak, A. Mayer, $260,000.

Technical description: This is an equipment acquisition grant to support research and training in computationally intensive projects in several disciplines. Participating researchers come from the departments of physics, mechanical engineering-engineering mechanics, metallurgy and materials engineering, geological engineering and sciences, and computer science. The list of current departments has since grown to include mathematical sciences. The computational system acquired in this project is a primary tool used in their work. Other research projects that use this facility are in the areas of computational fluid dynamics, materials science, groundwater flow, and interprocessor communication. This computational facility is being used to expand the scale of problems that these projects address. Popular description: Over the past 15 years, computing at MTU has evolved from a centrally located, centrally administered "computer center" to a completely distributed, self-administered web of desktop PC's. This trend put computers on our desks, but by doing so it cut up the computational power of these computers into very small pieces. As explained above, these PC's are more than adequate for doing day-to-day tasks, but certain researchers require much greater computational power. For many years, medium- and large-scale computers were not available at MTU because all computing had been "distributed" to the desktop. This NSF grant was one of the first to reverse this trend and make larger computers again available to researchers at MTU This multi-year grant was obtained several years ago. The first piece of equipment acquired was the Sun Enterprise 4500, described below. This computer is freely available to scientists and engineers for computational work that is too large for their desktop machines. During the past several years faculty and students from the College of Engineering and the College of Sciences and Arts have used this computer for a wide range of work including: The study of volcanic processes Student: Sebastiene Dartevelle, Ph.D. student, Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences Advisor: Bill Rose The study of volcanic processes Student: Song Guo, CS&E Ph.D. student, Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences Advisors: Gregg Bluth and Bill Rose Groundwater remediation studies Student: Mark Erickson, M.S. student, Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences Advisor: Alex Mayer Project title needed Student: Hanyi Li, CS&E Ph.D. student, Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences Advisor: Judith Budd Project title needed Student: Krista Stalsberg-Zarling, CS&E Ph.D. student, Mathematical Sciences Advisor: Franz Tanner Discrete atomic modelling Investigator: Jong Lee, Material Sciences and Engineering