Scientific Computing Research Environments for the Mathematical Sciences

NSF proposal DMS-0215392

PIs: Xu, Belmonte, Du, Li and Zikatanov

ABSTRACT

The Department of Mathematics at the Pennsylvania State

University will purchase a 64-node parallel PC cluster

to be dedicated to the support of research and teaching

in the mathematical sciences. In particular, the PC

cluster will be used to support the research projects

of faculty members in the areas of the numerical

solution of partial differential equations in fluid

dynamics and material sciences, and computational

finance and in the studies of general numerical

techniques such as parallel multigrid algorithms and

quasi-Monte Carlo methods. In particular, the projects

include studies of important issues concerning modeling

and simulations of non-Newtonian flows, liquid crystals,

quantized vortices, water waves and fuel cells. Much of

the research efforts rely critically on the

establishment of the proposed PC cluster.

The proposal involves an integrated collaboration

between the numerical work to be performed in the PC

cluster and the experimental work to be performed in

the W. G. Pritchard Laboratories of the Department of

Mathematics. The new equipment will make it possible to

numerically simulate the various complex physical

phenomena observed in the fluid lab and will greatly

enhance collaborations among researchers in computational

and applied mathematics at Penn State. The PC cluster

will also be the basis for the creation of a new

computational laboratory, which together with the

Pritchard fluid lab, will provide a unique environment

for multidisciplinary research as well as for (both

undergraduate and graduate) student training.