Research Projects

GAs for composite laminate structure design. Collaboration with Boeing, U. of Florida, Delft University, U. of the Pacific, Dept. of ESM at VPI&SU. For examples of recent work see TR91-11, TR91-12, TR93-17, TR94-02, TR94-15, TR94-30, TR96-13, TR02-04, TR03-11, TR03-28, TR05-11.

This work concerns the application of genetic algorithms and parallel computing to the design of composite materials and composite laminate structures. Both new evolutionary computation strategies and new composite laminate structures (such as aircraft wing components) are being pursued. Research support has come from NASA, AFOSR, and Boeing.


BVPs in solid and fluid mechanics. Collaboration with Dept. of Math and ME at Michigan State, Dept. of CS at Winthrop College, Dept. of CE and ESM at VPI&SU. For examples of recent work see TR88-1, TR89-35, TR90-19, TR91-02, TR92-21, TR93-25, TR94-26, TR95-21, TR96-01, TR97-21.

The analysis of flexible structures and viscous fluid flow around complicated geometrical shapes leads to challenging mathematical and computational problems. Tools and topics involved are Mathematica, parallel computing, Fortran 90, nonlinear equations, large sparse linear systems of equations, ODEs, and PDEs.


Circuit simulation. Collaboration with Bell Labs, Dept. of EE at UC Irvine, U. of British Columbia. For examples of recent work see TR92-07, TR92-52, TR90-61, TR97-18.

This work involves the solution of extremely large (million or more unknowns) nonlinear systems of equations describing the behavior of analog circuits. Such circuit simulation has enormous economic importance, and is central to telecommunications, computer networking, and embedded control systems. Research support has come from DOE, NSF, AFOSR, and Lucent Technologies.


Parallel algorithms. Collaboration with Ames Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, General Motors R&D Lab, Indiana University. For examples of recent work see TR88-4, TR88-5, TR89-39, TR90-34, TR91-04, TR92-56, TR94-15, TR95-20, TR97-18, TR04-15, TR05-11, TR06-02, TR07-01, TR07-02, TR07-33.

This work concerns parallel algorithms for nonlinear systems of equations, polynomial systems of equations, nonlinear programming, and iterative methods for large sparse linear systems of equations. Important aspects are the development of production quality mathematical software, the design, analysis and testing of new parallel algorithms, and application to large scale scientific problems. Research support has come from AFOSR, DOE, NSF, and Michelin.


Mathematical software. Collaboration with Dept. of CS at Iowa State University, Dept. of Math. at College of William and Mary, Dept. of Math. at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, General Motors R&D Lab, Bell Labs. For examples of recent work see TR90-36, TR91-32, TR92-52, TR96-11, TR98-22, TR03-24, TR04-15, TR04-31, TR07-33.

The goal of this work is to produce ``industrial strength'' mathematical software in the areas of homotopy methods for nonlinear systems of equations, nonlinear optimization, adaptive iterative methods for large, sparse linear systems, polynomial systems of equations, and monotone quintic spline approximation. Research support has come from AFOSR, DOE, NSF.


Multidisciplinary analysis and design optimization (MDO). Collaboration with Dept. of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at U. of Notre Dame, Dept. of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at U. of Florida, NASA Langley, Sandia National Laboratories, Delft University, Aerospace and Ocean Engineering at VPI&SU, Dept. of Mathematics at College of William and Mary, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. For examples of recent work see TR94-29, TR95-01, TR95-13, TR95-20, TR96-03, TR96-12, TR96-18, TR97-10, TR97-14, TR97-15, TR02-09, TR04-03.

This is a large project involving computer science, mathematics, and several different engineering departments, conducted under the auspices of the Multidisciplinary Analysis and Design Center here and the newly formed AFRL/VT/Wright State Collaborative Center for Multidisciplinary Sciences. Support is from AFOSR, AFRL, NSF, NASA, and a consortium of aerospace, automotive, and maritime industries.


Problem solving environments. Collaboration with Depts. of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering, Agricultural Economics, Biology, Civil Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Wood Science at VPI&SU.

This is a broad interdisciplinary effort to construct computational tools for problem solving in proscribed domains. The work includes computer science enabled infrastructure as well as discipline specific modeling and tools . Support has come from ASPIRES, DARPA, EPA, NASA, NIH, NSF, USDA, most notably a $1.0M NSF grant for work on a collaborative problem solving environment for wireless communication systems, and a $2.45M DARPA grant for work on a problem solving environment for cell cycle modelling.


Remote sensing/image processing. Collaboration with Dept. of Forestry and the Center for Environmental Applications of Remote Sensing (CEARS).

The goal of this project is to develop new parallel algorithms for processing and analyzing multispectral satellite data, using both shared memory and distributed memory multiprocessors in LASCA. Support is from NASA and industry.