NSF East Asia and Pacific Summer Institute (EAPSI) for FY 2013 in China

Frederick Christina, Austin TX

Investigators

Abstract

This action funds Christina Frederick of The University of Texas at Austin to conduct a research project in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences area during the summer of 2013 at the Institute of Computational Mathematics and Scientific and Engineering Computing of Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, China. The project title is "Discovering Fine Scale Features in Effective Systems Using Heterogeneous Multiscale Methods." The host scientist is Dr. Pingbing Ming. A challenging task in the design of models for the complex processes that arise in science and engineering is capturing features at a wide range of spatial or temporal scales with numerical methods that are computationally inexpensive. The recently developed Heterogeneous Multiscale Methods (HMM) provide a framework for the design of such numerical methods that enhance current models by incorporating local microscale calculations. This project reverses the process and analyzes the use of HMM in recovering microscale features of a system from given coarse scale data. Broader impacts of an EAPSI fellowship include providing the Fellow a first-hand research experience outside the U.S.; an introduction to the science, science policy, and scientific infrastructure of the respective location; and an orientation to the society, culture and language. These activities meet the NSF goal to educate for international collaborations early in the career of its scientists, engineers, and educators, thus ensuring a globally aware U.S. scientific workforce. Furthermore, this proposed research can be applied to inverse problems in a wide range of disciplines including geophysics, medical imaging, and materials science.