Short Course on Multi-Scale Computational Approaches for Simulating Polymers and Soft Matter: From Atomistic to Mesoscale

Clemson University, Clemson SC

Investigators

Abstract

Technical Abstract This award supports organization of a short course at the 2014 March Meeting of the American Physical Society on applications of modern computational techniques to model polymers and soft materials. The set of lectures is designed for a broad audience including graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty, and industrial scientists. The lectures will cover topics on Monte Carlo and Molecular Dynamics simulations, atomistic and coarse grained models, and classical density functional theory and modeling. The basic concepts will be followed by presentations of modern simulation packages and how to effectively use computers with new architectures. Presentations will include practical advice of how to set up and run simulations. Together this series of lectures will provide a foundation for multiple length and time scale modeling targeting fundamental understanding of properties of polymeric and soft materials. The discussed topics will enable the participants to adequately choose and apply computational tools to model polymeric and soft materials and utilize these tools in "Materials by Design" approach. Concerted efforts will be made to recruit underrepresented minorities by working together on course advertisement with the office of Career and Diversity Programs of the American Physical Society and the Access and Equity team at the Clemson University. This short course will provide educational materials for the next generation of computational scientists which will significantly advance computationally enabled design of new materials. Nontechnical Abstract This award supports organization of a short course at the 2014 March Meeting of the American Physical Society on applications of appropriate computational techniques to model polymers and soft materials. The set of lectures is designed for a broad audience including graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty, and industrial scientists. Together this series of lectures will provide a foundation for multiple length and time scale modeling targeted towards understanding properties of polymeric and soft materials. The basic concepts will be followed by presentations on modern simulation packages and how to effectively use computers with new architectures. Presentations will include practical advice of how to set up and run simulations. The discussed topics will enable the participants to choose and apply appropriate computational tools to model polymeric and soft materials. The skills obtained from this course provide a stepping stone toward computationally enabled design of new materials with desired properties. Concerted efforts will be made to recruit underrepresented minorities by working together on course advertisement with the office of Career and Diversity Programs of the American Physical Society and the Access and Equity team at the Clemson University. This short course will provide educational materials for the next generation of computational scientists which will significantly advance computationally enabled design of new materials.