MSI Research Exhibition 2012

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https://hdl.handle.net/11299/122221

MSI researchers presented posters of their work at the 2012 MSI Research Exhibition on Friday, April 13, 1-3:30 p.m., on the fourth floor of Walter Library.

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Now showing 1 - 9 of 9

Efficient Algorithms for Geographic Watershed Analysis
(2012-07-03) Barnes, Richard; Lehman, Clarence; Mulla, David; Galzki, Jacob; Wan, Haibo; Nelson, Joel
This project is to analyze where wetlands and other vegetated buffers can be placed on the landscape to intercept drain waters and help purify them before they reach the natural watershed. The computational problem comes because new LIDAR images have expanded the resolution of geographic digital elevation models (DEMs) up to a thousandfold or more. This in turn has taxed the ability of existing algorithms to process the expanded datasets. Here we explain the project and present new efficient algorithms for parallel and scalar processing that reduce run-times from days on ordinary computers to minutes or second using the new algorithms in a parallel supercomputing environment.
New Rules for Simulation and Analysis in Ecology, Epidemiology, and Elsewhere
(2012-06-13) Lehman, Clarence; Keen, Adrienne
An invisible "phase change" has recently re-shaped computation, in only a few years. Vast memories allow new modeling methods–still being invented and deployed. We apply such methods to epidemiology and ecology, outlined here.
Ecology of Open Star Clusters
(2012-06-13) Lehman, Clarence; Lehman, Fred; Barnes, Richard
"Ecology of star clusters" examines the interactions of stars, and what can be gleaned from those interactions about the evolution and ultimate fate of star clusters large and small. Questions like: 1) What is the force that causes small star clusters to expand? 2) Why do the ancient globular clusters have many binary stars? 3) Why are close triple stars so rare?
Monte Carlo Simulation of Type IV Collagen Network Organization
(2012-06-13) Gyoneva, Lazarina; Segal, Yoav; Dorfman, Kevin; Barocas, Victor H.
Type IV collagen is found exclusively in basement membranes where it forms networks that provide much of the membrane's mechanical support. There are two types of collagen IV networks: major and minor, which have different properties. The objective of this project is to use a Monte Carlo simulation to determine the influence of molecular differences on the collagen IV network properties.
Parallel Computing of Forest Biotic Dynamics
(2012-06-13) Wythers, Kirk; Zhang, Shuxia; Reich, Peter; Peters, Emily
This poster presents a parallel-computing framework developed recently through the collaborative efforts between the College of Food, Agricultural, and Natural Resource Sciences, the Institute of the Environment, and the Supercomputing Institute at the University of Minnesota. The goal of this project is to address the challenges encountered in the modeling of biotic dynamics in a forest region across different time and spatial scales. By implementing the parallel computing framework on Itasca, we have been able to reduce the computing time from 46 days (if the simulation runs on a single desktop) to half a day by using 8 nodes for a study of northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan with 1 km grid resolution. This will allow us to attack computationally challenging problems, such as assessing the impact of critical events like the 1999 BWCA blowdown and finer resolution events such as controlled burns on future forest productivity and stability.
Structure Determination of Zeolite Nanosheets
(2012-06-13) Zhang, Xueyi; Tsapatsis, Michael
none
Advanced Modeling and Simulation of Turbulent Sprays
(2012-06-13) Liu, Wanjiao; Garrick, Sean C.
Spray and atomization have been extensively studied in the past due to their broad applications in areas such as agricultural spraying, chemical coatings, pharmaceutical synthesis, inhalation aerosols, fuel spray in engines, and so on. Droplet size distribution and breakup pattern are the most important characteristics of spray since it determines the performance, efficiency, or safety. For example, in agricultural spray the goal is to control the number of fine droplets with diameter of 100 micron or less, since they will drift in air and causing contamination and damage to non-target crops, animals, and human.
Toward Simulation-Based Medical Device Design: Integrating High Performance Cloud FEA Computing Into Intuitive Design Modeling
(2012-06-13) Lin, Chi-Lun; Coffey, Dane; Erdman, Arthur; Keefe, Daniel
We present a new approach to simulation-based medical device design by integrating current CAD and FEA systems and developing natural human-computer interfaces to control the resulting integrated system. In order to utilize the high performance FEA computing power, a network communication program was developed and a Python script was used to initialize simulations and read calculated results. A complete design process of a breast biopsy cannula was demonstrated.
Visualizing Ancient Greek Rhetoric in Immersive Virtual Reality
(2012-06-13) Kim, Kyungyoon; Jackson, Bret; Thorson, Lauren; Graff, Richard; Rabbani, Azadeh; Johnstone, Christopher L.; Keefe, Daniel F.
The goal of this project is to reconstruct ancient Greek rhetorical sites in virtual environments, including simulating architecture, sound, crowds, to better understand how the physical settings structured and constrained the interactions that took place in them. Our work makes use of the large-format, head-tracked stereoscopic display at MSI, and our preliminary results include an immersive visualization of the Thersilion at Megalopolis, a site where speeches were once given to 10,000 people.