Please join us on 12 April 2013 from noon-2p in Donovan Hall, Rm G152 to hear Dr. Andrea Dziubek present her lecture in the Provost's Lecture Series entitled "'Modern' Computational Mathematical Modeling in Teaching and Research".(Refreshments will be served.)

"Computational mathematical modeling is an excellent way for students and researchers to study the modeling of a problem and what effects its solution, for example how the solution depends on parameters or on the choice of boundary conditions. Of course, it is also important that the numerical methods approximate the model equations accurately enough and preserve the qualitative structure of the original equations, otherwise this could result in dangerous and costly situations. Historically, numerical methods such as finite element method were developed for simple (isotropic, homogeneous) fluids and materials, but advanced materials often show nonlinear stress stain relations and exhibit phenomena at multiple scales, which further motivates the need for new approaches in computational mathematical modeling.

Dr. Dziubek will show some of the problems she has worked on, such as condensation in a compact heat exchanger, red blood cell membranes, and retinal blood flow. Then she will discuss what can go wrong if the numerical methods are not preserving the structure of the original analytic equations, illustrated by an example of a numerical method which preserves the symplecticity of a Hamiltonian system. Finally, she will show some student projects.

Andrea Dziubek, Asssistant Professor of Applied Mathematics, received her PhD in Energy and Process Engineering from Berlin Institute of Technology, Germany, in 2006, where she also worked for the Project Group Applied Mathematics. She held teaching and research positions in Indiana at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. Her research area is modeling and simulation of problems in fluid dynamics and elasticity on curved domains, using structure preserving numerical methods and finite element methods. She worked on industrial and biomedical problems, and enjoys contributing to the next generation of tools and methods in computational modeling."