Multiscale Simulations, Uncertainty Quantification and Data Challenges

The Faculty of Informatics is pleased to announce a seminar given by Omar M. Knio

DATE: Monday, March 28th 2011
PLACE: USI Università della Svizzera italiana, room A22, Red building (Via G. Buffi 13)
TIME: 09.30

ABSTRACT:
Prediction of multiscale systems is increasingly being based on complex physical models that depend on large, in many cases, uncertain data sets.  In this talk, we will outline recent developments in spectral methods for uncertainty quantification in model-based simulations.  The fundamental principle of stochastic spectral methods is to parametrize model uncertainty in terms of a finite set of random variables with known probability law, and to express the solution in terms of orthogonal basis functions that are typically polynomials in these random variables.  The unknown coefficients in the expansion are determined using a weighted residual formalism, which provides quantitative estimates of the dependence of the solution on random model inputs.  Implementation of this formalism will be illustrated in light of recent applications to chemical kinetics, molecular dynamics, and geophysical flows.  Conclusions are in particular drawn concerning the potential of parallel databases in providing a platform for discovery, assessing prediction fidelity, and assisting in decision support.

BIO:
Omar Knio is Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University.  He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in 1990 from MIT.  He held a postdoctoral associate position at MIT, before joining the ME Faculty at JHU in 1991.  O Knio held a visiting professor position at the Ecole Centrale de Lyon in 1993, 1994, 1995, and 2001, and at the Université du Havre in 1997.  He was visiting lecturer at the Institut für Technische Mechanik in Aachen, Germany, in 1994, and also held visiting scientist positions at Sandia National Laboratories from 1996-2001, and at the Free University in Berlin in 1999 and 2000.  O Knio co-founded Reactive NanoTechnologies Inc, in 2001, and has served as its Senior Vice President from 2001-2008.  He is the recipient of an Associated Western Universities Faculty Fellowship Award in 1996, and a Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Award in 2003, and currently serves on the Editorial Board of Theoretical and Computational Fluid Dynamics.  O Knio's research interests include computational fluid mechanics, oceanic and atmospheric flows, turbulent flow, physical acoustics, chemically-reacting flow, energetic materials, dynamical systems, and asymptotic and stochastic techniques.

HOST: Prof. Mauro Pezzè