The Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences (ICES)
fosters interdisciplinary research and graduate studies at
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN.

ICES Professor William Beckner was elected chair of the university's Faculty Council for the academic year 2014-15. The position designates him to serve on the executive committee for three years--as chair-elect for 2013-14, as chair the following year, and as past chair the next year.

The chair presides over the council and serves as a member of the council’s agenda-setting group. The executive committee meets monthly with President Powers to discuss and advise on educational, institutional, and faculty matters. The Faculty Council is responsible for evaluating, monitoring, and recommending all UT Austin undergraduate curricular changes and degree programs. The Faculty Council is comprised of 70 elected faculty members, 7 student members, and 33 ex officio administrative members (without vote). Read more.

Richard Tsai, ICES Professor, was awarded a 2013 Simons Fellowship from the Simons Foundation who made the announcement in the New York Times. Simons Fellows receive compensation for a full year of academic leave to focus solely on research. Tsai, associate professor of mathematics, will concentrate on developing theories for a class of novel boundary integral methods defined on Lipschitz implicit interfaces, and their applications.

A committee of distinguished scientists advised the Foundation on selection of applicants. Awards are based on the applicant’s scientific accomplishment in the five-year period preceding the application and on the potential scientific impact of the leave period. The list of recipients was published in the May 7 issue of the New York Times.

CSEM Student Ju Liu has won the Robert J. Melosh Medal for the Best Student Paper on Finite Element Analysis. His paper, "A Thermodynamically Consistent Algorithm for Liquid-Vapor Phase Transitions in Complex Geometries," was reviewed by top scholars in computational mechanics and selected based on the quality of both the paper and his oral presentation. Liu’s advisor is ICES Professor Thomas J.R. Hughes.

Three of the six medal finalists were from ICES. The other two finalists were Michael Borden, a postdoctoral fellow, and Ernesto Lima, a CSEM visiting fellow. Read more.

Rachel Ward, assistant professor of mathematics and ICES faculty member, received a $360,000 U.S. Air Force Young Investigator grant. The prestigious U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research program seeks to enhance early career development of outstanding young investigators by supporting scientists who received Ph.D. or equivalent degrees in the last five years. Ward’s 3-year grant will support her work in deriving efficient strategies for acquiring high-dimensional data with known low-dimensional structure, driven by applications to Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Uncertainty Quantification.

CSEM alumnus Jack Poulson received the UT Graduate School Outstanding Dissertation Award based on the impact of his subject, the originality/creativity of his work, the quality of his scholarship and writing, and its potential for publishing.

Poulson’s dissertation, “Fast Parallel Solution Of Heterogeneous 3d Time-Harmonic Wave Equations,” addressed solving the high frequency Helmholtz equation, which describes the propagation of time harmonic acoustic, elastic, and electromagnetic waves. Read more.

Five faculty received ICES’ 2013 W. A. "Tex" Moncrief Grand Challenge Awards, based on their highly compelling research proposals related to the Grand Challenges in computational engineering and sciences that affect the competitiveness and international standing of the nation. ICES will provide these faculty with necessary resources to cover release time from teaching for one or more semesters to work on their research. Stipends of up to $75,000 per award per semester are provided to cover salary and other expenses. Read more.

Works by ICES core faculty members Graeme Henkelman and Peter Rossky were selected by editors at The Journal of Chemical Physics as among the most notable articles published in 2012 that present ground-breaking research. Rossky, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, serves as director of the ICES Center for Computational Molecular Sciences. Henkelman, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, is a member of the same center. Rossky was an author of the paper “A computational investigation of the phase behavior and capillary sublimation of water confined between nanoscale hydrophobic plates.” Henkelman as an author of the paper “Optimizing transition states via kernel-based machine learning.”

CSEM student Steve Mattis has received the 2013 SIAM Student Chapter Certificate of Recognition for outstanding service and contributions to SIAM. CSEM Faculty Todd Arbogast and Clint Dawson, who serve as faculty advisors of UT’s SIAM Student Chapter, recognized Mattis for exceptional service to the chapter. Mattis has served as president of the chapter for the past year and increased exposure of the chapter to industrial laboratories and research problems.

A good tool is both robust and accurate; it doesn’t break down easily, or give faulty readings or results. This standard applies to everything from a bathroom scale, or vending machine to a sniper rifle. It also rings true for computer code.

Industry and agencies use computer code to design products and test research in the digital realm. It cuts down and time and cost, and can allow a design to be tested in a variety of conditions. Teams of scientists and engineers at companies are dedicated to implementing codes that work efficiently and represent reality—codes that are robust and accurate. But sometimes, they get stuck. Read more.