College of Engineering and Computing
Multidisciplinary Analysis, Inverse Design, Robust Optimization and Control
(MAIDROC)
Laboratory
Presents an Invited Lecture on
The Emergence of Predictive Computational Science:
Validation and Verification of Computational Models
of Complex Physical Systems
J. Tinsley Oden
Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences (ICES)
The University of Texas at Austin
Date:
Time:
Room:
September 19, 2013 (THURSDAY)
3:30 – 4:30 p.m.
EC1115
Predictive Science is understood to be the scientific discipline concerned with the use of
mathematical and computational models to forecast physical events. It embraces the
processes of model selection, calibration, validation, verification, and their use in
forecasting features of physical events with quantified uncertainty.
It is argued that the principles of predictive science and the tools it employs are rooted
in the philosophical foundations of science itself and that they evoke a need for
reviewing exactly how scientific knowledge is obtained and how it is interpreted in a
statistical setting. We adopt a Bayesian framework to discuss these issues and to
describe methods of statistical calibration, model plausibility, validation, and solution of
stochastic systems. We explore several areas fundamental to contemporary
computational science: coarse-gaining and validation of molecular models, maximum
entropy methods, experimental design based on Shannon information theoretics, virtual
validation of models, model bias or inadequacy, and model selection. Examples from
nanomanufacturing are discussed.
About the Invited Lecturer:
Dr. John Tinsley Oden is Associate Vice President for Research and Director of the Institute for
Computational Engineering and Sciences (ICES) at The University of Texas at Austin. He was the
founding Director of that Institute, which supports broad interdisciplinary research and academic
programs in computational engineering and sciences, involving five colleges and 18 academic
departments within UT Austin. ICES has 42 core faculty (32 of which have endowed positions), 87
research staff (postdocs), 44 visiting faculty fellows, and 75 graduate students (39 of which have
fellowships). ICES is the only institute at UT Austin that can award doctoral degrees. Besides having a
number of large parallel computer clusters in the ICES, Professor Oden was instrumental in
envisioning and creating a Sun Constellation Linux cluster, Ranger, one of the most powerful
computers for open academic research in the world. Ranger has 62,976 AMD Opteron processing
cores, 123 B of memory, 1.73 PB of on-line disk storage, and a peak performance of 579 Tflop/s.
Professor Oden holds the Cockrell Family Regents’ Chair in Engineering and the Peter O’Donnell, Jr.
Centennial Chair in Computer Systems at the University of Texas at Austin. He is a Professor in the
Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, the Department of Mathematics,
and the Department of Computer Science.
Dr. Oden is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. He is also a member of The
American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He serves on numerous organizational, scientific, and
advisory committees for international conferences and symposiums. He is an Editor of Computer
Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering and serves on the editorial board of 32 scientific
journals.
Dr. Oden has worked extensively on the mathematical theory and implementation of
numerical methods applied to problems in solid and fluid mechanics and, particularly,
nonlinear continuum mechanics. He is the author or editor of over 800 scientific
works, including 57 books, monographs, and proceedings. He has graduated 34
M.S. students and 43 Ph.D. students. He has received numerous awards in
recognition of his research accomplishments including the Title of Chevalier dans
l’ordre des Palmes Academiques from the French government, the Worcester Reed
Warner Medal, Melvin R. Lohmann Medal, Theodore von Karman Medal, John von
Neumann Medal, Newton-Gauss Congress Medal, the Stephen P. Timoshenko
Medal, the O.C. Zienkiewicz Medal, and several others. He holds five honorary
doctorates, Honoris Causa. The Institute for Scientific Information lists Dr. Oden as
one of the most highly cited researchers in the world from 1981 – 1999 in refereed,
peer-reviewed journals. In 2011, he received the SIAM Prize in Computational
Science. In 2012, the U.S. Association for Computational Mechanics established the
J. Tinsley Oden Medal in honor of Oden to recognize “outstanding and sustained
contributions to computational science, engineering, and mathematics.”
Professor Oden’s current work focuses on multiscale modeling and on theories and methods for the
verification, validation, and calibration of models, and on uncertainty quantification.
Contact Information: The University of Texas at Austin, Institute for Computational
Engineering and Sciences, 1 University Station, C0200, Austin, Texas
78712. Email:oden@ices.utexas.edu, Phone: 512-471-3312, Fax: 512-471-8694.
For further information please contact Prof. Dulikravich at (305) 348-7016 or at dulikrav@fiu.edu.
Map: http://campusmaps.fiu.edu/ (Other campuses/ - Engineering Center