Wider Horizons

  With increased power comes increased responsibility. The advent of unprecedented computing power allows us to address problems that seemed inconceivable not very long ago. For FSU to stay at the forefront of research, it cannot ignore such new challenges. They must be addressed, and single researchers working alone cannot deal them with effectively.

In mechanics, perhaps the most interesting new direction is the application to biological systems. Biological systems are complex, but humans are biological system themselves, and the potential payoffs in this field can be tremendous. For example, approximately 60% of all human deaths are caused by disorders of the cardiovascular system.

Fluid flow is an area of mechanics in which we have considerable experience; yet the flow of blood with its inhomogeneous and variable properties and complex boundary conditions is much more difficult than problems we have addressed before. Still, it is a challenge that we are ready to face now that tools to handle it accurately are becoming available.

A second area in fluid mechanics in which large-scale computations are emerging as an indispensible tool is in environmental noise. We foresee that society will continue to demand further reductions in environmental noise, not just of airplanes, but also of other sources of noise. Just one example is provided by wind turbines for power generation, whose environmentally desirable properties conflict with significant problems related to noise. The geometry of such problems is complex, and it requires major computational resources to address them.

The area of nanotechnology, involving the control of matter on scales ranging from the atom to macromolecular levels, is a major emerging growth area that holds great promise for the creation of new materials, mechanical systems, computational devices, and many others. Through the proposed center, FSU will be in an excellent position to expand its presence in this greatly promising, highly-visible field.