RESEARCH

My current research interests center around two topics: Curvelets and associated transforms, for data analysis, and GPU programming and algorithm development with emphasis on education.

Fluid Dynamics
In early years, my interests have focused on the numerical simulation of turbulent flows with subgrid scale models. Numerical techniques used include discontinous Galerkin on unstructured meshes, spectral methods, and high order compact methods. Flows of interest include compressible isotropic turbulence and the interaction of shocks with organized structures.

In the past few years, I have been involved in research projects that seek to accelerate fluid dynamics codes on graphics processing units. I worked with Dimitri Komatitsch and Roland Martin, both researchers at the University of Pau, in France, to accelerate their sesmic code, based on the spectral element method. Most recently, we have accelerated the code to run on a 192 GPU cluster.

Programming the GPU
In the last two years, I have developed an interest in computer gaming, as a results of a new course on Game Design that I developed. We use the free Blender software to demonstrate and construct games. Last year, we began the development of the Spherical Particle Hydrodynamic algorithms to incorporate real-time particles into Blender's game engine. We are extending the SPH engine to allow for flocking and flocking within a fluid. The SPH is implemented in OpenCL in the spirit of open source: Blender runs on all platforms with all graphics cards.