High Performance Computing
AHPCC Researchers Honored
The College of Engineering recognized several students, faculty and staff members at a college-wide meeting on Friday, May 4. Join us in congratulating the following AHPCC researchers and collaborators.
College of Engineering Outstanding Teachers:
- Jingxian Wu, Electrical Engineering
- John M. Gauch, Computer Science & Computer Engineering
- Chase E. Rainwater, Industrial Engineering
College of Engineering Outstanding Researchers:
- R. Panneer Selvam, Civil Engineering
- Doug E. Spearot, Mechanical Engineering
College of Engineering Outstanding Service to Students:
- Magda O. El-Shenawee, Electrical Engineering
- Manuel D. Rossetti, Industrial Engineering
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09-May-12 09:16
New Method Offers Control of Strain on Graphene Membranes
The University of Arkansas picks up another first. A group of physicists, including Laurent Bellaiche and Salvador Barraza-Lopez, from the University of Arkansas and their collaborators have developed a technique that allows them to control the mechanical property, or strain, on freestanding graphene, sheets of carbon one-atom thick suspended over the tops of tiny squares of copper. By controlling the strain on freestanding graphene, they also can control other properties of this important material.
Read the full Newswire article.
02-Apr-12 10:38
AHPCC Interim Co-directors have been appointed
Jackson Cothren and Douglas Spearot have been appointed as interim co-directors of the Arkansas High Performance Computing Center. Both Cothren and Spearot have been active researchers using the cyberinfrastructure (supercomputing) resources available in the center. They will share the director role previously held by Amy Apon. Apon left the university this month for an administrative position at Clemson University. The interim appointments will be for one year while a search is conducted for a new center director.
Read the full Newswire article.
01-Sep-11 15:49
UARK Researchers Publish in Nature
Uark researchers Narayani Choudhury & Laurent Bellaiche co-authored a publication in the prestigious journal Nature based on computational work performed on the AHPCC clusters.
Abstract:
Geometric frustration is a broad phenomenon that results from an
intrinsic incompatibility between some fundamental interactions and the
underlying lattice geometry1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
Geometric frustration gives rise to new fundamental phenomena and is
known to yield intriguing effects such as the formation of exotic states
like spin ice, spin liquids and spin glasses1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. It has also led to interesting findings of fractional charge quantization and magnetic monopoles5, 6.
Mechanisms related to geometric frustration have been proposed to
understand the origins of relaxor and multiferroic behaviour, colossal
magnetocapacitive coupling, and unusual and novel mechanisms of
high-transition-temperature superconductivity3, 4, 5, 12, 16.
Although geometric frustration has been particularly well studied in
magnetic systems in the past 20 years or so, its manifestation in the
important class formed by ferroelectric materials (which are compounds
with electric rather than magnetic dipoles) is basically unknown. Here
we show, using a technique based on first principles, that
compositionally graded ferroelectrics possess the characteristic
‘fingerprints’ associated with geometric frustration. These systems have
a highly degenerate energy surface and display critical phenomena. They
further reveal exotic orderings with novel stripe phases involving
complex spatial organization. These stripes display spiral states,
topological defects and curvature. Compositionally graded ferroelectrics
can thus be considered the ‘missing link’ that brings ferroelectrics
into the broad category of materials able to exhibit geometric
frustration. Our ab initio calculations allow deep microscopic insight into this novel geometrically frustrated system.
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01-Jul-11 16:11
Land Mines & Breast Cancer
Magda El-Shenawee is an expert in finding what is hidden. As a rough-surface computational scientist, her research probed the dirt of barren minefields and is now revealing the mysteries of the human body. Dr. El-Shenawee uses the AHPCC clusters and other computational resources for her research.
“You can apply one solution for similar problems or devise similar solutions for diverse problems,” said El-Shenawee, associate professor of electrical engineering in the College of Engineering. “Sometimes those diverse problems have more in common than you might think.”
El-Shenawee’s initial research focused on developing and using a unique, incomparably fast technique called the steepest descent fast multilevel multipole method, or SDFMM, an algorithm that analyzes how electromagnetic waves scatter as they bounce off rough surfaces. Essentially, SDFMM combines rigorous mathematical equations that calculate the electric and magnetic currents on the surface of an object. After learning this technique at the University of Illinois-Urbana, she applied it to study radar scattering from rough surfaces, specifically a situation known as a “low grazing angle.” Her work resulted in finding better ways for ships to track missiles over large distances on the sea.
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