People

• LI Faculty

  • 	Duke-Sylvester, Dr. Scott Assistant Professor, Department of Biology University of Louisiana at Lafayette +1 337 482 5304 smd3729 AT louisiana.edu biology.louisiana.edu Start date: Fall 2009
    Dr. Duke-Sylvester received his MS in Mathematics and his PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. While there, Scott worked on computational models of plant population dynamics in wetland ecosystems. The study system for this research was the Florida Everglades, for which he produced spatially explicit landscape scale models used to evaluate the effect of alternative Everglades restoration plans. Scott did his post-doctoral work at Emory University. While there, Scott branched out into studying the dynamics of infectious diseases (ID). In particular, Scott examined the spatial dynamics of raccoon rabies produced by cyclic patterns of increasing and declining density of the raccoon population associated with seasonal breeding. At the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, he is currently moving into the evolution of infectious diseases. RNA viruses, such as rabies and west nile virus, experience rapid rates of molecular substitution that occur on a time scale that is compatible with the ecological dynamics of disease spread. Scott is interested in how the evolutionary dynamics of a pathogen are influenced by the contemporaneous process of infection and disease spread.
    	Genov, Dr. Dentcho Assistant Professor, Departments of Physics and Electrical Engineering Louisiana Tech University +1 318 357 4190 dgenov AT latech.edu www.phys.latech.edu/~dgenov/ Start date: September 2008
    Dr. Dentcho Genov obtained his Ph.D. from Purdue University in Electrical and Computer Engineering. Dr. Genov's background spans different areas of research in Physics and Engineering. His major interests are in electromagnetic theory and its applications in a wide variety of systems, including nanoscale complex media, novel type of metamaterials, nano-, and mesoscopic particles and their optical properties, plasmonics and nanophotonics, nonlinear optical effects, and applications. He has extensive experience in modeling actual devices ranging from nano-sized optical elements, to large-scale plasma focus discharge machinery.
    	Jarrell, Dr. Mark LI Principal Investigator Professor, Department of Physics & Astronomy and Center for Computation & Technology Louisiana State University Start date: January 2009 www.phys.lsu.edu/~jarrell
    Dr. Mark Jarrell earned his Ph.D. from the University of California at Santa Barbara in Physics. Dr. Jarrell's main area of interest lies in the physics of strongly correlated electronic materials, which include many nanostructures, high Tc superconductors, and heavy Fermion and magnetic materials.
    	Khismatullin, Dr. Damir Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering Department Tulane Univesity +1 504 247 1587 damir AT tulane.edu www.bmen.tulane.edu/faculty/damir.php Start Date: August 2008
    Dr. Damir Khismatullin obtained his Ph.D. from Bashkir State University in Physics and Mathematics. Dr. Khismatullin's research is connected to computational fluid mechanics and cell-tissue engineering, and his interests include computational and theoretical studies of receptor-mediated leukocyte adhesion to endothelium. More generally, he has expertise in cellular biomechanics, biophysics, bio-fluid mechanics, medical ultrasound, multiphase and non-Newtonian flow.
    	Mobley, Dr. David Assistant Professor, Chemistry Department University of New Orleans +1 504 280 6445 dlmobley AT uno.edu www.chem.uno.edu/ChemistryDepartmentfolder/Mobley.html Start Date: July 2008
    Dr. David Mobley obtained his Ph.D. from the University of California at Davis in Physics. Dr. Mobley's research interests are in the areas of computational drug design and lead optimization, and modeling of biomolecular interactions and solvation. He is developing and applying new techniques to accurately predict the strength of biomolecular interactions, especially in the context of pharmaceutical drug discovery. He is also interested in molecular simulations generally, and in force fields and solvation models for these simulations.
    	Ouyang, Dr. Zhenyu Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering Southern University +1 225 771 3341 (Ext. 138) zhenyuouyang AT engr.subr.edu Start Date: August 2009
    Dr. Zhenyu Ouyang obtained his Ph.D. from Marquette University in Structural Engineering. Dr. Ouyang's research interests are in the areas of numerical modeling (Cohesive Zone Model), computational materials (Molecular Dynamics (MD) model), composite materials and structures, and solid and fracture mechanics.
    	Taylor, Dr. Caz Assistant Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University +1 504 865 5191 caz AT tulane.edu http://eebio.tulane.edu/ Start Date: Fall 2009
    Dr. Caz Taylor obtained her PhD from the University of California at Davis in Ecology in 2004. She received a postdoctoral fellowship from the National Science Foundation in Biological Informatics which she completed at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. Dr Taylor's general research interests include computational and mathematical modeling of population dynamics for spatially distributed plant and animal populations. Her particular interests are in the evolution of migration and population dynamics of migratory animals and in computer models to inform management and restoration of coastal wetlands.
    	Taylor, Dr. Christopher Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science University of New Orleans +1 504 280 2402 taylor AT cs.uno.edu www.cs.uno.edu/~taylor Start Date: August 2008
    Dr. Christopher Taylor obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in Computer Science in the area of Computational Biology. Dr. Taylor's primary research involves designing algorithms to analyze genomic data where he focuses on DNA replication, new sequencing technologies, and developmental cancer. He collaborates directly with molecular biologists to investigate biological phenomena using genomic tools such as DNA microarrays and high-throughput sequencing systems.
    	Vincent-Finley, Dr. Rachel Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science Southern University and A & M College revf AT cmps.subr.edu Start Date: May 2009
    Dr. Rachel Vincent-Finley obtained her Ph.D. from Rice University in Computational and Applied Mathematics. Her primary research interests include numerical analysis, particularly the interface between numerical linear algebra and numerical solution techniques which occur in applications to biology, chemistry and biomolecular dynamics. More generally, she is interested in computational methods and high performance computing hardware and software methodology for molecular modeling including data structures and computer visualization.
    	Wick, Dr. Collin Materials Scientific Investigator Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry Louisiana Tech University 600 W Arizona, Ruston, LA 71270 +1 318 257 2345 cwick AT latech DOT edu http://www.latech.edu/~cwick
    Collin Wick received his PhD from the University of Minnesota. His research focuses on using molecular simulation to understand the properties of different interfaces. Some of his areas of expertise include the development of molecular models and force fields, including ones with many-body interactions, and also ones that allow for reactivity. Furthermore, he has experience in calculating free energy differences and kinetic properties for processes at interfaces, calculating phase equilibria, and properties of high molecular weight polymers. The computational methods Collin Wick has expertise is in using Monte Carlo, molecular dynamics, Langevin dynamics, and ab initio cluster calculations.

• LI Computational Scientists

  • 	Fujioka, Dr. Hideki Center for Computational Science Tulane University Phone: +1 504 862 3377 Fax: +1 504 862 8392 fuji AT tulane.edu www.ccs.tulane.edu/~fuji/
    Dr. Hideki Fujioka obtained his Ph.D. from Keio University in Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Fujioka's research interests are computationally efficient simulations of fluids in channels in a variety of settings including surfactants, pulsatile blood flows, mass transport, and gas transport. Dr. Fujioka has substantial experience developing complex codes (e.g. CFD) in serial and parallel platforms using MPI as well as developing tools to analyze data such as CT-images. At the CCS, his primary focus will be to improve the overall efficiency of the work done on all projects by increasing computational speed, parallelizing codes that are currently serial, working with postdoctoral and senior researchers on improved programming and post-processing practices.
    	Gottumukkala, Dr. Raju N. Center for Business and Technology (CBIT)/National Incident Management Systems and Advanced Technologies (NIMSAT). University of Louisiana at Lafayette +1 337 482 0632 Fax: +1 337 482 0621 raju AT louisiana.edu
    Dr. Gottumukkala obtained his Ph.D. from Louisiana Tech in Computational Analysis and Modeling. Dr. Gottumukkala research interests include providing on-demand access to cyberinfrastructure for disaster management, parallel algorithms, reliability modeling of distributed systems, and workflow modeling and analysis of distributed systems. He is currently working on HPC related projects for disaster management with the National Incident Management Systems and Advanced Technologies (NIMSAT).
    	Khaliq, Dr. Abdul Louisiana Tech University +1 318 257 4483 Fax: +1 318 257 5104 khaliq AT latech.edu www2.latech.edu/~khaliq
    Dr. Khaliq obtained his Ph.D. in engineering with concentration in micro and nano systems and a masters degree in electrical engineering at Louisiana Tech University. Dr. Khaliq's research interests include modeling and simulation of MEMS devices, semiconductor devices, micro-fluidics systems, molecular/nano systems, quantum computing, numerical methods (Finite Difference/Finite Element), biosystems, optical/electromagnetic, microelectronic/MEMS device fabrication and characterization.
    	Thakur, Dr. Bhupender Center for Computation & Technology Louisiana State University Phone: +1 225 578 6376 Fax: +1 225 578 4012 bthakur AT cct.lsu.edu
    Dr. Bhupender Thakur obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Delaware in theoretical and computational nuclear physics. Dr. Thakur's research interests are nuclear structure theory and quantum many-body systems, numerical linear algebra and scientific computing, quantum computing, quantum information theory and statistical mechanics, parallel programming paradigms: MPI, OpenMP and other scalable implementations. Other recent interests include silmulations of bio molecules and force fields and Quantum Monte-Carlo methods for strongly correlated systems.
    	Yang, Dr. Shizhong Computer Science Department and College of Engineering Southern University Phone: +1 225 771 2060 Ext. 26 Fax: +1 225 771 4223 yangsz AT cmps.subr.edu www.engr.subr.edu/coe/LONI%20Institute/yang/yang.htm
    Dr. Shizhong Yang obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in Computational Physics, with a co-discipline in Electrical Engineering. Dr. Yang's research interests are high performance computation algorithms, software design, ab initio plane wave and full potential material simulation: doped C60 and CNT, ab initio MD code design and simulation on nano-materials: Au, Co, Fe and Ni, computational surface physics: physisorption and chemisorption, GW and quantum Monte-Carlo method and application in material simulation, STM, SEM, AFM, XPS, ESR, DLTS material testing. Dr. Yang is currently working on two projects: (1) LaSPACE sponsored ZrO2 thermobarrier coating (CoPI with Dr. Shengmin Guo at LSU June, 2008-May, 2009); (2) Collaborate with Dr. Shuju Bai and Dr. K. Gus Kousoulas in LBRN sponsored 2nd order gK and UL20 protein structure prediction (2008-2009).
    	Zhao, Dr. Zhiyu College of Sciences University of New Orleans +1 504 280 7076 sylvia AT cs.uno.edu www.cs.uno.edu/~sylvia/
    Dr. Zhiyu Zhao's graduated with a Ph.D. from the University of New Orleans in Engineering and Applied Science. Her research field is Bioinformatics and her current research topics include protein 3-D structure alignment, protein structure searching from the Protein Data Bank, haplotype reconstruction from SNP matrices with incomplete and inconsistent errors, and genome comparison based on non-breaking similarity.

• LI Graduate Fellows

  • 2011

    • 	Murat Seckin Ayhan Center for Advanced Computer Studies University of Louisiana at Lafayette Advisor: Dr. Vijay V. Raghavan msa4307 AT cacs DOT louisiana DOT edu
      Mr.Ayhan enrolled in PhD program at Center for Advanced Computer Studies at University of Louisiana at Lafayette in early 2008. He holds a LONI Institute Graduate Fellowship and his current research focuses on learning from large text collections and its implications for modern Information Retrieval (IR). IR tasks, such as web-search, question answering, similarity search, and document classification, are greatly aided by machine learning. Gaussian processes, one of the well-established theoretical bases of probability, enable a principled approach to supervised learning in kernel machines. Moreover, Gaussian processes are reinterpretations of Bayesian linear models, and they present a supreme opportunity for parallel computing in the sense of kernel functions and their mappings to parallel architectures. In addition to utilization of LONI infrastructure, his research goal is to harness words and their combinations for the sake of humanly routine tasks, such as text-classification, and context learning.
      	Sainath Babu Department of Environmental Toxicology Southern University and A & M College Advisor: Dr. Rao M Uppu biosainath AT gmail DOT com
      I am pursuing doctoral degree in the program of Environmental Toxicology at Southern University and A & M College, Baton Rouge. The goal of my research is to identify molecular targets for Bisphenol-A (BPA) and its putative metabolites. I plan to perform molecular docking and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of binding of BPA and its nitrated as well as halogenated derivatives with human estrogen receptors and other closely related proteins. The integrative approach of biology and computational tools will provide deep insights into the mechanistic aspects of BPA-induced toxicity.
      	Pan Hao Department of Physics Tulane University Advisor: Dr. John Perdew
      The purpose of my project is to better describe the long-rage dispersion interaction in some molecules and materials, such as the weak hydrogen bonding and weak attraction between rare-gas atoms, known as the noncovalent van der Waals interaction. Because the semi-local density functional fails to describe the locality system, the long-range non-overlaped system needs to be corrected by using the right correlation interaction. We may use the Density Functional Theory (DFT) plus dispersion method to make a compensation of the missed van-der Waals interaction. The accurate van der Waals coefficient will be used. The high order van der Waals interaction may be considered using some empirical way. Some damping function are going to be tested. We hope the studying of the van der Waals correction can help us to understand the correlation energy in DFT. By testing the DFT-D calculations, we expect to get improved lattice constant and cohesive energy of those noncovalent materials.
      	Alexis J. Lee Department of Chemistry University of New Orleans Advisor: Dr. Steve W. Rick ajlee1 AT my DOT uno DOT edu
      Accurate descriptions of intermolecular interactions are important for predicting and understanding the properties of matter. The necessity for a proper grasp of the structure and chemistry of the air/water interface is relevant to many fields of study, such as atmospheric chemistry, biochemical processes, and electrokinetics. My research involves the development of new computational methods for treating intermolecular interactions and the application of these models to liquid water and aqueous solutions. My current project applies our recently-developed method, discrete charge transfer (DCT), for treating charge transfer in hydrogen-bonding (or asymmetrically-bonded) systems to a water slab and an air bubble in bulk water. DCT transfers a fraction of an electron, -0.02e, from the acceptor molecule back to the donor molecule during the formation of a hydrogen bond. DCT can be parameterized for both polarizable and non-polarizable potentials and reproduces several of the physical attributes of water, including the structure, diffusion constant, and thermodynamic properties.
      	Jialin Lei Southern University and A & M College Advisor: Dr. Shizhong Yang Co-Advisor: Dr. Ebrahim Khosravi jialin_lei_00 AT subr DOT edu
      My research focuses on material design with HPC. I use the computer to create models and perform the molecular simulation to calculate some important properties of the material we are interested in such as the band structure, conductivity, refractivity and so on. The result of computer simulation can give some good suggestions for the researchers who want to improve the original material. Recently, my work is about copper atoms/cellulose segments interaction. We performed ab initio density functional theory (DFT) simulation on the copper atoms/cellulose segment model (two cellulose units and bound with Cu atoms to each electron-rich oxygen atoms in the cellulose unit). The Vienna Ab-initio Simulation Package (VASP) was used to perform simulation. We analyzed the results and propose a copper binding model to explain the possible core-shell formation mechanism.
      	Hoang-Ngan Nguyen Mathematics Department Tulane University Advisor: Dr. Ricardo Cortez hnguyen4 AT tulane DOT edu
      My research is in three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics. In particular, I am interested in applications (like small-scale biological problems) where the Stokes equations apply, for example, the simulation of ciliary beats, flagellar motion, the dynamics of motile microorganisms, and particle suspensions. Currently, I'm working on computational methods for three-dimensional fluid flow problems with deformable bodies (or membranes) immersed in it. Several numerical methods have been developed to deal with these problems, including the boundary element method (BEM) and the method of regularized Stokeslets (MRS). The goal of my current work is to improve the accuracy of current numerical methods for three dimensional Stokes flows by developing correction terms to the integral equations for the velocity and to run extensive numerical tests in a systematic way to find an optimized relation deemed to exist between parameters (discretization size on the surface and the regularizing parameter). Once this is done, the method can get high accuracy with larger blob parameters, which implies that the grid size on the surfaces need not be prohibitively fine. In turn, this will reduce computation work while still obtaining high accuracy. Finally, the new methodology will be applied to a variety of large-scale computational problems related to swarms of microorganisms and analyzing the global flow patterns they generate once their density is high enough.
      	James Rodi Physics & Astronomy Department Louisiana State University Advisor: Dr. Michael Cherry jrodi1 AT lsu DOT edu
      With the hard x-ray/soft gamma-ray sky highly variable, being able to monitor the whole sky at these energies is important. Using the Earth Occultation Technique (EOT) with the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) onboard the NASA satellite Fermi makes such monitoring possible. Past work with EOT has shown that an incomplete catalog of sources increases the systematic errors of the method. An imaging method using GBM has been developed to search for sources and reduce this source of error. My research has been to develop and apply this imaging algorithm to several years of GBM data as well as over a wide range of energies using LONI resources.
      	Amir Shojaei Mechanical Engineering Department Louisiana State University Advisor: Dr. Guoqiang Li ashoja1 AT lsu DOT edu
      Amir Shojaei is a Mechanical Engineering PhD student at Louisiana State University. He received his M.S. degree from Amir-Kabir University of Technology at 2008 and he is working with Dr. Li on projects related to smart material systems. He has several publication on topics like self-healing material systems, computational solid mechanics and elasto-plastic analysis. His current research is focused on Multi-Scale analysis of material systems in which micro-constituent of materials are being utilized to establish the macro-scale mechanical responses. His work is constituted from the theoretical and computational point of view and he is using LONI computational facilities to empower his micro-mechanical based computations.
      	Rajivalochan Subramaniam Department of Physics Louisiana Tech High Energy Physics (LAHEP) Advisor: Dr. Markus Wobisch rsu004 AT latech DOT edu
      Asymptotic freedom is a property of the strong interaction which means that the strong force gets weaker at short distances. This property is predicted by the renormalization group equation (RGE),which specifies how the strong coupling constant αs depends on the renormalization scale μr and therefore on the momentum transfer of a physics process. Previously, in hadron-hadron collisions, αs has been determined in the Dzero experiment in proton anti-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV . Now, using the data from the ATLAS experiment at CERN we are going to extract the energy dependence of the strong coupling constant αs at a much higher center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. Since the interesting data produced at CERN will be of the order of petabytes by the end of 2011, a strong computing facility like LONI is an important requirement for our data analysis. The detector level data analysis is complete at this time. Currently, detector level Monte Carlo plots are produced and compared with available data results. In the next step, the data will be corrected and the systematic uncertainties evaluated. These measurements test Quantum Chromodynamics, theory of strong interactions, in an extended kinematic regime.

  • 2010

    • 	Ayhan, Mr. Murat Seckin Center for Advanced Computer Studies University of Louisiana at Lafayette Advisor: Dr. Vijay V. Raghavan msa4307 AT cacs DOT louisiana DOT edu
      Dementia is an umbrella term used to refer to the deterioration of cognitive functions, the symptoms of which may be given as memory loss, speech impairment, disorientation and poor judgment. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is one major cause of dementia. It is progressive, degenerative, and relentless. Various, fairly accurate diagnostic tests are available; however, a conclusive diagnosis is only possible through an examination of brain tissue after death. One promising approach for the early diagnosis of AD is via Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans, which allow the observation of the brain’s metabolic activities. In literature, it has been illustrated that the accuracy of computerized diagnosis is equal to or better than that of radiologists. In addition, parametric images derived from PET-scans may constitute the appropriate representation of biological readings for machine learning algorithms. My recent research efforts focus on the application of machine learning algorithms in this domain, evaluation of relevant brain regions, and frequent patterns in regards to progression of disease. Due to intensive scanning process, the data produced may end up with ultra-high dimensionality, and hence, high computation power and resources are inevitably required in such analysis. In this respect, we are also seeking for the parallelization of existing learning algorithms, and where possible, aiming to propose innovative solutions.
      	Animilli, Mr. Shravanrakesh Department of Physics Louisiana Tech University Advisor: Dr. Dentcho Genov sra034 AT latech DOT edu
      My areas of interests are in Computational Electromagnetism and Nanoplasmonics and specifically in the development of novel numerical and analytical tools for solving highly intricate problems of electromagnetic wave interaction with complex media. My current research consists study of nano-structured random composite materials, which exhibit anomalous phenomena such as extraordinary enhancements of linear and non-linear optical processes due to excitation of collective electronic states, surface plasmons (SP). Under illumination with light the SP act as nanoscopic energy concentrators undergoing intricate geometrical phase transition at critical metal concentrations. The unique properties of the percolating films make them ideal not only for fundamental studies of light interaction in random systems, but also for a wide range of applications in bio-sensing, spectroscopy, material science, and optics. So to study the properties of these random media in 2D and 3D it is important to develop novel numerical methods . For calculating the electromagnetic (EM) responses of large 2D and 3D systems of particles we seek new efficient numerical methods and utilization of the LONI facility for parallel calculations.
      	Baham, Mr. Corey Department of Computer Science Southern University Advisor: Dr. Shizhong Yang Co-Advisor: Dr. Rachel Vincent-Finley corey_baham_00 AT subr DOT edu
      My research focuses on remote intelligent computer-assisted instruction. My study will focus on the factors that interfered with data transmission such as collision as well as ways to optimize transmission and increase output in a distant-learning environment. One of my goals is to find new ways to improve the way data is transmitted, received and stored. I hope that my research will lead to an increase in the integration and application of scientific instruction using computational models, in a real time, distance learning environment.
      	Duan, Mr. Lide Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Louisiana State University Advisor: Dr. Lu Peng lduan1 AT lsu DOT edu
      Lide Duan received his Bachelor's degree in June 2006 from Computer Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. He is currently a PhD student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Louisiana State University. His research interests include processor reliability characterization, high-performance and reliable processor design, etc. With the fast increase of on-chip transistor density and decrease of processor threshold voltage, modern processors suffer from significant reliability degradation. The situation is exacerbated in large scale high performance computing (HPC) systems which consist of a large number of processor cores, routers, disk arrays, etc. More frequent failures in these small components more-than-linearly decrease the Mean-Time-To-Failure (MTTF) of the entire HPC system. Consequently, the HPC applications running on larger clusters frequently encounter unexpected errors and exceptions. The goal of Lide Duan’s research is to utilize advanced statistical and machine learning techniques to construct a reliable framework for HPC programs, thus improving the soft error reliability of HPC systems.
      	Elliott, Mr. James Computational Analysis and Modeling Program College of Engineering and Science Louisiana Tech University Advisor: Dr. Abdelkader Baggag jje011 AT latech DOT edu
      James Elliott received a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and a Master's degree in Mathematics from Louisiana Tech University, where he also gained invaluable teaching experience, while serving as a NSF-GK12 Teach Fellow. While working as Teach Fellow, Mr. Elliott focused intently on exposing teachers and students to supercomputing and its applications. He is currently working towards his Ph.D. in Computational Analysis Modeling, with interests in High Performance Computing and parallel Computational Methods. Mr. Elliott served as the administrator for Louisiana Tech's High Performance Computing Initiative (HPCI) for two years, where he deployed and managed various HPC resources on campus, as well as, lead workshops introducing HPC. He has coded several linear algebra routines that run on the CellBE architecture and in parallel on multiple Playstations via MPI. He is currently working with the Finite Element treatment of the Navier-Stokes equations, with a goal to develop a novel parallel linear solver that incorporates multigrid principles, while utilizing a hybrid MPI/OpenMP paradigm.
      	Goss, Mr. Derrick Department of Mechanical Engineering Southern University and A&M College Advisor: Dr. Patrick Mensah derrickgoss AT engr DOT subr DOT edu
      My research is in the area of empirical development of Nusselt number correlations used in the determination in the convection heat transfer. These correlations have various applications of heat transfer including the analyzing the cooling performance of gas turbine blades, the area on which we will focus. My goal will be to validate data experimentally determined with data obtained computationally with commercially available computational fluid dynamics code.
      	Pillert, Ms. Jerina Biomedical Engineering Department Tulane University Advisor: Dr. Donald Gaver jpillert AT tulane DOT edu
      Jerina Pillert is a biomedical engineering Ph.D. student at Tulane University. She received her B.S. in physics and computer engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Jerina currently works with Dr. Donald Gaver on projects related to computational fluid dynamics and pulmonary mechanics.
      	Shen, Ms. Shanshan Mathematics Department Tulane University Advisor: Dr. Ricardo Cortez sshen AT tulane DOT edu
      I am a PhD student in Tulane University. My current research focuses on the analysis and performance of the blob projection method for two- dimensional fluid flow problems with immersed boundaries. The method, introduced in 2000, solves the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations in the presence of elastic passive or active boundaries. Compared with Peskin’s immersed boundary method, this numerical method obtains higher order convergence rates and preserves volumes better in test problems. The goal of my research is to improve the convergence rates of the blob projection method by balancing the error terms, perform extensive numerical tests to assess the effect of various parameters in the method, and use the method in applications.
      	Xu, Mr. Guorong Department of Computer Science University of New Orleans Advisor: Dr. Dongxiao Zhu gxu2 AT uno DOT edu
      I am working in Dr. Dongxiao Zhu’s group as a PhD candidate in Computer Science at University of New Orleans. The focus of my research is to develop a computational pipeline for characterizing and quantifying human transcriptome (whole set of mRNA transcripts) using the Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) data. Up-to-date, there are around 25000 human genes have been identified, and more than 90% of them are Alternatively Spliced (AS) into various splicing isoforms. Many diseases (e.g. cancer) have been related to alterations in the splicing machinery, highlighting the relevance of AS to therapy. The ultimate goal of this computational pipeline is to use the short reads alignment as input file to export the abundance level for each isoform. The computational complexity for solving our goal is a non-trivial issue. Therefore we need to implement high efficient and parallel algorithm in SAMMate and make it run on LONI clusters.
      	Yu, Mr. Hongtao Department of Chemistry University of New Orleans Advisor: Dr. Steven W. Rick hyu AT uno DOT edu
      My research involves using the computational approaches to understand the influence of water on protein structure and pharmaceutical design. Protein interiors contain on average one buried water molecule for every 27 amino acids. And there is at least one water molecule in over 85% structures of the protein-ligand interface. There water molecules play import biological roles in protein function and stability. For example, the water molecules buried in protein interiors can promote the conformational stability by making favorable interactions with protein. In protein-ligand binding, the addition of one water molecule may increase their binding affinity by a factor of 10 or more. One of my ongoing project concerns the hydration thermodynamics of protein cavities. We construct model cavity and calculated the hydration free energies, entropies, and enthalpies for different type of cavities to examine the factors which favor water occupancy. We also perform protein simulations with and without interior water molecules, with the hope of understanding how the interior water influences the flexibility of proteins.
      	Zebrowski, Ms. Ashley Department of Computer Science Louisiana State University Advisor: Dr. Gabrielle Allen azebrowski AT cct DOT lsu DOT edu
      My main research project is with Dr. Gabrielle Allen, working with the Cactus framework. The Cactus framework is an extensible open-source problem solving environment mainly used to solve computational problems in the fields of numerical relativity and fluid dynamics. Our project seeks to extend Cactus' functionality so that simulation components may be split off from the main simulation, packaged with their requisite data, and executed on remote hardware. Decisions must be made on which modules should be split off, which specific data should be transferred, and which machines would best be suited as target machines, all during run-time. This decision-making process should optionally be guided by an performance profile provided by the user which determines the priorities placed on optimizing execution time, service units used, power efficiency, and so on. The end result of this research will be simulations that can make better use of heterogeneous computing environments by splitting themselves up and running on hardware that provides the optimum result. This will be particularly beneficial in cases where alternate architectures such as GPU-based accelerations may be available that can provide large performance boosts to specific Cactus modules.
      	Zhang, Mr. Haochun Mathematics Department University of Louisiana at Lafayette Advisor: Dr. Baker Kearfott hxz2689 AT louisiana DOT edu
      My research involves developing branch and bound based optimization algorithms and that lend well to parallelization and have several applications in disaster management. I have been currently working on constructing a multi-objective optimization model to solve the problem of distributing relief supplies (through Points of Distributions) under various constraints. The objectives include maximizing the convenience (in terms of prepositioning the distribution points in close proximity to people), assessing the need (considering factors such as the Human Development Index, Social Vulnerability and purchasing power) and minimizing the distribution cost. The objectives in this model include minimizing cost, maximizing convenience and meeting demand. We will consider a local optimization algorithm to find a single good and practical solution, then work to find all global solutions, that is, the Pareto frontier. Considering the huge amount of data for a particular geographical area, we will use parallel processing to implement our algorithm on LONI systems.

  • 2009

    • 	Baker, Mr. Steven College of Engineering and Science Louisiana Tech University Advisor: Pedro Derosa sdb034 AT latech.edu
      The focus of my research is the development of computational model(s) of the electrical, thermal, and structural properties of nano-composites. The insight gain from these models can help in the development of materials with better properties for a number of applications. I am specifically interested in improving Titanium-based materials for the aerospace industry. My research will influence improvements in electric conductivity, thermal conductivity and stress resistance of Titanium-based materials.
      	Huang, Mr. Wei Biological Science Department Louisiana State University Advisor: Fareed Aboul-ela Co-advisor: Shantenu Jha whuang3 AT lsu.edu
      Riboswitch RNAs are emerging regulatory elements that control the expression of downstream genes. These regulatory elements have many potential applications. First, they can be drug targets for novel antibiotics. Secondarily, they can be used to construct some regulatory elements for artificial bacteria. Last but not the least, these riboswitch RNAs can fold into complex tertiary structure. The structural motifs observed in riboswitches can be adopted to create nano-scaffolds for nanofabrication. To facilitate these applications, the dynamic behaviors of riboswitches need to be revealed. Currently, my research project is using MD simulations in conjugated with NMR experiments to probe the conformational flexibility of riboswitch RNAs.
      	Javaid, Mr. Salman Department of Computer Science University of New Orleans Advisor: Dr. Golden Richard III sjavaid1 AT uno.edu
      Salman Javaid received his Masters in Information Technology from NUST (National University of Science and Technology) Pakistan and is currently a PhD candidate in Computer Science at University of New Orleans. His main area of research is Databases and their usage in Large-scale digital forensic methods. Existing conventional databases provide us the facility to create and maintain indexed Databases for conventional data. The requirement for facilitating Un-conventional data, like Expressions and Digital Forensic Traces (DFT), in Conventional Databases is highly sought after in today's world. The main contribution of their work is to provide the functionality of maintaining Expression in PostgreSQL Databases and creating multi-facet indexes for them to show that conventional databases can also be used to store un-conventional data and also their performance can be enhanced. The DFT's provide us the same pattern of data as Expressions, where short comings of the conventional database can hinder us from using them in forensic analysis tools. They are working on the possibility of using the same multi-facet indexes used in Expressions to be used in DFT's. They are also working on the possibility of creating In-Memory indexes for streamlining the process of querying the DFT Databases at a rapid pace.
      	Klimovich, Mr. Pavel Department of Chemistry University of New Orleans Advisor: Dr. David L. Mobley pvklimov AT uno.edu
      Currently, pharmaceutical drug discovery is extremely expensive, costing an average of roughly $1.2 billion to bring each new drug to market. There is a tremendous amount of trial and error involved, which drives up costs. Ideally, computational methods would be able to predict in advance which molecules would bind well to the target protein of interest, allowing early stage drug discovery to progress much faster and cutting costs. My research focuses on computational methods for estimating protein-ligand binding strengths in the context of pharmaceutical drug discovery. We are developing and extending methods to accurately predict binding free energies. Ultimately, this work promises to provide new and more accurate computational technique that medicinal chemists can use to improve the drug discovery and lead optimization processes in the pharmaceutical drug discovery industry.
      	Lan, Mr. Hongzhi Department of Biomedical Engineering Tulane University Advisor: Dr. Damir B. Khismatullin hlan AT tulane.edu
      The goal of my research project is to develop a computational model that can predict monocyte accumulation in atherosclerotic plaques under complex flow conditions existing near atherosclerosis-prone regions. This model will account for blood rheology, monocyte-endothelial cell interactions, and molecular transport in blood and through endothelium. My current emphasis is : 1) to enhance computational efficiency by adapting the code to MPI parallel computing in LONI clusters and 2) to modify the model to simulate monocyte-endothelial cell interaction under in vivo conditions.
      	Lyles, Ms. Kimberlee Department of Computer Science Southern University Advisor: Dr. Shizhong Yang Co-Advisor: Dr. Rachel Vincent-Finley
      The goal of my research is to simulate and anlalyze gK and UL20 virus interactions within a membrane. During my Spring 2009 semester as a graduate student, I begun working on gK and UL20 homolog alignment and analysis and using molecular dynamics software to study the interactions between gK and UL20. I am currently testing a sequence analysis, not related to gK and UL20, and will set up a NAMD model to analyze the interactions and states of nano-particle interactions. Simultaneously, I am continuing with my gk and UL20 study. I will set up the gK, UL20, and membrane models for the MD simulation and test run nano-particles within a membrane using NAMD and VMD to visually simulate the structures using LONI machines. Based on the MD simulation results, I will analyze the nano-particle interactions within the membrane model.
      	Taerat, Mr. Narate Department of Computer Science Louisiana Tech University Advisor: Dr. Chokchai (Box) Leangsuksun Research: Failure Prediction on HPC nta008 AT latech.edu
      While the high-performance computing (HPC) systems keep pushing their performance toward peta-scale by increasing the number of computing elements, memory and other components, the transient failure rates of the systems significantly increase as well. The problem is so crucial that the failure rate is too high and the job cannot be completed. Fault tolerance (FT) mechanisms such as checkpoint/restart and process migration are proposed to solve the problem. However, exploiting such mechanisms require some additional time and resources. Over exploiting the mechanisms will cost too much overhead to the application. Hence, failure prediction is needed to indicate when an failure will occur and then the FT mechanisms can be optimally exploited.
      	Yang, Mr. Shuxiang Department of Physics & Astronomy Louisiana State University Advisor: Dr. Mark Jarrell yangphysics AT gmail.com
      Mr. Shuxiang Yang has been working in Mark Jarrell's group as a PhD candidate in computational physics. For the past three years, he has been actively involved in a SciDAC project aiming to develop a new powerful numerical method named Multi-Scale Many-Body approach. This approach is supposed to resolve the difficulties encountered by the other more popular numerical methods in condensed-matter physics, such as exact diagonalization and the Quantum Monte-Carlo methods. With this new method, one would expect to make a big advance in exploring interesting physics in materials like the heavy fermion compounds and high-temperature superconductors, and can make a much better use of the parallel computational resources available nowadays.
      	Ying, Mr. Linghang Department of Physics Tulane University Advisor: Dr. Lev Kaplan lying AT tulane.edu
      I am working in Lev Kaplan's group as a graduate student. The purpose of my current project is to determine and understand the physics of rogue waves in deep water, the probability of their occurrence and their relation to environmental conditions (wind, current, etc.). Oceanic rouge waves, or freak waves, are actually surface gravity waves whose wave height is extremely high compared to the typical wave in a given sea state. By common definition, their height should be at least twice as large as the significant wave height. The motivation for studying rouge waves is clear, as they are a well-documented hazard to mariners, cargo ships and even to large cruise lines. By understanding the mechanism of a freak wave and its probability of occurrence, we will predict and forecast the freak wave better, enhancing the mariner safety.

  • 2008

    • 	Dewar, Mr. Jeremy Mathematics Department Tulane University Advisor: Dr. Alexander Kurganov jdewar AT math.tulane.edu
      Mr. Jeremy Dewar's research interest is on numerical solutions to conservative hyperbolic equations. The central-upwind scheme has been successfully applied to compressible and incompressible Euler and Navier-Stokes equations, including multi-fluid and multi-phase models, Hamilton-Jacobi equations, convection diffusion equations, shallow water equations including models with non-flat, discontinuous and even moving bottom topographies, stiff detonation waves, polymer systems that describe polymer flooding processing in enhanced oil recovery, and chemotaxis and haptotaxis models. For time-dependent PDEs, adaption indicators that measure the smoothness of the computed solution have been recently developed. In addition to measuring smoothness, its quality is also measured so that no expensive adaption is applied in non-smooth, yet well-resolved areas. Bringing these techniques to a high performance parallel environment is a must for practical use of numerical methods for solutions of PDEs in dimensions higher than 1-D. The numerical method he is working on is very powerful as it can be used as a near black-box solver for hyperbolic systems of equations. He is currently writing generalized 2-D Fortran90 code using OMP on his mac Mini that could be extended to a massively parallelized environment such as LONI.
      	Eren, Mr. A. Murat Computer Science Department University of New Orleans Advisor: Dr. Stephen Winters-Hilt a.murat.eren AT gmail.com
      Mr. Murat Eren's current research project in Dr. Winters-Hilt's Lab focuses on pattern recognition informed feedback server which is designed to increase the efficiency of nanopore experiments. The server relies on HMM for feature extraction and SVM for classification of every blockade signal and then gives an accurate, real-time feedback to the client about the molecule in the nanopore.
      	Jack, Mr. John Institute for Micromanufacturing Louisiana Tech University Advisor: Dr. Andrei Paun johnjack AT latech.edu
      Mr. John Jack's primary research interest is in Computational Biology (or Systems Biology). He has worked with his advisor to develop nondeterministic discrete methods for simulating molecular signaling cascades. Specifically, we have focused on modeling the Fas-induced apoptotic pathway. Apoptosis, or programmed cell death, is a form of cellular suicide. It is a normal way for the organism to remove unhealthy or unwanted cells. Fas-induced apoptosis has been shown to play a role in various cancers and autoimmune disorders -- such as HIV/AIDS. Exact stochastic methods for biochemical modeling -- e.g., Gillespie or Gibson-Bruck algorithms -- become computationally intensive as the number of reactions and proteins being modeled increases. I plan to use the computational power of LONI to develop/investigate new techniques for modeling biochemical pathways, such as Fas-mediated apoptosis, in a discrete, stochastic and parallel manner
      	Lao, Mr. Jijun Mechanical Engineering Louisiana State University Advisor: Dr. Dorel Moldovan jlao1 AT lsu.edu
      Mr. Jijun Lao's area of research focuses on the simulation of nanostructures and polycrystalline materials. The main emphasis of his current research is on large-scale, massively parallel atomistic simulations of nanocrystalline metals aimed at elucidating the fundamental effects of materials microstructure (i.e., grain size and grain size distribution, nature of grain boundaries, etc.) on their mechanical properties and structural stability. Over the last two years he has been using extensively parallel computers at LSU, LONI Institute and in Dr. Moldovan's research lab. During the last two years he has been studying the novel structural instability and shape memory effect in metallic nanowires using molecular dynamics simulations on the massively parallel computers of LONI Institute. His immediate goals are to continue to utilize the high performance computing resources from LONI Institute and to expand my research expertise in the area of modeling and simulation of nanostructured materials.
      	Clayton, Christopher Computer Science Department Southern University at Baton Rouge Advisor: Dr. Shizhong Yang
      Mr. Christopher Clayton's project has the goal of determining an optimal secondary structure of herpes simplex virus. The type of the virus is type 1 glycoprotein K(gK) and the UL20 protein (UL20p). There will be stand-alone software utilized or specific web servers. There will be an employment of algorithms which produce specific secondary structural information. There are some instances in which the predictions from these algorithms would not entirely agree with each other. However, they would derive the best combination of currently available algorithms that can arrive at an optimum secondary structure prediction. Hopefully this project would help innovate new software. This would replace manual selection of algorithms with automated approach. Also it would use outputs from different software which could be used to arrive at an optimum secondary structure prediction. There are currently three approaches which would be deployed. These are Ab initio protein modeling, comparative modeling, and side chain geometry prediction. The use of these models would help obtain a set of secondary structure. Moreover, the secondary structures of UL20p and gK will be predicted for all available gK and UL20p homologs encoded by different alpheherpesviruses. Also the specific structural features that are conserved among all gK and UL20p homologs would trace the outline of the secondary sequences. There will be a use of experimental data which would assign specific functions to individual domains of either UL20p or gK. Finally this research would help build a better understanding of the tertiary structures of gK and UL20p. Later this could help innovate a medication design to combat herpes virus infections.
      	University of Louisiana at Lafayette In progress

  • 2007

    • 	Chen, Mr. Jin-Feng Computer Science Department University of Louisiana at Lafayette Advisor: Dr. Xiaoduan Sun
      The objective of Mr. Jin-Feng Chen's proposed work was to develop a methodology of constructing 3D models that can be used as engineering analysis tools for highway infrastructure systems. His plan was to analyze the image and video data collected from a driver's perspective and to extract information pertinent to the roadway, including the road surface, the shoulder areas, guardrails, traffic control devices, and all roadside elements. The information will be integrated into a 3D environment that will give engineers new tools to examine and identify highway features such as the degree of curvature, superelevation, sight distance, and pavement edge lines. This tool will enable highway engineers to design and evaluate highway infrastructures from new perspectives, which are not feasible with the currently available technologies. The specific technical objectives for the first year were to identify the road lanes and the shoulder area from the video data, to map the identified image features into a 3D model, and to render the 3D road model as a virtual reality playback on a workstation, such as through a Web browser plug-in.
      	Dathara, Mr. Phani Institute for Micromanufacturing Louisiana Tech University Advisor: Dr. Daniela Mainardi gkd003 AT latech.edu
      In his dissertation research, Mr. Phani Dathara investigates complex metal hydrides as potential materials for solid state hydrogen storage, he employs computational chemistry tools to model and analyze the nanomaterials which require high performance computing facilities. Continuing research in this area resulted in one invited paper accepted for publication in a peer reviewed journal, one paper in conference proceedings, two oral presentations at the AIChE national conference annual meetings and an oral presentation at AIChE spring national meeting.
      	DeTiege, Mr. Frank Mechanical Engineering Department Southern University Advisers: Dr. Samuel Ibekwe and Dr. Dwayne Jerro
      Mr. Frank DeTiege's research encompasses the study of enhancing heat transfer in pressurized water reactors. The goal of this research is to determine if heat transfer can be enhanced by modifying plain surfaces with extended surfaces. Fluent, CFD, software will be used to simulate the heat transfer from the extended surfaces' models.
      	Lao, Mr. Jijun Mechanical Engineering Louisiana State University Advisor: Dr. Dorel Moldovan jlao1 AT lsu.edu
      During the last year, Mr. Jijun Lao studied the novel structural instability and shape memory effect in metallic nanowires using molecular dynamics simulations on the massively parallel computers of LONI Institute. In this study, he investigated the fundamentals of surface stress-induced phase transformation and pseudoelastic deformation processes in palladium nanowires using molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. The results of his research were presented in the proceeding of TMS 2008 Annual Meeting and recently were submitted to the journal of Applied Physics Letters (currently under review). His immediate goals are to continue to utilize the high performance computing resources from LONI Institute and to expand his research expertise in the area of modeling and simulation of nanostructured materials.
      	Pham, Mr. Huy Advanced Materials Research Institute University of New Orleans Advisor: Dr. Leonard Spinu hnpham3 AT uno.edu fs.uno.edu/lspinu/personnel/Huy_PHAM/Huy_Pham.html
      Mr. Huy Pham's research interests mainly concern theoretical work in the domain of simulation of magnetization dynamics in nanostructured materials. The dynamic switching behavior of magnetization was investigated based on the Landau-Lifschitz-Gilbert equation and Stoner-Wohlfarth model. The main goal of the study was to reduce the switching time of magnetization as well as to increase the recording density of the magnetoresistive random access memories (MRAM) and other data storage devices. Current interest is investigating the influence of spin transfer torque on switching behavior of magnetization.
      	Zhou, Ms. Xiaolan Physics Department Tulane University Advisor: Dr. John P. Perdew xzhou1 AT tulane.edu
      Ms. Xiaolan Zhou's research is on computing the formation of energy of an atomic vacancy in metals (aluminum) and semiconductors (silicon) using standard density functional approximations as well as new density functional developed by their group. The goal is to improve results using the new approximations compared with experimental values and shed new light on properties of materials. The computations using DFT often need to include a large number of atoms and are extremely intensive. For this, the LONI systems have been indispensable. One of the difficulties is that experimental values contain errors and their exact accuracy is unknown. The energies computed by the new approach include surface energy and curvature energy. This research project is on-going. Ms. Xiaolan Zhou gave a presentation on this work at the March meeting of the American Physical Society in New Orleans in 2008. She also presented posters with preliminary results at the Tulane University Research Day in April of 2008 and the Engineering Forum at Tulane in May of 2008.

• Faculty from Partner Sites

  • Louisiana State University

    • 	Acharya, Dr. Sumanta Scientific Investigator CCT/ Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering +1 225 578 5809 acharya AT me.lsu.edu me.lsu.edu/~acharya
      Dr. Sumanta Acharya is an L.R. Daniel Professor in LSU's Mechanical Engineering Department. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota. His research interests include computational and experimental heat transfer, fluid mechanics and combustion.
      	Allen, Dr. Gabrielle Scientific Investigator CCT Assistant Director for Computing Applications/Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science +1 225 578 6955 gallen AT cct.lsu.edu www.cct.lsu.edu/~gallen/
      Dr. Gabrielle Allen is an Associate Professor in Computer Science at LSU, and focus area head of the core computational science focus area at CCT. She received her Ph.D. in Computational Astrophysics from Cardiff University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics and led its efforts in computational science for a number of years before joining CCT.
      	Iyengar, Dr. Sitharama Computer Science Scientific Investigator Chair and Roy Daniels Professor, Department of Computer Science +1 225 578 1495 siyengar AT cct.lsu.edu csc.lsu.edu/~iyengar
      Dr. S.S. Iyengar is currently the Roy Paul Daniels Professor and Chairman of the Computer Science Department at Louisiana State University. He heads the Wireless Sensor Networks Laboratory and the Robotics Research Laboratory at LSU. He has been involved with research in high-performance algorithms, data structures, sensor fusion, data mining, and intelligent systems since receiving his Ph.D. degree in 1974 from MSU, USA..
      	Jha, Dr. Shantenu Scientific Investigator CCT Senior Research Scientist Assistant Research Professor, Department of Computer Science +1 225 578 8772 sjha AT cct.lsu.edu www.cct.lsu.edu/~sjha
      Dr. Jha is an Assistant Research Professor (CS) at LSU, and a Senior Research Scientist at CCT. Jha's research interests are in Computational Science and High-Performance and Distributed Computing.
      	Karki, Dr. Bijaya Scientific Investigator Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science +1 225 578 3197 karki AT bit.csc.lsu.edu csc.lsu.edu/~karki
      Dr. Karki is an Assistant Professor in LSU's Computer Science Department. He received his doctorate from the University of Edinburgh, UK. Before joining the Department of Computer Science at LSU in 2003, he worked as a research scholar at the University of Minnesota (Supercomputing Institute for Digital Simulation and Advanced Computation), and also at LSU (Biological Computation and Visualization Center).
      	Kosar, Dr. Tevfik Co-Principal Investigator Former CCT/ Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science Now at the University of Buffalo kosar AT cct.lsu.edu www.cct.lsu.edu/~kosar
      Dr. Tevfik Kosar received his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research interests include distributed systems, grid and collaborative computing; data intensive distributed computing; resource allocation and management; fault tolerance; coordination of computation and I/O in distributed systems.
      	Soper, Dr. Steven Materials Co-Principal Investigator CCT/ William L. & Patricia Senn, Jr., Professor, Department of Chemistry Director, Center for BioModular Multi-Scale Systems Louisiana State University +1 225 578 1527 chsope AT lsu.edu chemistry.lsu.edu
      Dr. Steven Soper is a William L. and Patricia Senn, Jr. Professor at Louisiana State University. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Kansas in 1989, and pursued a postdoc at Los Alamos National Lab. His work is focused on developing new tools for analyzing biological macromolecules, including DNA and proteins. Specifically, he is interested in fabricating miniaturized systems for mutation analysis (diagnostics), isolating cells from mixed populations, developing systems for high throughput protein analyses and evolving new technologies for DNA sequencing as part of the Human Genome Initiative.
      	Sterling, Dr. Thomas 5 Scientific Investigator CCT Chief Scientist/Arnaud & Edwards Professor of Computer Science, Department of Computer Science +1 225 578 8982 tron AT cct.lsu.edu www.cct.lsu.edu/~tron
      Dr. Sterling's research objectives have been to devise 1) execution models that expose myriad forms of parallelism, 2) architecture structures that minimize these sources of performance degradation, 3) dynamic adaptive resource and task management mechanisms that further mitigate or hide the effects of such factors, and 4) software strategies that supervise application to system interfaces. To this end, he has engaged in research of a diversity of physical and abstract structures, often of his own devising. In addition, he am interested in the exploitation of highly replicated structures to provide dramatic reliability advances through dynamic graceful degradation.
      	Ullmer, Dr. Brygg Scientific Investigator CCT/ Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science +1 225 578 0813 ullmer AT cct.lsu.edu csc.lsu.edu/~ullmer
      Dr. Brygg Ullmer is an Assistant Professor, jointly at CCT and at the Computer Science Department at LSU. He received his Ph.D. in Media Arts and Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT Media Laboratory). He leads visualization and human-computer interaction efforts at CCT, including the Tangible Visualization group (jointly in CCT and CS).

  • Louisiana Tech University

    • 	Guice, Dr. Les Administrative Co-Principal Investigator Vice President for Research and Development/Professor Chairman LONI Management Council +1 318 257 3056 Fax: +1 318 257 3142 guice AT latech.edu www2.latech.edu/~guice
      Description Here.
      	Derosa, Dr. Pedro Associate Professor, Larson Professor Louisiana Tech University (Physics and IfM) and Grambling State +1 318 257 5139 pderosa AT latech DOT edu http://www2.latech.edu/~pderosa
      Education: Ph.D. in Physics - 1997, National University of Córdoba-Faculty of Mathematics, Astronomy and Physics, Dept. of Physics - Córdoba, Argentina. I was involved as a postdoc in a number of topics from Li-ion batteries to Molecular Electronics. Electronic transport in materials is where I feel more confortable. In my group we currently are involved in the multiscale modeling of organic conductors and nanocomposites where a hopping model is used to describe conductivity but parameters necessary at this scale are obtained from calculations at smaller scales. We also have interest in the study of diffusion at the nanoscale, particularly molecular diffusion in nanotubes where Monte Carlo is used to study the diffusion of particles in nanotubes and nanopores with main applications are molecules and nanoparticle delivery.
      	Dua, Dr. Sumeet IT/ Biology Scientific Investigator Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science/Upchurch Endowed Professor +1 318 257 2830 sdua AT coes.latech.edu www2.latech.edu/~sdua
      Dr. Sumeet Dua is an Upchurch Endowed Associate Professor of Computer Science in the College of Engineering and Science at Louisiana Tech University (LATech). He is also an Adjunct Professor of Research in the School of Medicine, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans. He is the Coordinator of Information Technology Research in the College of Engineering and Science since September 2005. He is also the Director of Data Mining Research Laboratory (DMRL) at LATech.
      	Greenwood, Dr. Zeno Physics/IT Scientific Investigator Associate Professor, Physics/Center for Applied Physics +1 318 257 2302 greenw AT phys.latech.edu www.phys.latech.edu/~greenw
      Zeno D. (Dick) Greenwood is the W. W. Chew professor of physics. For several years, Dr. Greenwood has been involved in applications of grid computing for high energy physics experiments at Fermilab (DZERO) and at CERN (ATLAS). He is a founding member and convener of the DOSAR grid organization and a member of the Opens Science Grid (OSG) Council. He currently directs Monte Carlo and physics analysis production for DZERO and ATLAS on the LONI sites.
      	Leangsuksun "Box", Dr. Chokchai IT Co-Principal Investigator Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science Center for Entrepreneurship and Information Technology +1 318 257 4922 Fax: +1 318 257 4922 box AT latech.edu www2.latech.edu/~box
      Dr. Box is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at LATech. He received the Ph.D. and M.S. in computer science from Kent State University, Kent, Ohio in 1989 and 1995 respectively. His research interests include highly reliable and high performance computing, intelligent component based software engineering, parallel & distributed computing, service-oriented architecture, service engineering and management.
      	Mainardi, Dr. Daniela Biology/Materials Scientific Investigator Assistant Professor, Chemical Engineering +1 318 257 5126 Fax: +1 318 257 5104 mainardi AT latech.edu www2.latech.edu/~mainardi
      Dr. Mainardi's research interests are biocompatibility, focusing on the interaction of water and polymers with hydrophilic characteristics, towards coating improvement for medical implants using Molecular Mechanics and Dynamics simulations; study and development of Biosensors for environmental and biomedical high-priority applications using Density Functional Theory, Molecular Dynamics, and Molecular Mechanics simulations; research on new power sources, such as bio-fuel cells, focusing on the problems of enzyme immobilization and efficiency enhancement using mainly Molecular Mechanics and Dynamics simulations; study of small cluster properties of the components found in living organisms using Density Functional Theory.
      	Paun, Dr. Andrei IT/ Biology Scientific Investigator Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Institute for Micromanufacturing +1 318 257 5135 Fax: +1 318 257 5104 apaun AT latech.edu www2.latech.edu/~apaun
      Dr. Paun's research interests lie in the area of bioinformatics, in particular, in the theoretical study of membrane computing and DNA computing. As a secondary research interest, it is worth mentioning his work in the area of Deterministic Cover Automata leading to several algorithms for DFCA. He is now working towards \"merging\" these research interests together: using his expertise in bioinformatics and applying his algorithms and ideas from the area of finite automata to solve problems in bioinformatics.
      	Ramachandran, Dr. Bala "Ramu" Materials Co-Principal Investigator Associate Dean for Research, College of Engineering and Science, Hazel Stewart Garner Professor fo Chemistry +1 318 257 4314 Fax: +1 318 257 4339 ramu AT latech.edu www2.latech.edu/~ramu
      Dr. Ramachandran's research interests are in the general area of computational chemistry. In the past decade, his work has dealt with structure, energetics, and reactivity of organolithium compounds and gas phase reaction dynamics including the development of potential energy surfaces. He also has an active interest in exploring the role of correlation energy in DFT and wavefunction-based ab initio methods. Most of this work tends to be intensely computational in nature, and requires the use of high-performance computing platforms. Projects currently in progress include the study of the reaction mechanisms of organolithium and organomercury compounds in gas phase as well as condensed phases, the calculation of electrostatic surface potentials of aromatic thiols adsorbed on gold surfaces, and the development of computationally efficient methods for the propagation of quantum wavepackets.
      	Simicevic, Dr. Neven Biology Co-Principal Investigator Associate Professor of Physics, Director of the Center of Applied Physics Studies +1 318 257 3591 Fax: +1 318 257 4228 neven AT phys.latech.edu www.phys.latech.edu/~neven
      Dr. Simicevic's research areas and interests are experimental physics; researching, designing and prototyping instruments and developing new methods for experimental physics; discovering and understanding of new physical phenomena.

  • Southern University at Baton Rouge

    • 	Stubblefield, Dr. Michael Administrative Co-Principal Investigator Vice Chancellor Office of Research and Strategic Initiatives +1 225 771 3890 michael_stubblefield AT subr.edu www.engr.subr.edu/me/facultyPages/stubblefield/index.htm
      Professor Stubblefield's primary interests include fire and thermal material characterization of composite materials, as well as innovative joining and manufacturing techniques of composite materials. His other interests include undergraduate and pre-college outreach programs.
      	Jerro, Dr. Dwayne Materials Scientific Investigator Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering +1 225 771 4701 jerro AT engr.subr.edu www.engr.subr.edu/me/facultyPages/jerro/index.htm
      Dr. Jerro's research background is in the area of composite materials and the mechanics of materials. He has worked in the integration of design, manufacture, and affordability of marine composite structures utilizing knowledgebased software. Currently, his research also includes the development of the next generation of composite pipe that incorporates smart (i.e., sensing) capabilities. He is also actively involved in the improvement of engineering education focusing on the enhancing delivery of sophomore and junior level courses through the implementation of concept mapping and technology. He teaches MeEn 225 (Dynamics), MEEN 456 (Controls), and other mechanics and design related courses.
      	Khosravi, Dr. Ebrahim Computer Science Co-Principal Investigator Chair, Computer Science Department +1 225 771 2060 ext. 15 khosravi AT cmps.subr.edu www.cmps.subr.edu/capabilities.htm
      Professor Khosravi has many years experience with parallel computing, computer networks, electronics, nuclear and particle physics instrumentation. His primary research interests are data networks, electronics, theoretical computer science, as well as machine learning. His other interest are robotics and outreach program.
      	Mohamadian, Dr. Habib Materials Co-Principal Investigator Dean, College of Engineering +1 225 771 5296 mohamad AT engr.subr.edu www.engr.subr.edu/me/facultyPages/mohamadian/index.htm
      Dr. Mohamadian's areas of interest are experimental solid mechanics, thermal stresses; mechanics of composite materials: material properties, failure criteria, and strength analysis; solid modeling & finite element analysis; assessment of engineering education outcomes.
      	Muganda, Dr. Perpetua Biology Scientific Investigator Associate Professor, Biological Sciences +1 225 771 3606 perpetua_muganda AT cxs.subr.edu www.subr.edu/entox/Muganda.htm
      Dr. Muganda's current research interests involve the investigation of the biochemistry and molecular biology of viral-cellular interactions that lead to the understanding of human cytomegalovirus pathogenesis and oncogenesis. Current studies focus on the role of p53 in human cytomegalovirus infection and oncogenic transformation processes, as well as on the toxic effects of combined human cytomegalovirus and environmental chemicals exposure in human health.

  • Tulane University

    • 	McPherson, Dr. Gary Administrative Co-Principal Investigator Senior Associate Dean of Science and Engineering Professor, Department of Chemistry +1 504 862 3570 garym AT tulane.edu chem.tulane.edu/fac_mcpherson.html
      Dr. McPherson's current research activities fall into two areas. The first involves the spectroscopic characterization of self-organizing systems such as reversed micelles and organogels as well as the utilization of these systems for the synthesis of nanoparticles, polymers and novel composite materials. Spectroscopic techniques include IR, NMR, EPR, and fluorescence under steady state and time resolved conditions. The second area of interest involves the environment fate and transport of heavy metals, Pb in particular. The goal of this research is a basic understanding of chemical principals that control the absorption and release of heavy metals in a contaminated environment. Analytical methods include AA, ICP, X-ray fluorescence, and ICP mass spectrometry.
      	Bishop, Dr. Thomas Scientific Investigator Research Associate Professor, Center for Computational Sciences Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry +1 504 862 3370 bishop AT tulane.edu dna.ccs.tulane.edu
      Dr. Tom Bishop is a Computational Molecular Biologist. His primary research interests are the structure and dynamics of DNA and chromatin and how they relate to genetic function and disfunction (e.g. transcription, regulation, replication and repair). He studies molecular events in the hormone response mechanism as a model system for this research. He has developed a multiscale model of chromatin that bridges between atomic and continuum scales.
      	Cortez, Dr. Ricardo IT Co-Principal Investigator Associate Professor, Mathematics Department Director of the Center for Computational Science +1 504 862 3436 Fax: +1 504 865 5063 rcortez AT tulane.edu math.tulane.edu/~cortez
      Dr. Ricardo Cortez is the Director of the Center of Computational science at Tulane University and the Pendergraft William Larkin Duren Professor in Tulane's Mathematics Department. He earned his Ph.D. in applied mathematics at the University of California, Berkley. Cortez's research interests include computational fluid dynamics, numerical methods and scientific computing, and biological fluid flow applications.
      	Fauci, Dr. Lisa Materials Co-Principal Investigator Professor, Mathematics Department Associate Director of the Center for Computational Science Tulane University +1 504 862 3431 Fax: +1 504 865 5063 fauci AT tulane.edu math.tulane.edu/~ljf/
      Dr. Lisa Fauci is an Associate Director of the Center of Computational science at Tulane University and a professor in Tulane's Mathematics Department. She earned her Ph.D. at New York University in mathematics. Fauci's research interests include scientific computing, mathematical biology, and computational fluid dynamics.
      	Gaver, Dr. Donald Biology Co-Principal Investigator Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering +1 504 865 5150 dpg AT tulane.edu www.bmen.tulane.edu/~dpg
      Dr. Donald Gaver is an Associate Director of the Center of Computational science at Tulane University and the Alden J. 'Doc' Laborde Professor and Department Chair of Biomedical Engineering at Tulane University. He earned his Ph.D. at Northwestern University in theoretical and applied mechanics. Gaver's research interests include biofluid mechanics, pulmonary mechanics, interfacial flows, and cell mechanics.
      	Perdew, Dr. John Scientific Investigator Professor, Department of Physics +1 504 862 3180 perdew AT tulane.edu www.physics.tulane.edu/Faculty/PerdewInfo.shtml
      Dr. Perdew's research is primarily directed toward understanding the density functional and improving the approximations to it. The density functional theory of Kohn and Sham 1965 has emerged as the most widely-used method of electronic structure calculation in both quantum chemistry and condensed matter physics. In this theory, one solves an exact-in-principle problem of noninteracting electrons in a selfconsistent effective potential. In practice, only the exchange-correlation energy has to be a approximated.

  • University of Louisiana at Lafayette

    • 	Kolluru, Dr. Ramesh Administrative/IT Co-Principal Investigator Executive Director, National Incident Management Systems & Advanced Technologies (NIMSAT) Institute Director, Center for Business and Information Technologies (CBIT) AAMA/BORSF Professorship in Manufacturing +1 337 482 0611 Fax: +1 337 482 0621 kolluru AT louisiana.edu apfd.louisiana.edu/endowed/Kolluru-Ramesh.shtml
      Dr. Kolluru's
      	Bayoumi, Dr. Magdy IT Scientific Investigator Director, The Center for Advanced Computer Studies Chairman and Hardy Edmiston Professor, Computer Science Department +1 337 482 6147 Fax: +1 337 482 5791 mab AT cacs.louisiana.edu www.cacs.louisiana.edu/cas/Bio/bayoumi.htm
      Dr. Magdy A. Bayoumi research interests include VLSI design methods and architectures, low-power circuits and systems, digital signal processing architectures, parallel algorithm design, computer arithmetic, image and video signal processing, neural networks and wideband network architectures.
      	Cruz-Neira, Dr. Carolina Scientific Investigator Executive Director and Chief Scientist, Louisiana Immersive Technologies Enterprise (LITE) Professor, Computer Science Department +1 337 735 1352 research AT lite3d.com www.lite3d.com
      Dr. Carolina Cruz-Neira is the Executive Director and Chief Scientist of the Louisiana Immersive Technologies Enterprise (LITE). She is also a William Hansen Hall Endowed Chair in Computer Engineering at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Dr. Cruz-Neira's work in virtual reality started with her Ph.D. dissertation, the design of the CAVE Virtual Reality Environment, the CAVE Library software specifications and implementation, and preliminary research on CAVE Supercomputing integration.
      	Misra, Dr. Devesh Materials Co-Principal Investigator Director, Center for Structural and Functional Materials Professor and Stuller Chair, Department of Chemical Engineering +1 337 482 6430 Fax: +1 337 482 1220 dmisra AT louisiana.edu chemical.louisiana.edu/facultyandstaff/misra.shtml
      Dr. Misra's research areas include deformation and fracture of engineering materials, nanostructured materials (nanocrystalline ferrites and polymer nanocomposites), high strength structural steels, application of atomic force microscopy and electron microscopy techniques to materials science. His current research is on micro- and nanoscale deformation of micro- and nanoparticle reinforced polymer nanocomposites; superparamagnetic behavior and biocompatibility of nanocrystalline ferrites and magnetic polymer nanocomposites; formability of high strength structural steels; and dynamic embrittlement of structural alloys
      	Neigel, Dr. Joe Biology Co-Principal Investigator Professor, Department of Biology +1 337 482 5661 jneigel AT louisiana.edu biology.louisiana.edu/neigel.html
      Dr. Neigel is interested in how genetic variation is shaped by natural processes on both microevolutionary and macroevolutionary scales. He uses a combination of field, laboratory, and theoretical approaches. Although much of his research is focused on basic questions, he is also interested in applications to conservation biology and biotechnology.

  • University of New Orleans

    • 	Whittenburg, Dr. Scott Administrative and Materials Co-Principal Investigator Research Professor, Physical, Theoretical Chemistry and Micromagnetics +1 504 280 6723 swhitten AT uno.edu www.chem.uno.edu/ChemistryDepartmentfolder/Whittenburg.html
      Professor Whittenburg's research involves application of modern computing methods such as distributed and parallel computing to problems of interest to chemists. Some of these areas include probabilistic methods, such as Bayesian analysis, ab initio calculations, molecular dynamics and micromagnetic simulations.
      	Roussev, Dr. Vassil IT Co-Principal Investigator Assistant Professor, Computer Science Department +1 504 280 6594 Fax: +1 504 280 7228 vassil AT uno.edu www.cs.uno.edu/~vassil
      Dr. Roussev's research is on distributed systems-- computer supported cooperative work (CSCW), on-the-spot digital forensics, mobile devices. Software engineering-- pattern-based techniques, component and service based models, agile development methods.
      	Winters-Hilt, Dr. Stephen Biology Co-Principal Investigator Assistant Professor, Computer Science Department +1 504 280 6594 winters AT uno.edu www.cs.uno.edu/~winters
      Professor Winters-Hilt's research interests include bioinformatics --- gene structure identification, genomics, expression analysis; cheminformatics --- channel current based molecular analysis methods for classification and kinetic feature extraction; machine learning --- scalable multiclass discrimination, efficient feature extraction; biophysics --- nanopore-based detection and single-molecule measurement and manipulation; and stochastic sequential analysis --- stock market analysis, power signal analysis, physics phenomenology.

  • Louisiana Community and Technical College System

    • 	Speyrer, Mr. Greg IT Scientific Investigator Director, Enterprise Information Systems +1 225 922 2800 Fax: +1 225 922 2576 gspeyrer AT lctcs.edu www.lctcs.edu
      Description here.

• LI Scientific Coordinator

  • 	Rodriguez-Milla, Dr. Bety Center for Computation & Technology Louisiana State University +1 225 578 8990 brodrig AT cct.lsu.edu
    Dr. Bety Rodriguez-Milla is the Scientific Coordinator of the LONI Institute. She earned her Ph.D. from Syracuse University in Physics. Dr. Rodriguez's research interests are in computational physics and condensed matter physics. More specifically, dynamics and statistical mechanics of disordered systems. At the LONI Institute (LI) her primary role is that of the LI Manager.

• LI Former Participants

  • 	Baggag, Dr. Abdelkader Former LI Faculty at Louisiana Tech University
    Dr. Abdelkader Baggag obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota on Computer Science. Dr. Baggag's research interests are parallel numerical algorithms for large scale engineering applications, and their efficient implementation on massively parallel computers.
    	Katz, Dr. Daniel S. Cyberinfrastructure Development Scientific Investigator Former Director for Cyberinfrastructure Development, CCT Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computing Engineering Now at the University of Chicago dsk AT cct.lsu.edu www.cct.lsu.edu/~dsk
    Dr. Daniel S. Katz is the former Director for Cyberinfrastructure Development (CyD) at CCT, and an Adjunct Associate Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering at LSU. He received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University, then spent 3 years as a computational scientist for Cray Research. His research focuses on large-scale applications.
    	Keel, Dr. Brooks Administrative Co-Principal Investigator Former Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development bkeel AT lsu.edu www.biology.lsu.edu/faculty_listings/fac_pages/bkeel.html
    Dr. Brooks Keel's primary clinical research interests are centered on understanding the changes that occur in the semen parameters in men as a function of time and season, and the within and between subject variation in these semen parameters. Understanding these basic aspects of semen profiles in men will significantly assist physicians in accurately diagnosing infertility and in planning treatment modalities in infertile men. He is also interested in defining proper quality control procedures for andrology laboratories to ensure more accurate semen analyses.
    	Merzky, Andre Interim Computational Scientist Louisiana State University +49 1 51 56 06 53 04 (Germany) amerzky AT cct.lsu.edu
    Andre Merzky is a Computer Scientist at the Center for Computation & Technology, at Louisiana State University. He studied Physics and Computer Science in Leipzig, Berlin and Edinburgh. He has worked on Grid-related topics concerning data management, visualization, and high level APIs for about 10 years by now, and is actively involved in the Open Grid Forum (OGF). He is currently in Germany, and he will be working remotely from the north German Uckermark.
    	Nabrzyski, Dr. Jarek Former Principal Investigator and Executive Director, LSU Center for Computation & Technology naber AT cct.lsu.edu www.cct.lsu.edu/site169.php
    Dr. Jarek Nabrzyski is now the Director of the Center for Research Computing (CRC) at the University of Notre Dame. He earned his Ph.D. from the Pozan University of Technology in Poland in Computer Science. Nabrzyski's research interests include distributed applications, operations research and Grid and high-performance computing. Nabrzyski has established international partnerships to advance Grid computing, networking and high-performance computing capabilities among academic and industrial organizations. He has served as a principal investigator or co-principal investigator on many international, European Union-funded projects and was the coordinator and co-principal investigator on the GridLab project, which developed the Grid Application Toolkit and the GridSphere portal framework. He serves as the European Commission expert on Grid and distributed computing.
    	Seidel, Dr. Edward Former Principal Investigator Now Assistant Director for Mathematical and Physical Sciences, NSF Floating Point Systems Professor of Physics and Computer Science, LSU eseidel AT cct.lsu.edu
    Dr. Edward Seidel is the Assistant Director for Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the NSF, and the Floating Point Systems Professor in LSU's Departments of Physics and Astronomy, and Computer Science. He earned his Ph.D. from Yale University in relativistic astrophysics. Seidel's research interests are in the field of numerical relativity including modeling astrophysics black holes and neutron stars, perturbation theory and boson stars. Seidel has also been an innovator in the fields of grid computing and high performance computing, and in 2006 was awarded the IEEE Sidney Fernbach Prize.

• Collapse All

• Expand All

Site Menu:

"Louisiana has made great investments in IT through its Vision 2020 initiative and through the creation of LONI. Now that we have the resources in place, we need to develop research projects and find the staff who can use the advanced technology in Louisiana to further academics and create more opportunities for business and industry so we can fully capitalize on these investments."
-- Former CCT Director Ed Seidel