The posters below are a reflection of the breadth (as well as the depth and quality) of the research carried out in the DSC. The range of algorithmic invention and application problems represented by the posters is truly remarkable. Enjoy looking over the fruits of the intelligence, skills, and labor of our students, and join us in thanking them for their contributions to the DSC, to FSU, and to science.

Sharks and rays represent one of the oldest offshoots in the evolutionary tree that gave rise to jawed vertebrate animals. This ancient lineage is represented today by a wide diversity of forms that range from the 6 meter "wing-span" Manta ray to the 20 centimeter long cigar sharks, from the sluggish wobbegongs of Australia to the high performance open ocean mako's that have burst speeds of 60 k.p.h., and from filter feeders like the whale shark to some of the most effective and notorious predators in the sea like the Great White Shark . The first stage in understanding how the evolutionary process might have shaped such a diversity of form involves understanding the inter-relationships among these animals.

Image courtesy: K. Smith, S. Sablin, L. Gelb (numerical simulation), B. Futch, K. Beason and D. Banks (visualization).

Modern optical and electronic systems are very sensitive to contamination by minute particles. A group of present and former FSU researchers are studying a nano scale cleaning system in which no chemicals are used, only water and the intense energy from a laser beam. The image shows a thin film of water, deposited over a dirt particle (yellow) adhering to the surface. Laser heating of the base layer of the water lifts both the water molecules and the dirt off the surface.

Image courtesy: S. Hill Thompson, G. Brown, P.A. Rikvold

Nanometer sized magnetic particles and ultrathin magnetic films are important materials for components of future electronic technologies, such as ultra-high density recording media and memories. The SCS Materials Science group (Prof. Rikvold and collaborators) use large-scale computer simulations to study the dynamics of magnetization reversal in such structures. Their work is funded by the National Science Foundation.

Hurricane models are continuously upgraded and refined by mathematicians like Dr. Michael Navon at SCS. He and his FSU group, and collaborators across the US, are working on improving the mathematical foundation of the models. One of the questions Dr. Navon is currently working on is data assimilation. Simply speaking, this is about how to update your model with new data from observations, and about how much you should trust new measurements compared to the well-founded data from the model, which is based on thousands of earlier measurements.