Math-Stat Colloquium

Math-Stat Colloquium tiltled "Collective dynamics of swimming micro-organisms" will be held on Thursday, March13, 2014.

A suspension of swimming micro-organisms is a nonlinear dynamical system. It generates spatial and temporal patterns. Modelling and analysis of such suspensions will be discussed.

Turbulence Activity in India

Two day meeting on "Turbulence activity in India", will held at IIT Kanpur during 28-29 March, 2014.

Turbulence is one of the unsolved problems in classical physics. Recent powerful computer simulations and sophisticated experiments have fueled this field with interesting results.  In this conference we aim to bring together leading researchers of  India and abroad to present some of the recent exciting developments in this field.  In this meeting we will focus on MHD, liquid metal, and dynamo.  In addition there will be sessions on convective instabilities and turbulence, instabilities, fluid turbulence etc.

ACODS-2014

Third International Conference on Advances in Control and Optimization of Dynamical Systems (ACODS)-2014 will be held at IIT Kanpur during 13-15 March 2014.

For details check the following link.

ME Seminar: Treatment of Radiation in Hypersonic Plasma

On Nov. 16, 2012 Mechanical Engineering Department is conducting a seminar. Details are given below. All interested are invited to attend.

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Title: Treatment of Radiation in Hypersonic Plasma

Speaker:   Dr. Ankit Bansal
           Assistant Professor
           School of Engineering
           IIT Mandi
           Himachal Pradesh

Date  :    Friday, November 16, 2012
Time  :    5:15 P.M.
Venue :    FB-364(ME seminar room)

Tea will be served at 5:00 p.m.

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Title:
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Treatment of Radiation in Hypersonic Plasma


Abstract:
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Prediction of nonequilibrium radiation field in plasmas around a spacecraft requires accurate spectroscopic data, efficient and accurate spectral models and databases, and radiative heat transfer model around the spacecraft. The most accurate simulation of radiative transport in the shock layer requires calculating the gas properties at a large number of wavelengths and solving the Radiative Transfer Equation (RTE) in a line-by-line (LBL) fashion over a three dimensional grid, which is prohibitively expensive for coupled simulations. k-distribution based spectral models allow efficient evaluation of radiative properties and heat loads in hypersonic shock layer plasmas. Owing to significant differences in radiation characteristics of atomic and molecular species, k-distribution models are developed separately for atomic and molecular species. There are a number of practical applications, however, where both atomic and molecular species are present; for example, the vacuum-ultra-violet spectrum in Earth’s reentry conditions is marked by emission from atomic bound-bound lines and continuum and simultaneous absorption by strong bands of N2. For such cases, a new model is developed for the treatment of gas mixtures.

Full-spectrum k-distribution method provides generally very accurate results compared to those obtained from the line-by-line method. For more extreme gradients in species concentrations and temperature, full-spectrum k-distribution model is refined by dividing the spectrum into a number of groups or scales, leading to the development of multi-scale models. To utilize the full potential of the k-distribution methods, pre-calculated values of k-distributions are stored in databases, which can later be interpolated at local flow conditions.

New spectral models and databases are applied to solve the radiative transfer equation along typical one-dimensional flow fields in Earth’s, Titan’s and Mars’ atmospheres. The k-distribution methods are vastly more efficient than the line-by-line method, showing typical reduction in computational time by a factor of more than 500 for property evaluation and a factor of about 12,000 for the solution of the RTE.

The new spectral models are assembled within OpenFOAM (an Open Source CFD code) to simulate coupled hypersonic flow–radiation over a reentry vehicle. The radiative transport is solved with the one-dimensional tangent slab and P1 solvers, and also with the two-dimensional P1 solver.
Results for uncoupled and coupled flow–radiation simulations are analyzed to study the effects of radiative cooling on flow field and wall fluxes.

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Brief Bio:
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Dr. Ankit Bansal obtained his B. Tech from IT BHU and, MS and doctoral degree from Penn State University.  Dr. Bansal’s research interests are radiative heat transfer, hypersonic flows, flow-radiation interaction, spectral modeling of gas properties, solar energy, climate change and disease dynamics, and hydrology. In the past Dr. Bansal has worked with DRDO in Advanced Systems Laboratory at Hyderabad. He is recipient of BHU Gold Medal for achieving overall rank-1 in mechanical engineering and is a member of AIAA.

ME Seminar: Molecular mechanism of membrane targeting by GRP1 PH domain

Details of the next seminar in Mechanical Engineering Department are given below.

Title: Molecular mechanism of membrane targeting by GRP1 PH domain

Speaker:   Dr. Anand Srivastava
           Department of Chemistry,
           Institute for Biophysical Dynamics and Computation
           University of Chicago

Date  :    Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Time  :    3:30 P.M.
Venue :    FB-364(ME seminar room)

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Title:
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Molecular mechanism of membrane targeting by GRP1 PH domain


Abstract:
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Pleckstrin-homology (PH) domains are one of the most common membrane targeting motifs in intercellular signalling proteins. GRP1 PH domain
selectively binds to a special class of rare charged phospholipids, viz. phosphatidylinositol (3,4,5)-trisphosphate (PIP3). Besides the highly
electronegative PIP3 lipids, there are various other factors that are not well understood in the signalling process. Guided by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) experiments to recreate the initial PH domain docking geometry, we carried out all-atom MD simulations to understand the mechanism by which the PH domain and PIP3 lipids participate in intercellular signalling processes. Role of other phospholipids are also explored. MD simulations reveal several important insights at membrane protein binding interfaces. Moreover, atomistic MD simulations also show that within a given simulation time (on the order of hundreds of nanoseconds), GPR1 PH domain relaxes to different docking geometry in response to the local changes in lipid composition. Mutations that may guide and expedite experiments to verify the docking geometry predictions are also proposed and will be discussed.

In the second part of the talk, an enhanced multiscale coarse grained (MS-CG) model being developed to study the above membrane protein system
will be presented. To capture the electrostatic search and binding mechanism in membrane-PH domain systems at experimentally relevant length
and time scales, solvent-free CG models for lipids and proteins are developed such that the critical electrostatic features can be explicitly
represented with as few coarse-grained sites as possible. In the MS-CG process, the CG interactions potential is assumed as an arbitrary function of unknown variables. The final CG site-site interactions are obtained by variational principle where the residual of the forces from the assumed field is minimized with the reference forces from the all-atom simulations.  In this work, improvements in the MS-CG method are being made for anionic lipids by incorporating the screened electrostatic interaction separately. Methodological details about the ongoing
coarse-graining work will be discussed.

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Brief Bio:
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Dr. Anand Srivastava obtained his bachelors and doctoral degree from IIT Kharagpur and Ohio State University, respectively. Presently he is a
post-doctoral fellow in Physical Sciences at University of Chicago. His current research interests are developing novel coarse-grained models for protein membrane systems, molecular mechanics of membranes, dynamics of retroviral Gag proteins with RNAs. During his doctorate as NSF PhD Fellow he studied bulk and finite polystyrene-CO2 binary systems using molecular dynamics. Dr. Srivastava has also worked as CAD Analyst and developer in Intergraph Consulting for two years.

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AE Seminar: Model-Based Estimation and Characterization of Collective Motion in Animal Groups

Dr. Sachit Butail from Dynamical Systems Laboratory, Polytechnic Institute of New York University, would be presenting a seminar through Skype, as per the following schedule.
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Title: Model-Based Estimation and Characterization of Collective Motion in Animal Groups
Speaker:   Dr. Sachit Butail
               Dynamical Systems Laboratory,
               Polytechnic Institute of New York University

Date  :     Friday, November 9, 2012
Time  :     05:00 P.M.
Venue :    AE conference room
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Abstract:
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In this talk I will first describe application of nonlinear estimation and computer vision methods for the design of multi-target tracking systems to study collective behavior in animal groups. The tracking systems are currently being used to study information transmission in schooling fish, and swarming and mating behavior of wild malarial mosquitoes. For tracking fish, I will present methods to automatically initialize, predict, and reconstruct shape trajectories of multiple fish through occlusions. For tracking mosquitoes, which appear as faded streaks on in-field footage, I will present novel likelihood functions and algorithms to extract velocity information from the streaks, adaptively seek missing measurements, and resolve occlusions within a multi-hypothesis framework. In each case the research has yielded an unprecedented volume of trajectory data for subsequent analysis.
Moving forward, I will discuss utilization of the three-dimensional mosquito trajectory data to mathematically characterize the swarming events while indicating the effects of ambient high wind. For an individual mosquito, empirical fits to a damped harmonic oscillator model driven by white noise disturbance are used to differentiate horizontal and vertical motion. For the swarm, average disagreement in direction of motion between individual mosquitoes is used to show decreasing level of coordination with successive nearest neighbors. The broader impact of this work is to advance the understanding of animal groups for the design of bio-inspired robotic systems, where, similar to the animal groups we study, the collective is able to perform tasks far beyond the capabilities of a single inexpensive robot.

Brief Bio:
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Dr. Sachit Butail is a postdoctoral fellow in the Dynamical Systems Laboratory at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University, where he is working on machine learning algorithms to study animal-robot interactions. He completed his Ph.D. in June 2012 in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland, College park, where his dissertation was on motion reconstruction of animal groups using methods from estimation theory and computer vision. He received a Masters in Systems Engineering with a project on Spacecraft design from Cornell University and a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering, Delhi University. His research interests are in dynamical systems modeling, collective behavior, and machine learning. He is a member of IEEE and SIAM.

Mechanics of Micro- and Nano-Textured Systems: Nanofibers, Nanochannels, Nanoparticles and Slurries.

Speaker: Dr. Suman Sinha Ray, Dean’s Fellow and Post Doctoral Research Associate, Multiscale Mechanics and Nanotechnology Laboratory, University of Illinois at Chicago.

Date : Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Time : 05:15 P.M.

Venue : FB-364(ME seminar room)

Tea to be served at 5:00 p.m.

Abstract:

Nanotechnology coupled with basic understanding of mechanical engineering can do wonder in our everyday technology. In this work it will be shown that how electrospinning and solution blowing can be used as perfect platform for preparing materials of nanoscale order. It will be shown that using electrospun nanofibers mat a heat flux removal rate ~1kW/cm2 can be achieved. It will also be shown that nanoencapsulation of phase change materials can be used for manipulation of temperature range of operation. Use of a novel solution blowing method in preparing functional nanomaterial starting from carbon nanotube to green sustainable material will also be discussed. Then use of rheology in understanding flow behaviour of complex fluid will be elucidated, which will be coupled with discussion on experimental and theoretical study of meltblowing, nanofluidics and manufacturing of stimuli responsive nanomaterial.

Dynamics of Turbulent Flow Structures and Transport Phenomena: Implications to Equipment Design.

Speaker: Dr. JYESHTHARAJ BHALCHANDRA JOSHI, DAE-Homi Bhabha Chair Professor, Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai, India.
Date: Thursday, March 22, 2012
Time: 05:30 P.M.
Venue: L-11

Tea to be served at 5:15 p.m.

PS: Dr. Joshi will be available for discussion the entire day of 22 March. People interested in meeting him should contact Dr. Prabhat Munshi ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ) by Wednesday.

Abstract:

Most of the heat transfer equipment are operated in turbulent regime. The flow patterns in these equipment are complex and are characterized by flow structures (“turbulent eddies”) of wide range of length and time scales. The accurate quantification of these flow structures is very difficult and hence the present design practices are still empirical. Methods will be discussed regarding age, size, shape and energy content distribution of the flow structures. Consideration of these structure properties is important for the accurate estimation of design parameters such as heat transfer coefficient, mixing efficiency, drag coefficient etc. The flow structure information provides useful insights into the views of earlier established analytical and heuristic theories of heat and mass transfer. Such understanding between the structure dynamics and the transport phenomena has helped in the optimization of flow pattern. In addition to flow structure information, these advanced computational tools can be used to understand intensity of modeling assumptions in popular k/ε and Reynolds stress models. Based on such understanding, some success stories will be described for the novel equipment design which have already been implemented in the industry.

Special Physics Colloquium

Special Physics Colloquium

Speaker: Prof. Kaushik Bhattacharya Affiliation: IIT Kanpur

Title: Application of Lee-Wick theory in cosmology

Venue: FB 382 Date: 2 February, 2012, Thursday Time: 4 PM tea @ 3:45 PM

Computational biology: Where computer science meets math, physics, chemistry, and biology

Speaker: Dr Ramamoorthy Anandakrishnan, IITK Alumnus.
Date:      Thursday, February  02, 2012
Time:      05:30 P.M.
Venue:    L-11.

Tea to be served at 5:15 p.m.

Research Opportunities at TATA STEEL

Speaker: Mr. Mark B Denys, Chief R&D and Scientific Services, Tata Steel, India.

Date: Tuesday, February 07, 2012

Time: 05:15 P.M.

Venue: FB-364(ME Seminar Room)

PS: Tea to be served at 5:00 p.m.