Graduate students from around the state traveled to the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) on August 12-13 for its fourth Graduate Student Workshop and Conference. The conference allowed graduate students to learn more about supercomputing tools used to enhance research and share their own research.
“OSC’s Graduate Conference provides students with the chance to share their research and learn about our resources. More importantly, they can network with other students and present their research to a friendly audience,” said Elaine Landwehr, Conference Coordinator.
Of the five conference presenters, Heather D. Smith, an Ohio State University graduate student studying Civil and Environmental Engineering and Geodetic Science, received the 2004 OSC Graduate Student Achievement Award.
Smith’s presentation entitled, “Modeling the Flow Around Submerged Objects,” observed the effects of water and sediment flow caused by fluid forcing on submerged objects. Smith’s research focused on verifying hydrodynamics in both 2-D and 3-D simulations. She calculated interactions between turbulence closure schemes, grid and obstacle resolution, and wall boundary conditions around submerged objects.
“The ultimate goal of this research, Smith said, “is to quantitatively predict the scour and burial patterns of mines given the mine shape and local environment, including the wave forcing and bed composition.”
Smith’s current research sponsor is the U.S. Navy.
“Smith’s research has important practical applications,” said David Ball, Cleveland State University Chemistry Professor and Conference Chair. “ Because the Navy is sponsoring her research, I would bet that there are defense-related impacts,” he said.
The conference, sponsored by OSC’s Statewide Users Group (SUG) and the OSC High Performance Computing (HPC) division, helps graduate students diversify their research interests and network with fellow researchers, according to Ball.
“This is probably one of the most diverse populations of students we’ll ever experience at a professional conference,” Ball said.
Students also gained an appreciation of OSC and its resources at the conference.
“The most interesting thing I learned is how available OSC resources are and how enthusiastic the OSC staff is about helping researchers advance to the next level,” Smith said.
Research fields represented at the conference included civil and environmental engineering and geodetic science, mechanical engineering, nuclear engineering, welding engineering, theoretical and applied mathematics, astronomy, biology, chemistry, meteorology, and physics.
About OSC
OSC is Ohio's high performance computing and networking center. The Center provides scientific computing, networking, educational outreach, and information technology resources to state and national high performance computing and networking groups. OSC empowers its academic, industrial, and government partners to make Ohio the education and technology state of the future. More information on OSC can be found at www.osc.edu.
