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Center for Computational Mathematics (CCM)

For 30 years, computers have evolved along a sharply rising curve that has brought more than a doubling of computing power every decade. The last five years have seen an astonishing proliferation of new computer architectures that have gradually overcome the limitations of conventional computer designs. The coming years will certainly bring continued improvements in performance and changes in design as scientists and engineers meet the computational demands of the future.

Created in the fall of 1992 to formalize the Computational Math Group that had been created in 1985, the Center for Computational Math (CCM) at UC Denver is a broad-based response to the rapid and dramatic changes in the various fields of computation. The Center is an interdisciplinary inter-campus organization within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences with associates at UC Denver, on other campuses of the Rocky Mountain Region, and within the business and research community of greater Denver. The Department of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences at UC Denver, where the Center physically resides, is the most important partner of the Center, as many of CCM members are also faculty members of the Department of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences, and as one of the major activities of the Center is training of high-level undergraduate and graduate students of the department in computational mathematics.

The CCM is involved in the following major activities:

• Education. The training of today's students in applied mathematics, if it is to be effective and realistic, must involve a thorough exposure to the theory and practice of computation on advanced computers. This training must include an awareness of current developments in new architectures, a familiarity with the design of algorithms for these architectures, and an opportunity to use a variety of contemporary supercomputers. Such training can begin at the undergraduate level and must intensify at the graduate level. The CCM is making this training available to the students of the Denver area by developing relevant courses, supporting enhanced curricula, providing exposure to real problems and facilities, and conferring advanced degrees. Leo Franca is a coordinator of the Numerical Analysis area of Graduate Study at UC Denver and maintains the corresponding web page http://math.ucdenver.edu/ccm/education.

• Research. The Center for Computational Mathematics has assembled a group of well-known experts in the fields of computational mathematics and advanced computer architectures. This group is the nucleus of a strong research community that has attracted additional colleagues of commensurate stature. Sample research projects within the CCM include:
  • efficient methods for dynamical analysis of very large structures like space stations, ships, and off- shore oil platforms
  • fast methods for reconstruction of images in medical tomography
  • effective methods for modeling flow in porous media, including oil reservoir simulation and ground water systems
  • fast parallel iterative methods for large three- dimensional finite element models
  • fast parallel methods for adaptive solution of fluid flow problems, especially in aerodynamic simulation
  • fast parallel methods for transport models
  • stabilized finite element methods for fluid and solid mechanics
  • efficient, robust algorithms for large scale eigenvalue computations

  An objective of the Center is to further its international recognition as a site at which computational mathematics thrives and is advanced. The CCM organizes seminars, workshops, and conferences, and publishes technical reports, which are internationally known and recognized and which allow CCM members to support existing and to develop new international contacts.

  Two main CCM Colloquia:

  • Computational Mathematics Colloquium Series (CCM) , and
  • Joint Computational Math Seminar, with UC Boulder Department of Applied Mathematics and Department of Mathematical and Computer Sciences, Colorado School of Mines attract local participants as well as experts from around the world.

  The Center for Computational Mathematics Series of Reports has now over 160 reports, written by CCM members and affiliates. The whole collection can be found in hard-copy format in suite 647 of the CU-Denver Building. Hard copies are being distributed among many major computational mathematics centers and departments all over the word. Further, the Center for Computational Mathematics Series of Reports is a part of the Networked Computer Science Technical Reports Library (NCSTRL), an international on-line collection of computer technical reports from almost 200 universities and industrial and government research laboratories, see http://www.ncstrl.org/ . The NCSRTL collection is distributed among a set of interoperating servers operated by participating institutions. Our Center is running a light site NCSRTL server locally. All recent reports are also available on-line locally at CCM Research Reports.

• Consulting. Many CCM members are actively involved in consulting in different areas of computational mathematics. Please contact the CCM Director by email ccm_director@math.cudenver.edu with any questions. A separate Statistical Consulting Service is also available.

• Resources. The CCM provides a variety of resources to students, associates, and the greater Denver community, in particular, it provides hardware and software support to the Mathematics Clinic Program and to the Statistical Consulting Service at UC Denver. One of the main responsibilities of the Center is running the Graduate Computer Lab (GCL), jointly with the Department of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences. The GCL contains various computing resources, including several servers, many workstations, terminals and printers. Thanks to the recent (1999) major Colorado Commission on Higher Education Excellence in Applied Mathematics award, all GCL equipment was replaced with new hardware in 1999-2000, e.g., all public X-terminals were just replaced with fast LINUX clients with 21" monitors, which significantly increased their speed and reliability.

  For more information on hardware and software of the GCL, please visit CCM Computing Resources.

• Corporate partnership. The Center is also a source of expertise for the Rocky Mountain research community which, with its many technological industries, has an ongoing involvement with computation. The CCM is developing an enhanced interaction between computational mathematicians at the University of Colorado and computational mathematicians in industry by offering an opportunity for corporate membership in the CCM .

In summary, through a coordinated development of educational opportunities, research potential, and resource offerings, the CCM has become a widely recognized center with international reputation, serving University of Colorado and the Rocky Mountain Region in a vital and exciting field of science.