This grant provides partial funding for a Workshop on Reliable Engineering Computing to be held September 15 through September 17, 2004 at the Savannah Campus of Georgia Institute of Technology, Savannah, Georgia. The objective of this workshop is to promote cross-disciplinary research in the area of reliable engineering computing. For that goal, the proposed workshop will bring together researchers from various engineering fields as well as from mathematics and computer science to share methods for ensuring reliability of engineering models. Such a common forum will provide a foundation for continuing cross-disciplinary advisements in reliable engineering computations. Reliable engineering computing requires that computing systems accommodate several sources of uncertainty and errors with a focus on self-validating methods and their associated computational complexity. All branches of engineering share the need for reliable computing. In the case of a mechanical system model, uncertainties can originate from (1) The appropriateness of the mathematical model to describe the physical system, (2) The discretization of the mathematical model into a computational framework, (3) The inexact knowledge of input parameters of a problem, and (4) Errors introduced by the nature of computer finite arithmetic. The main topics of the workshop include (1) Measurement of reliability of algorithms and computations, (2) Integration of various sources of errors in engineering calculations, and (3) Integrating uncertainty into design. While some aspects of the workshop focus are included in conferences on general numerical methods, computer science, and engineering, none have united all these disciplines with a focus on engineering design calculations. This workshop is unique in combining computer science, mathematics, and engineering analysis to discuss the reliability of engineering computations.
The workshop will address different aspects of reliable engineering computing in both analysis and design.
