The inter- and multi-disciplinary Center for Systems Science Research (CSSR) at Tennessee State University has as its primary objective to establish a permanent research base which produces quality, publishable research, enhances the participation and substantially involves minority students and faculty in all Center components, and through a regional resource center, strengthens science and engineering awareness at HBCU's in Tennessee and Kentucky. The CSSR is broad in scope and contains four engineering/science components which seek to apply various forms of mathematical models to understand the behavior of complex physical systems. These components will investigate: (1) a new approach to optimal and robust control, (2) the modeling of complex astrophysical systems, (3) the behavior of large- scale dynamic systems under stochastic structural perturbations, and (4) the modeling of multiphase complex flows. The first component intends to develop a practical design-oriented approach to system control wherein low order and fixed structure controllers can be designed to incorporate modern ideas of robustness and optimality. Extensively utilizing the capabilities of the TSU automated observatory, the astrophysics component will model the luminosity changes of Sun-like stars with magnetic activity, search for extra-solar planets, refine the model of evolution of cool stars, model the surface structure of stars, and investigate a wide range of stellar eruptions. The third research component will expand studies of linear and nonlinear systems of integro-differential and partial differential equations under the influence of both internal and environmental randomly varying perturbations and will formulate, develop, and analyze both probabilistic, analytic, and numerical methods for the study of such systems. The fourth engineering components aims at modeling multiphase complex flows with phase changes and specifically focuses on three-dimensional convective sol idification and melting of dispersed or packed solid particles.
