Month: January 2024

KeyShot in Action: A Gateway to Aesthetic Excellence in Engineering Design

Abstract: In this talk, we’ll discuss how engineering students can utilize KeyShot to elevate the aesthetics and presentation of their concepts, increasing the likelihood their ideas will garner attention and be valued. Through an in-person demonstration, the Education Program Manager from KeyShot will illustrate just how quick and painless learning the industry-leading 3D-visualization software can be.

Biographical Sketch: Nick Abbott is a seasoned Industrial Designer with a rich five-year journey in the field. He has contributed to numerous projects for prominent clients, constantly expanding his creative horizons and refining his product design skills. Nick’s versatility led him to co-teach a design course at ASU, which paved the way for his latest endeavor at KeyShot. His bold decision to leave Purdue for startup adventures in the music industry reflects his risk-taking spirit and innovative mindset. Outside of work, Nick is an avid photographer, often found capturing the stunning landscapes of the mountains.

Data Sampling and Distillation for Neural Network Potentials

Abstract: Multiscale modeling methods are typically envisioned as precise and predictive simulation tools to solve complex science and engineering problems. However, even conventional atomistic models often lack computational efficiency and accuracy, making them inadequate for providing reliable information for large-scale continuum models. In this seminar, I will discuss the developments aimed at overcoming these critical limitations. 

At the beginning of the talk, I will introduce how atomistic models can enhance our understanding of the experimental observations of crystal growth in 2D materials using empirical reactive forcefield (FF). Although the models offer valuable insights at the atomic scale, the development of reliable FFs is severely limited due to the fixed potential expressions. Recently, neural network potentials (NNPs) have emerged to surpass the longstanding limitations of empirical potentials.

While NNPs can provide higher accuracy than other empirical FFs and lower computational costs compared to quantum calculations, efficient sampling or data generation for training becomes increasingly critical. I will present recent advancements in an automated active learning (AL) framework for NNPs, focusing on accurately simulating bond-breaking in hexane chains through steered molecular dynamics sampling with trained NNPs and assessing model transferability to other alkane chains.

In the end, I will introduce one of the sampling approaches, the multiorder-multithermal (MOMT) ensemble, to capture a broad range of liquid- and solid-phase configurations in a metallic system, nickel. Data distillation through active learning can significantly reduce sampled data without losing much accuracy. The NNP, trained from the distilled data, can predict different energy-minimized closed-pack crystal structures even though those structures were not explicitly part of the initial data. Moreover, this data can be applied to other metallic systems (aluminum and niobium) without repeating the sampling and distillation processes.

The capabilities developed through the research will provide valuable tools for a fundamental understanding of the chemical process and mechanistic insights into the predictive design and interpretive simulations of materials processes and properties.

Biographical Sketch: GS Jung is a Research Staff at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. His research interests are in the multiscale modeling of materials to understand their fundamental properties from synthesis and growth to performance and failures. Before joining ORNL, he earned his Ph.D. in multiscale modeling for 2D materials from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mathematical and Computational modelling of soft-tissue mechanobiology: application to aneurysms, osteoarthritis and bladder outlet obstruction.

Abstract: Mathematical and computational modelling approaches can quantify the mechanics & mechanical environment of soft biological tissues under physiological and pathological loading. These tools can quantify ‘mechanical stimuli’ inputs to algorithms that control growth and remodelling (G&R) of the tissue to simulate adaptation to altered environmental conditions. In this talk, I will overview a rate-based constrained mixture G&R modelling approach which was developed to create the first computational model of aneurysm evolution [1]; I will then summarise its sophistications and applications over the past 20 years. In general, the modelling approach is as follows: the constitutive model of the tissue accounts for the individual natural reference configurations of cells and matrix components; a model of the organ/tissue is defined/calibrated to initially be in homeostasis in the physiological loaded configuration; subsequent tissue loss/damage or changes to the mechanical environment can change the distribution of mechanical stimuli from homeostatic setpoints and drive G&R processes that lead to the progression of disease or the adaptation to a new homeostatic state. Illustrative applications of the approach will include fluid-solid-growth frameworks for modelling intracranial aneurysm evolution [2], in vivo-in vitro-in silico modelling of bladder adaption to outlet obstruction [3] and a conceptual chemo-mechano-biological model of cartilage evolving in health, disease and treatment [4]. Outlook for future research and clinical translation of the models will be discussed.

References:

[1] Watton, Hill & Heil (2004) A Mathematical Model for the Growth of the Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm, BMMB, 3:98-113.

[2] Teixeira et al. (2020) Modeling intracranial aneurysm stability and growth: an integrative mechanobiological framework for clinical cases. BMMB, 19:2413–2431.

[3] Cheng et al. (2022) A constrained mixture-micturition-growth (CMMG) model of the urinary bladder: Application to partial bladder outlet obstruction (BOO), JMBBM, 134: 105337.

[4] Rahman et al. (2023) A chemo-mechano-biological modelling framework for cartilage evolving in health, disease, injury, and treatment, CMPB, 231: 107419.

 

Biographical Sketch: Paul Watton is Head of the Complex Systems Modelling Group and Professor of Computational and Theoretical Modelling at the Dept. of Computer Science & Insigneo Institute for in silico Medicine at the University of Sheffield, UK. He also holds an adjunct position with the Dept. of Mech. Eng. and Materials Science, University of Pittsburgh, US. He has a mathematical background (BSc Pure & Applied Mathematics, MSc Mathematical Logic, PhD Applied Mathematics) and his research focuses on modelling the biomechanics & mechanobiology of soft-biological tissues with application to disease progression and treatment.