About this class

Overview and goal

“Computational Science” analyzes various complicated phenomena and predicts future, using supercomputers. This area is now drawing attention as “the Third Scientific Approach,” which follows theoretical and experimental traditional approach. Computational science is helpful for problem solving in a wide variety of fields such as space or earth physics, life science, chemistry, dynamics, mathematical problems, visualization of results of computation, and so on.
In this class, a front-line researcher in each field plainly explains a case study in applied field of computational science in an omnibus style. The case study reveals what kind of problems the cutting-edge research in computational science tries to solve or what kind of world it is developing. Students in the class can understand the interest and usefulness of computational science in various fields.
Graduate students can also attend this class. (Ask each office of the affiliation about the credit.)

Class schedule and content (They might be changed.)

	No.	Date	Instructor	Affiliation	Theme	Class content
The first semester	1	April, 11	Satoru Ushijima	Academic Center for Computing and Media Studies	Fluid dynamics and high-performance computing	Due to the development of high-performance computing, the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) allows us to predict more complicated and larger-scale fluid motions in detail. In this class, we explain some basic topics regarding fluid mechanics for the incompressible fluid such as water flows in rivers and coastal areas. In addition, we introduce the outline of numerical procedures to solve a set of governing equations with the recent supercomputers. We also demonstrate the simulated results, such as the free-surface motions and fluid-structure interactions.
	2	April, 18	Takeshi Enomoto	Disaster Prevention Research Institute	Supercomputing in Numerical Weather Prediction	Weather reports are produced daily from numerical weather prediction (NWP) using a supercomputer. NWP is the world’s second application of computation with the first computer ENIAC after missile trajectory. Since then NWP has remarkably developed: the accuracy of current five-day forecast is comparable to that of two-day forecast in a quarter of a century ago. In order to predict the future state of the atmosphere, the initial state (analysis) produced from observations and a forecast model based on the physical laws are required. In this lecture the overview of the analysis and forecast is given and the role of supercomputing is illustrated.
	3	April, 25	Takashi Miura	Graduate School of Medicine	Computational Deveopmental Biology	Our body has very complex form. This complex form is generated during development. Numerous molecules has been shown to be involved in this process. However, how the interaction of these molecules results in complex pattern formation remain to be elucidated. In this lecture I present one strategy to utilize mathematical analysis and numerical simulation to understand the pattern formation during development.
	4	May, 2	Hiroshi Nakajima	Academic Center for Computing and Media Studies	Why are Supercomputers Super?	In this lecture, you will learn the concept of supercomputers and supercomputing through the history, architectural principles and most advanced examples of supercomputers.
	5	May ,9	Ryoichi Yamamoto	Graduate School of Engineering	a challenge simulation science: meso-scale material science	After rapid progresses of computer and computational science are outlined, recent efforts and applications of computational science for soft matters (polymers, colloids, gels, membranes) are explained.
	6	May ,16	Tatsuya Akutsu	Institute for Chemical Research	Computational Science in Bioinformatics	High-performance computing has been extensively used for solving various problems in bioinformatics, which include sequence analysis, prediction of protein structures, analysis of gene expression data. We overview how high-performance computing is used in bioinformatics.
	7	May, 23	Kazuhiro Aoki	Graduate School of Biostudies	Visualization and simulation of cellular signal processing.	Cells sense a variety of extracellular signals by receptors, and input these signals to a system of intracellular reaction network. This system is called intracellular signal transduction. These input signals are processed by the intracellular signal transduction, and outputted as their corresponding phenotypes. So far, a bunch of molecules and pathways have been identified as shown here. We know that disruption of the system by gene mutation leads to pathological outcome including autoimmune disease and tumorigenesis. Therefore, a better understanding of signal transduction is a critical issue for control of these diseases. Reactions composed of intracellular signal transduction can be described by reaction kinetics theory and solved numerically by computer. In this class, I will introduce several examples of application of computer to systems biology.
	8	May, 30	Shin-ichi Takehiro	Research Institute for Mathematical Sciences	Consideration of fluid motions in the interiors of the earth, planets and stars by use of numerical computations	The problem of thermal convection in rotating spherical shells is a fundamental model for global flows in the interiors of the earth, planets and stars. It is explained how this problem comes to be solved according to development of computational ability, and the status of the present numerical simulations is discussed.
	9	June, 6	Jun Saito	Graduate school of engineering	Numerical analysis of Photonic and phononic crystal	Wave transmission property in Photonic and phononic crystal and its application are outlined, and some numerical results are introduced.
	10	June, 13	Ryoichi Kurose	Graduate school of engineering	The Role fo Computational Fluid Dynamics	The procedure and challenges of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) will be reviewed and some examples of the CFD for research and development will be described.
	11	June, 20	Hiroshi NAKASHIMA	Graduate School of Agriculture	Running mechanics for off-road vehicles	Numerical analysis for performances of rigid and elastic wheels for off-road vehicles running on deformable terrain will be demonstrated using DEM and FE-DEM.
	12	June, 27	SATO Hirofumi	Graduate school of engineering	Theoretical Studies on Chemical Phenomenon and Chemical Reaction	The lecture overviews the role of theories in the field of chemistry. Electronic structure theory of molecule (molecular orbital theory), statistical mechanics and other related approaches have been contributing to understand a variety of chemical events.
	13	July, 4	Takeshi YAO	Graduate School of Energy Science	Principle and Application of Least Square Method	Measurement is the only and important medium to contact with nature, however, measurement always contains error. We are using the least square method to make the scientific truth hiding behind the measurement clear. Principle and computer program of the liner or the nonlinear least square method, estimation of error and reliability of obtained parameters are explained. Crystal structure analysis is introduced as an application of the least square method.
	14	June ,18	Koji Koyamada	Center for the Promotion of Excellence in Higher Education	Introduction to visualization	Visualization becomes crucial as a fundamental technology which facilitates an inspiration from a massive amount of datasets generated from high-performance computing and measurement platforms. In this lecture, we will describe basic visualization techniques and their applications.
	15	July, 25	Hideki Yahagi	Academic Center for Computing and Media Studies	Computer Science and Astronomy	In astronomy, observational data had not been explained by theories due to intrinsic complexity of those problems and lack of feasibility of experiments, in many cases. Such situations has changed by large scale numerical simulations thanks to the rapid evolution of supercomputing systems. We introduce such astronomical cases to the audience.
The second semester	1	Oct. ,3	Satoru Ushijima	Academic Center for Computing and Media Studies	Fluid dynamics and high-performance computing	Due to the development of high-performance computing, the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) allows us to predict more complicated and larger-scale fluid motions in detail. In this class, we explain some basic topics regarding fluid mechanics for the incompressible fluid such as water flows in rivers and coastal areas. In addition, we introduce the outline of numerical procedures to solve a set of governing equations with the recent supercomputers. We also demonstrate the simulated results, such as the free-surface motions and fluid-structure interactions.
	2	Oct. ,10	Takashi Miura	Graduate School of Medicine	Computational Deveopmental Biology	Our body has very complex form. This complex form is generated during development. Numerous molecules has been shown to be involved in this process. However, how the interaction of these molecules results in complex pattern formation remain to be elucidated. In this lecture I present one strategy to utilize mathematical analysis and numerical simulation to understand the pattern formation during development.
	3	Oct. ,17	Hiroshi Nakashima	Academic Center for Computing and Media Studies	Why are Supercomputers Super?	In this lecture, you will learn the concept of supercomputers and supercomputing through the history, architectural principles and most advanced examples of supercomputers.
	4	Oct. ,24	Kazuro Hirahara	Graduate School of Science	Simulation of earthquake cycles	Great earthquakes occur iteratively on plate interfaces with recurrence times due to plate motions, which we call earthquake cycles. In a super-computer, we construct the Japanese Islands where the four plates are conversing to simulate such cycles of interplate earthquakes. We introduce recent advancements in such earthquake cycle simulations, which helps us to understand the occurrence of historical earthquakes such as the 2011 giant Tohoku earthquake and would also give some information on the next occurring earthquakes such as the Nankai earthquake.
	5	Oct. ,31	Jun Saito	Graduate school of engineering	Numerical analysis of Photonic and phononic crystal	Wave transmission property in Photonic and phononic crystal and its application are outlined, and some numerical results are introduced.
	6	Nov. ,7	Keiichi Ishioka	Graduate School of Science	Computations in Geophysical Fluid Dynamic	Geophysical Fluid Dynamics(GFD) includes not only meteorology and ocean physics but also mantle convection and core dynamo. Numerical experimets using computers are necessary for reserches of GFD. This lecture introduces briefly how computers are used in researches of GFD.
	7	Nov. ,14	Tatsuya Akutsu	Institute for Chemical Research	Computational Science in Bioinformatics	High-performance computing has been extensively used for solving various problems in bioinformatics, which include sequence analysis, prediction of protein structures, analysis of gene expression data. We overview how high-performance computing is used in bioinformatics.
	8	Nov. ,21	Hisashi Okamoto	Research Institute for Mathematical Sciences	非線形力学入門	身近な力学現象、特に、水の流れや表面張力の生み出す物理現象のモデル化とその数値計算法について解説する。
	9	Nov. ,28	Sayuri Kimoto	Graduate School of Engineering	Simulation of ground deformation	Geomaterials such as soil and rock are three phase materials composed of gas, liquid and solid in general, and the mechanical behavior is complicated. Simulation method to predict the ground deformation induced by natural disaster, such as, heavy rain and earthquake will be introduced in this class. In addition, simulation of the ground behavior during methane hydrate dissociation will be presented.
	10	Dec. ,5	Hiroshi NAKASHIMA	Graduate School of Agriculture	Running mechanics for off-road vehicles	Numerical analysis for performances of rigid and elastic wheels for off-road vehicles running on deformable terrain will be demonstrated using DEM and FE-DEM.
	11	Dec. ,12	Ryoichi Kurose	Graduate school of engineering	The Role fo Computational Fluid Dynamics	The procedure and challenges of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) will be reviewed and some examples of the CFD for research and development will be described.
	12	Dec. ,19	SATO Hirofumi	Graduate school of engineering	Theoretical Studies on Chemical Phenomenon and Chemical Reaction	The lecture overviews the role of theories in the field of chemistry. Electronic structure theory of molecule (molecular orbital theory), statistical mechanics and other related approaches have been contributing to understand a variety of chemical events.
	13	Dec. ,26	Takeshi YAO	Graduate School of Energy Science	Principle and Application of Least Square Method	Measurement is the only and important medium to contact with nature, however, measurement always contains error. We are using the least square method to make the scientific truth hiding behind the measurement clear. Principle and computer program of the liner or the nonlinear least square method, estimation of error and reliability of obtained parameters are explained. Crystal structure analysis is introduced as an application of the least square method.
	14	Jan. ,16	Koji Koyamada	Center for the Promotion of Excellence in Higher Education	Introduction to visualization	Visualization becomes crucial as a fundamental technology which facilitates an inspiration from a massive amount of datasets generated from high-performance computing and measurement platforms. In this lecture, we will describe basic visualization techniques and their applications.
	15	Jan. ,23	Kinji Kimura	Graduate School of Informatics	Computing the longest polynomial in the world – Challenge to the world record of discriminant –	We introduce the story of the challenges of discriminant 17.

Prerequisite

None

Preliminary knowledge

Any student who has no preliminary knowledge can attend this class, whether majoring in science or humanities.

Grading

The instructor of each class assesses how much the student understands the class content, based on a report or paper submitted.

Textbook