Georgia Institute of Technology College of Sciences

In this talk, I will introduce the Immersed Finite Element Methods (IFEM) for one and two dimensional elliptic interface problems based on Cartesian triangulations. The key is to modify the basis functions so that the homogeneous jump conditions are satisfied in the presence of discontinuity in the coefficients. Both non-conforming and conforming finite element spaces are considered. Corresponding interpolation functions are proved to be second order accurate in the maximum norm. For non-homogeneous jump conditions, we have developed a new strategy to transform the original interface problem to a new one with homogeneous jump conditions using the level set function. If time permits, I will also explain some recent progress in this direction including the augmented IFEM for piecewise constant coefficient, and a SVD free version of the method.

This talk aims to give a glimpse into the theory of divisors on graphs in tropical geometry, and its recent application in bijective combinatorics. I will start by introducing basic notions and results of the subject. Then I will mention some of its connections with other fields in math. Finally I will talk about my own work on how tropical geometry leads to an unexpectedly simple class of bijections between spanning trees of a graph and its sandpile group.

We present new methods for segmentation of large datasets with graph based structure. The method combines ideas from classical nonlinear PDE-based image segmentation with fast and accessible linear algebra methods for computing information about the spectrum of the graph Laplacian. The goal of the algorithms is to solve semi-supervised and unsupervised graph cut optimization problems. I will present results for image processing applications such as image labeling and hyperspectral video segmentation, and results from machine learning and community detection in social networks, including modularity optimization posed as a graph total variation minimization problem.

PDEs (such as Navier-Stokes) are in principle infinite-dimensional dynamical systems. However, recent studies support conjecture that the turbulent solutions of spatially extended dissipative systems evolve within an `inertial' manifold spanned by a finite number of 'entangled' modes, dynamically isolated from the residual set of isolated, transient degrees of freedom. We provide numerical evidence that this finite-dimensional manifold on which the long-time dynamics of a chaotic dissipative dynamical system lives can be constructed solely from the knowledge of a set of unstable periodic orbits. In particular, we determine the dimension of the inertial manifold for Kuramoto-Sivashinsky system, and find it to be equal to the `'physical dimension' computed previously via the hyperbolicity properties of covariant Lyapunov vectors. (with Xiong Ding, H. Chate, E. Siminos and K. A. Takeuchi)