Predictive Science Research Gets Major Boost Thanks to the Department of Energy

Many of the decisions we make are now guided by computational simulations, from designing new spacecraft to predicting the spread of a pandemic. But it's not enough for a simulation model to just issue predictions. A decision-maker needs to know just how much those predictions can be trusted.

This is the objective of research in the critical area of predictive science, which is about to take a major step forward at The University of Texas at Austin. The Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences has been selected by the Department of Energy (DOE) to establish a Multidisciplinary Simulation Center, with the mission to develop the next generation of exascale predictive simulation capabilities. The center will support the research of dozens of scientists, post-docs and students, and will foster close collaboration with researchers at Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Bob Moser and George Biros from the Oden Institute's Predictive Engineering and Computational Science Group (PECOS), and UT’s Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering are leading the team of 18 faculty and senior researchers from six different departments, which also includes a faculty member from Texas State University. The new center is part of the Predictive Science Academic Alliance Program (PSAAP) and this is just the third time that PSAAP centers have been awarded by the DOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) since the program’s inception in 2008. UT Austin was one of only four institutions nationwide to be selected to establish a Multidisciplinary Simulation Center.

Read the full story on the UT News site

By Johnny Holden Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences