Winter School

Winter School on Iterative Methods in Scientific Computing and Their Applications

December 14-20, 1995

Hosted by

The Institute of Mathematical Sciences
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Shatin, Hong Kong

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Title

Winter School on Iterative Methods in Scientific Computing and Their Applications.

Dates

December 14-20, 1995.

Venue

Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong.

Objectives

To provide an intensive one week training course in state-of-the-art iterative methods in scientific computing for senior graduate students, post-doctoral researchers and lecturers in universities and practitioners in industry. It is hoped that after the course, the attendees will be familiar with the basic theories and algorithms, as well as potential application areas and the vast and fast developing literature.

Background Information

Iterative methods is an important and fundamental class of solution algorithms that are used by scientists and engineers. Their applications can be found in diverse areas of science, engineering and technology. Examples are computational fluid dynamics and structural analysis, circuit and semiconductor simulations, oil reservoir and seismic simulations, queueing and communication problems, environmental studies and image and signal processing. Their importance is fundamental: (1) nonlinear problems must be solved by iterative algorithms, (2) for large 3D problems, direct methods require too much computer time and storage, even for supercomputers that are still on the drawing board. Thus a thorough understanding of iterative methods should form a cornerstone of anyone practicing scientific computing. Unfortunately, there are few good textbooks available that treat iterative methods properly. Part of the reason is that the field is still evolving rapidly and new methodologies are still being developed. But another reason is that iterative methods are often developed with the particular application in mind and not in a generic form for general applications. Thus we feel that an intensive one week course taught by the leading experts in both the theory and the applications will provide an excellent forum for providing an overview of the state-of-the-art of the area. There are several successful examples of such intensive one or two week schools, usually held in the summer in Europe. The French Ecole d'ete, Analyse Numerique held at Le Breau outside Paris every summer and the Lancaster summer school in the UK are notable examples. Our winter school is modelled after these, but will be the first in the Asian region. We believe that, with the rapid advance of the economy of this region and the associated rapid development of technology, there is a great demand for the intensive course that we are proposing. We also believe that Hong Kong is an ideal venue, being centrally located in the region and having the necessary infra-structure.

Technical Program

School Model

It will be a seven-day school with 9 main invited speakers. Each main speaker will give three 40-min lectures. There will also be several other lectures given by speakers from the Asian region. There will be 5-6 lectures per day except for the fourth day which will be reserved for excursion or social activities. Demonstration and exercise sessions will be at the end of each day.

Main Invited Speakers

All speakers have formally accepted our invitation.
  • G. Golub, Fletcher Jones Chair Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University --- Member of US National Academies of Science and Engineering, past president of the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), managing editor of SIAM Journal on Matrix Analysis. World leader in iterative methods.
  • J. Dongarra, Distinguished professor at University of Tennessee and distinguished scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory --- Developer of software packages LINPACK, LAPACK and PVM. World leader in numerical software on parallel supercomputers.
  • G. Strang, Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology --- World leader in computational mathematics, author of many well-known textbooks.
  • H. Van der Vorst, Professor at University Utrecht, Netherlands --- Leading expert on iterative methods and implementation on supercomputers.
  • J.C. Xu, Associate Professor at Pennsylvania State University --- Emerging leader in multilevel iterative methods, organizer of the 7th International Conference on Domain Decomposition Methods.
  • H. Elman, Professor at University of Maryland, College Park --- Leading expert in iterative methods and applications to fluid dynamics. Member of scientific committee of the bi-annual Copper Mountain Conference on iterative methods.
  • A. Wathen, University of Bristol -- Expert on iterative methods for Navier-Stokes equations.
  • D. Silvester, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology --- Expert on iterative methods for Navier-Stokes equations.
  • F. Luk, Chairman and Professor of Computer Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute --- World leader in computational methods in signal processing and systolic implementations, organizer of annual SPIE Symposium on Advanced Signal Processing Algorithms, Architectures and Implementations.
  • T. Chan, Professor at University of California, Los Angeles --- Expert on iterative methods, organizer of 2nd International Conference on Domain Decomposition Methods.

    Invited Speakers from the Asian Region

  • Z.C. Shi, Academia Sinica, China --- Member of the Chinese Academy of Science, former director of its Computing Center, expert on finite element analysis, organizer of the 8th International Conference on Domain Decomposition Methods.
  • C. Jea, Fu Jen University, Taiwan --- Former student of David Young, expert on conjugate gradient methods.
  • T. Nodera, Keio University, Japan --- Organizer of annual Japan conference on preconditioned conjugate gradient methods, expert on parallel algorithms.
  • Q. Sheng, National University, Singapore --- Expert on exponential splitting methods and monotone iterative methods for finite difference methods.
  • R. Chan, Chinese University, Hong Kong --- Expert on iterative methods for Toeplitz systems and applications to queuing networks and image processing.
  • Speakers from Korea and India are being arranged.

    Topics and Speakers

    Basic Theory
    Inner-outer iterations (Golub), wavelets (Strang), multilevel methods (Xu), finite element methods (Silvester, Shi), preconditioning (T. Chan), Lanczos algorithm (Jea) and monotone methods (Sheng).

    Parallel Algorithms
    Parallel computer architectures and algorithms (Dongarra), parallel iterative methods (Van der Vorst, Nodera), domain decomposition methods (T. Chan).

    Applications
    Computational fluid dynamics -- convection-diffusion equations and Stokes solvers (Golub, Elman, Wathen, Silvester), signal and image processing (Luk), queueing networks (R. Chan).

    Lecture Notes

    Lecture notes of the School will be distributed to attendees. We will also publish the polished version of the lecture notes for general international distribution.

    Number of Attendees

    Estimated to be 80 from initial contacts with neighboring countries and the US. It is anticipated that a good proportion of the attendees are post-doctoral researchers from Asian countries.

    Sponsors

    The Winter School is sponsored by the Institute of Mathematical Science at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, The British Council, The Hong Kong Pei Hua Education Foundation Ltd., The Hong Kong Research Grants Council, as well as other foundations and agencies.

    Organizing Committee

    General Co-Chairmen: Program Chairman: Local Organizing Committee:

    Organizing Institutions

    Institute of Mathematical Sciences
    Chinese University of Hong Kong
    Shatin, Hong Kong
     Professor S.T. Yau, Fields Medalist and Professor C.N. Yang, Nobel Prize Laureate are the Directors of the Institute. The Institute has offered seed money of US$22,500 for the School.

    Department of Mathematics
    Chinese University of Hong Kong
    Shatin, Hong Kong
     The Department will provide its laboratory of about 50 workstations and Power PC's for the demonstration and exercise sessions.

    Call for Posters

    The School will have a poster session for participants to exhibit their research results. Authors are invited to submit their papers (maximum four pages) on any topics related to scientific computing. Please send the papers either electronically or in hard copy form to Dr. K.M. Yeung's address below. Deadline for submission is December 1, 1995.

    Registration

    Registration fee is US$100 if paid before December 1, 1995 and US$120 if paid after December 1, 1995. It includes all lecture notes to be distributed at the School. To receive the registration form, please send a note by postal or electronic mail to Dr. K.M. Yeung at the address listed below. Latex and compressed postscript files of the form can also be obtained by anonymous ftp to ftp://ftp.ims.cuhk.hk/conf/winter/regis.tex or ftp://ftp.ims.cuhk.hk/conf/winter/regis.ps.Z

    Hotel Accommodation

    The Royal Park Hotel is located in Shatin near the Shatin train station. The University station is about 5 minutes away by train. The hotel will offer a discount to attendees of the School. The rate is about US$135 plus 15% service charge and government tax for a double room each night. To reserve a room, please contact Ms. Kimmie Mak of Royal Park Hotel directly (Tel: +852 2694-3892, Fax: +852 2603-5184). To reserve other hotels in Hong Kong, please contact Mr. Benson Lam at KAL Holiday Ltd. (Tel: +852 2810-1331, Fax: +852 2845-2470).

    General Information

    Latex and compressed postscript files containing detail information of the School can be obtained by anonymous ftp to ftp://ftp.ims.cuhk.hk/conf/winter/info.tex or ftp://ftp.ims.cuhk.hk/conf/winter/info.ps.Z . For enquiry, please contact:

    Dr. K.M. Yeung
    Department of Mathematics
    Chinese University of Hong Kong
    Shatin, Hong Kong
    E-Mail: kmyeung@cuhk.hk
    Fax: +(852) 2603-5154

    About Hong Kong

    For more information, please contact Dr. Raymond Chan. at rchan@math.cuhk.hk.
    Last update on October 26, 1995.