Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar
Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar Series
Title: Adaptive Data-Driven Modeling of Complex Systems
Abstract: In this talk, we present a multiscale adaptive data-driven framework to simulate the behavior of complex systems. Such complex systems typically display non-linear, non-local, micro-morphic features that have challenged continuum and discrete models for over a century. We use granular materials as canonical examples of complex systems to contextualize our proposed data-driven framework, highlighting its ability to bridge the continuum scale with experimental data or grain-scale physics-based simulations. In contrast to continuum phenomenological models and standard multiscale techniques, our approach is parameter-free, physics-based, and true to the entire data set. Additionally, we show that the adaptive nature of the data-driven approach gives rise to a new generation of models that admit goal-oriented data assimilation as a standard feature. This feature is not readily available in phenomenological models that rely on a posteriori metrics of error, resulting in increased complexity, obscurity, and inaccuracy. Conversely, the adaptive data-driven models can incorporate data seamlessly and thereby increase their accuracy to a priori user-specified levels. We argue that this approach to modeling is fundamentally different from current modeling philosophies.
Bio: José E. Andrade is a civil engineer and the George W. Housner Professor of Civil and Mechanical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology. Andrade is a world leader in developing computer models to simulate the physics of complex systems. He has written hundreds of papers and holds patents on the level set discrete element method (LS-DEM)—a computer modeling tool that can simulate the dynamical response of multi-body systems. Andrade has more than 20 years of experience in the high-tech space with projects ranging from energy to defense to planetary science. His work has been recognized with numerous honors and awards worldwide.
Andrade received his B.S. in Civil Engineering summa cum laude from the Florida Institute of Technology. He holds a Master of Science and a Ph.D. from Stanford University.
NOTE: At this time, in-person Mechanical and Civil Engineering Lectures are open to all Caltech students/staff/faculty/visitors.