![[*]](http://www.wias-berlin.de/misc/icons/foot_motif.gif){kind=icon}
2)
|
|
|
[Contents] | [Index] |
COLLOQUIUM ``MATHEMATICAL MODELING OF BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES''
Berlin, February 22
Sponsored by: WIAS
The main focus of this colloquium was on the role of calcium oscillations in the cellular information process. Different mathematical models have been presented including a qualitative and quantitative investigation of their behavior. Some contributions addressed the problem of model reduction. About 15 people attended the colloquium.
COLLOQUIUM ``SINGULARLY PERTURBED PROBLEMS''
Berlin, April 24
Organized by: WIAS (FG 2)
Sponsored by: WIAS
This international colloquium was devoted to the 75th birthday of Prof. A.B. Vasilieva (Moscow State University, Russia). The contributions demonstrated the influence of the work of Prof. Vasilieva on recent research not only in Russia but also at the WIAS and the Free University of Berlin. New trends in the field of singularly perturbed systems and important applications in modern technology have been presented. About 30 people attended the colloquium.
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CONTINUUM MECHANICS & THERMODYNAMICS
Potsdam, July 29 - August 3
Organized by: Technische Universität (TU) Berlin (FB 6), WIAS (FG 7)
Sponsored by: WIAS, TU Berlin
The meeting was held under the auspieces of The International Society for the Interaction of Mechanics and Mathematics (ISIMM). There were 35 invited lecturers on the subjects of Granular Matter, Kinetic Theory, Extended Thermodynamics, and Phase Transitions. In addition to the invited lecturers, there were about 30 members of the Society who participated in the discussions and presented posters.
The meeting was financially supported by the Weierstrass Institute and by the Technical University of Berlin. This made it possible to organize the meeting without a conference fee. By merging on its last day with a workshop of the European network on Phase Transitions in Crystalline Bodies, the meeting was enriched by the participation of some 30 scientists working within this network. In total, 76 scientists participated in the conference.
WORKSHOP ON MULTISCALE PROBLEMS AND PHASE TRANSITIONS
Berlin, August 29-31
Organized by: WIAS (FG 7)
Sponsored by: WIAS, DFG, BMBF
Binary alloys that are in use in industrial processes frequently
consist of two coexisting phases. When these alloys are subjected to
thermo-mechanical loads, the interface boundaries start to move, and
there arise drastic changes of the morphology on the 
m scale.
There were about 30 participants including 20 invited speakers.
The application of continuum phase-field models to the evolution of the morphology in modern alloys has become very popular. Phase-field models are motivated by atomic considerations of diffusion and order-disorder transitions both of which are strongly influenced by local mechanical stress fields.
Rigorous treatments of micro-macro transitions can, however, only be done for very simple systems, like the atomic chain and related microscopic systems whose evolution is described by a large number of ordinary differential equations. The understanding of the transition to a small number of partial differential equations is crucial for a serious development of phase-field models.
The objective of this workshop has been to open a forum for mathematicians, physicists, and engineers to discuss both categories of problems and their relationships.
WORKSHOP ``INVERSE PROBLEMS IN APPLICATIONS''
Berlin, September 10-12
Organized by: Universität Linz, Austria, Universität Bremen, WIAS (FG 4)
Sponsored by: DFG, WIAS
Inverse Problems play a major role in the mathematical modeling and optimization of physical, technical, and biological systems. The fields of application encompass the elasticity modal analysis for turbines, the material identification of pastes, and also the characterization of chemical processes--to name only a few from the spectrum of applications discussed in this workshop. Despite of the multiplicity of applications, usual meetings often cover only the theoretical aspects of inverse problems. Therefore, this workshop was planned as an application counterpart.
It was organized at the WIAS by Prof. Dr. Schulz (since 10/2001 University of Trier) together with Prof. Dr. Maaß (University of Bremen) and Prof. Dr. Engl (University of Linz). The aim was to discuss the state of the art in this industrially relevant topic, mainly from an application point of view and therefore emphasizing numerical aspects.
Since the topic of the workshop is currently of high interest, the resonance to its announcement was enthusiastic. Therefore, 35 participants have been registered for the workshop. Although the atmosphere of the workshop was inevitably influenced by the events of September 11, still mathematical discussions on the subject of the workshop have been initiated, so that it can be considered a success.
WORKSHOP ``DYNAMICS OF SEMICONDUCTOR LASERS''
Berlin, September 13-15
Organized by: Heinrich-Hertz-Institut für Nachrichtentechnik Berlin (HHI), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU), WIAS (FG 2)
Sponsored by: HHI, HU (SFB 555), WIAS
The international workshop addressed challenging problems in modern technology of communication networks. Modeling, simulation, analysis, and experiments of and with semiconductor lasers formed the main focus of the workshop. The contributions demonstrated the possibility to design semiconductor lasers with special properties needed for the signal regeneration in transparent optical networks. Self-pulsations, synchronization (also of chaotic lasers), delayed feedback, short external resonators, excitability, and ultrafast effect formed important topics of the workshop. Discussions and a visit to the laser labs in the Heinrich Hertz Institute contributed also to the success of the workshop, which was attended by 47 people, among them outstanding scientists from Europe and the USA.
WORKSHOP ON HIGH-DIMENSIONAL NONLINEAR STATISTICAL MODELLING
Wulkow, September 15-19
Organized by: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU), WIAS (FG 6)
Sponsored by: HU (SFB 373), Seminar Berlin-Paris, WIAS
The conference continued a series of conferences held under the title Seminar Berlin-Paris (Seminaire Paris-Berlin ) since 1993. The focus of this year's conference was on methods for the analysis of complex high-dimensional data structures. Methods to address these problems are developed and investigated separately in the statistics and machine learning community. The conference included a lecture series by Klaus-Robert Müller (FHG FIRST) on Vector Support Machines and Boosting methods and several lectures from both communities on new methods and applications. Young scientists were especially encouraged to present their results.
Approximately 50 participants attended the workshop.
WORKSHOP ON GRANULAR MATERIALS IN GEOTECHNICS
Berlin, November 22-23
Organized by: WIAS (FG 7)
Sponsored by: WIAS
The workshop was devoted to experimental and theoretical results essential for the description of land slides processes. The following scientists delivered lectures on their recent research: I. Herle (Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, on memory effects in granular materials; due to illness the lecture was delivered by D. Kolymbas), K. Hutter (TU Darmstadt, two lectures: On observations and on the theory of avalanches and debris), V.A. Kolodko (Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, on the localisation of strains in consolidation), D. Kolymbas (TU Innsbruck, Austria, on hypoplasticity of soils), P. Lade (Aalborg University, Denmark, on laboratory experiments on instability, shear banding, and failure in granular materials), R. Lancellota (TU Turin, Italy, on nondestructive testing of soils), F. Rackwitz (TU Berlin, on shear band formation in cohesionless soils). In addition to scientists from Weierstrass Institute, some 15 scientists from the Technical University (TU) of Berlin and Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung have participated in the Workshop.
WORKSHOP ON OPEN PROBLEMS OF DIRECT METHANOL FUEL CELLS (DMFC)
Berlin, November 23-24
Organized by: WIAS (FG 3)
Sponsored by: WIAS
The goal of the workshop was to address all problems related to modeling the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) of a Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC) and the individual processes, especially: transport models for fluids and gases, reaction kinetics, and boundary conditions. Within the present cooperation with IWV3, Forschungszentrum Jülich, we observed different activities in Germany, hence we tried (based on the progress reached) to bring together different groups in a first, informal meeting centered around the simulation possibilities, problems, and future perspectives.
30 participants contributed 14 talks during the first day of the workshop. These talks have been grouped around mathematics and modeling, membrane chemistry, and reaction kinetics. The second day has been devoted to a discussion resulting in different agreements to exchange data, models, and enhance the collaboration. The workshop ended with the suggestion to meet again at WIAS in November 2002.
Further details can be found at http://www.wias-berlin.de/dmfc/workshop/workshop-prog.html .
COLLOQUIUM ``EXCITABILITY IN LASERS''
Berlin, December 14
Organized by: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU), WIAS (FG 2)
Sponsored by: HU (SFB 555), WIAS
Semiconductor lasers play a fundamental role in transparent optical communication networks to increase the data transmission rate. For the regeneration of the degraded signals, special devices are required, acting like a neuron: They respond only to impulses above some threshold. The symposium was devoted to the problem of designing semiconductor lasers which exhibit this threshold property (also called excitability). In this design process, the interaction between simulations and experiments is crucial. About 35 persons attended the colloquium.
|
|
|
[Contents] | [Index] |