COMSOL Conference 2013 Boston Keynote Speaker Round-Up

October 16, 2013

The COMSOL Conference 2013 Boston finished up on Friday last week. There were lots of excellent posters and user presentations, and some enriching conversations during the coffee breaks. On Thursday, our three keynote speakers took to the stage and treated us to each of their multiphysics simulation stories. Here’s a round-up of who presented and what they shared with the audience.

Symbiotic Relationship between Moore’s Law and Computational Modeling

First up was Peter Woytowitz of Lam Research Corporation, manufacturer of semiconductor processing equipment. His keynote talk was on Moore’s law and its relationship to computational modeling. He opened with an overview of Moore’s law and how computational power has changed over time, and then went on to describe some modeling examples from Lam Research. Woytowitz’s main point was that we tend to emphasize how Moore’s law has impacted computational modeling, but the opposite is also true; computational modeling itself further enables Moore’s law to come true.

Peter Woytowitz, Lam Research Corporation, Keynote Speaker at the COMSOL Conference 2013 Boston
Peter Woytowitz, Lam Research Corporation.

Designing Magnetostrictive Transducers

Next, we heard about the use of multiphysics simulations during the various design stages of magnetostrictive transducers. Keynote speaker Julie Slaughter of ETREMA Products, Inc. began by introducing us to the concept of magnetostriction (in short, it’s the inherent property of ferromagnetic materials). Due to the nonlinear material behavior brought on by magnetostriction, it provides for some interesting modeling scenarios. Slaughter walked through three different stages where ETREMA used COMSOL Multiphysics: initial design, model validation, and design diagnosis. She showed that during the detailed design process, they use COMSOL to model single physics to get an idea for the basic design. The multiphysics capabilities of the software really come into play during the design validation steps, when the simulations need to come as close to experimental data as possible.

Keynote Speaker Julie Slaughter, ETREMA Products, Inc.
Julie Slaughter, ETREMA Products, Inc.

Microstructure-Sensitive Corrosion Pit Growth and Mechanical Performance

The third keynote presentation was on corrosion and mechanical performance, held by Siddiq Qidwai who works at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory but was here on a personal account this year. Qidwai’s presentation was very pedagogical, as he walked through a modeling example infused with simulation tips and advice throughout. While the central theme of this speech was corrosion (“It’s everyone’s problem,” as he put it), a second focus was on his main advice of going from simple to complex problems, which he demonstrated in his corrosion pitting example. Qidwai also made another good point through this modeling example: in-situ studies of this particular phenomenon is far from easy, so it is a very good idea to utilize software when trying to predict the pit growth.

Keynote Speaker Siddiq Qidwai, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
Siddiq Qidwai, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.

Thank you to all three of our COMSOL Conference 2013 Boston keynote speakers!

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