Computing Our Universe
 
A NASA Funded Student Summer School on
 
Origins of Large Scale Structure
 
Date: June 22 - July 14, 1998 
 
Place: University of Massachusetts at Amherst 
Participants: 12 students and 5 faculty from 11 institutions 
WWW: http://www-astro.phast.umass.edu/summer/
TOPICS
- Cosmology - expansion, measuring the energy density 
of the universe, nucleosynthesis, cosmic microwave background
- Dynamics - galactic structure, Hamiltonian mechanics, 
potential theory, orbits 
- Structure Formation and Observations - gravitational 
growth of perturbations, radiative processes, space and 
ground based data 
- Computational Techniques - integration, Monte Carlo, 
solving differential equations, parallel programming, simulations 
STUDENT RESEARCH PROJECTS
 
- Numerical Simulations of the Lyman Alpha Forest 
- Angular Momentum in N-body Simulations
- Dwarf Galaxy Perturbations of Spiral Galaxy Disks
- Simulating Collisions of Galaxies 
RESULTS AND PRODUCTS
Computational Laboratory Modules 
- The Age of the Universe with a Cosmological Constant
 Techniques of Integration and Interpolation
- Dynamics in Galactic Potentials
 Numerical solution of Ordinary Differential Equations
- Radiative Transfer
 Monte Carlo techniques
- Gravitational Forces of N-bodies
 Techniques of Parallel Programming
- Simulations of Structure Dynamics
 Development of N-body codes and data structures
Selected Graphics (2Mb)
STUDENT FEEDBACK
 
- Was your Computing Our Universe experience useful? 
4.6/5
- Was your Computing Our Universe experience enjoyable? 
4.4/5 
- Would you recommend it to your peers? 4.8/5