PIMS- SFU CSC Seminar: Mauricio Ponga

Mechanical properties of materials are usually determined by defects, their evolution and interaction. Therefore, the key to design new and better materials than those available nowadays relies on understanding, controlling, and ultimately, manipulating such defects. However, the simulation of defects poses several technical challenges because they appear in dilute concentrations, and their evolution takes place in multiple time and length scales. This has motivated the development of a variety of multiscale techniques that couple different models starting from atomistic descriptions up to the continuum level, leading to multiscale and multiphysics models.

In this presentation, I will introduce two novel methods for studying crystalline defects in materials using multiscale modeling techniques. The first one, Coarse-Grained Density Functional Theory is a novel sub-linear scaling technique that allows simulation of defects in metals using millions of atoms with the Density Functional Theory. The second one, HotQC, is a multiscale modeling technique that allows performing simulations using multiple time and length scales with interatomic potentials. In this talk, I will show how by expanding the realm of computer simulations, more accurate and reliable results can be obtained. This conclusion is supported by experimental measurements and observations. Finally, I will discuss the main open challenges in the field and the efforts my group is doing in order to tackle them.

Biography: Mauricio Ponga is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of British Columbia. Before his position at UBC, he was a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Mechanical and Civil Engineering at the California Institute of Technology under the supervision of Prof. Kaushik Bhattacharya and Prof. Michael Ortiz from 2013 to 2015. He received his Ph.D. (2013) and M.Sc. (2010) from the University of Seville and his Bachelor degree in Aeronautics from University of La Plata (2007).