0
0

[–] NeoGoat ago  (edited ago)

I'm an EE with much MATLAB/Scilab & C++ experience. I want to do modelling of hydrodynamics and magnetic fields. Do you have any advise or references? I can code quickly, so I'm more interested in algorithms than packages, but both are of interest. Thanks

0
0

[–] SelfReferenceParadox ago 

What language do you use for this?

0
0

[–] The_Cat [S] ago 

Most software I use was written in fortran, I use a few post processing tools in my data (by others and by myself) that are python with some C sprinkled in. And I handle most of the automation with either Python or Bash.

0
0

[–] 8932679? ago 

Do you believe artificial intelligence is possible? Do you believe machine learning is the key, quantum computing, or some other lesser known approach will get us there? Personally I don't believe it's possible

0
0

[–] The_Cat [S] ago 

Depends what you mean with artificial intelligence. Simple AI has been around for ages. Self-learning AI already exists, but usually has extremely narrow focus (AlphaGo). General-purpose self-learning AI will probably exist in the near future. Conscious AI is something else. Maybe? But I think the software/hardware connection is extremely important there, because we cannot properly separate our mind from our body.

0
1

[–] Fibbideh 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

What is your favorite research project you have participated in?

Did you ever have a project that made you feel like you were in way over your head?

If you can, try not to simplify it or dumb it down for me to understand. I know I won't but I get a kick out of trying anyway.

0
1

[–] The_Cat [S] 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Funny enough, my answer to both those questions is the same: trying to implement a thermostat for a fermionic molecular dynamics simulation.

Molecular dynamics just means that you start from the laws of mechanics/dynamics, start with an initial configuration and follow the system through time. A thermostat keeps the simulation at a constant temperature.

Now, fermionic molecular dynamics (FMD) is a method to simulate a system of indistinguishable particles, fermions, like electrons or neutrons for example. The clever thing about it is that instead of going full quantum, these particles are considered as semiclassical wave packet, a 3D gaussian distribution that roughly keeps it shape.

Fermions are antisymmetric upon exchange, meaning that you cannot have two in the same location, and they will repel each other when they get close. This interaction you can encode by considering it as a curvature of state space (the space of all positions and momenta). So the system follows a semiclassical path through curved state space, where the size of state space is significantly contracted for points when two fermions are close together in position and momentum. This causes the fermions to naturally avoid each other, and is an exact implementation of the Pauli repulsion within a semiclassical context.

Happy googling :p

0
0

[–] Viropher ago 

Speaking of simulations,have you played Dwarf Fortress?

0
1

[–] The_Cat [S] 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Never got into it, but it seems awesome.

0
3

[–] Gorillion 0 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago 

What's the scuttlebutt on Climate Modelling in your world? Are we fucking shit up or is the earth just doing it's thang and not really bothered?

Obviously this flows into the big question: how much overt or subtle pressure is placed on you guys to produce results that play into a certain political worldview? And what happens if you don't produce "sexy" results that play well with MSM style stories?

1
3

[–] The_Cat [S] 1 point 3 points (+4|-1) ago  (edited ago)

We're fucking up the planet and our climate on an unprecedented scale. This has been found, established, verified and confirmed over and over again. And it's getting worse. More warming means less ice means more warming means more methane means more warming etc etc. If we don't get our shit together right now, we're fucked. We're probably already too late.

There is no overt pressure. Officially we're allowed to research whatever the fuck we want. But whether you get funding depends heavily on how much you publish, how high impact you publish, and if your research reaches news outlets etc. So in that sense, there is a LOT of subtle pressure to produce "sexy" research. What's sexy varies from time to time and domain to domain. Nanodots are sexy, and so are neural networks and machine learning. So if you do a machine learning/neural network study on nanodot properties, the government is going to be all "shut up and take my money". Meanwhile, research into high pressure material properties gets a big shrug, which leads to me currently doing research for free because the funding ran out. How's that for financial incentive.

Edit: If you want accurate and reliable information about climate change, Skeptical Science is clearly explained and very well sourced.

0
0

[–] goatboy ago 

What's the land speed velocity of an African Ground Swallow?

0
1

[–] derek 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

What are you working on now?

0
2

[–] The_Cat [S] 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago 

I'm working on solid-solid transitions and material properties of materials under very high pressure (around the TPa range). It's really interesting to see how the chemistry in these materials changes completely, because the valence shells fully metallize, and you start getting direct atom-atom interaction between the lower-lying shells. Changes everything.

load more comments ▼ (4 remaining)