Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Quantifying Complex Systems Via Computational Fly Swarms, Troy Taylor

Senior Theses

Complexity is prevalent both in natural and in human-made systems, yet is not well understood quantitatively. Qualitatively, complexity describes a phenomena in which a system composed of individual pieces, each having simple interactions with one another, results in interesting bulk properties that would otherwise not exist. One example of a complex biological system is the bird flock, in particular, a starling murmuration. Starlings are known to move in the direction of their neighbors and avoid collisions with fellow starlings, but as a result of these simple movement choices, the flock as a whole tends to exhibit fluid-like movements and form …

The Computational Study Of Fly Swarms & Complexity, Austin Bebee

Senior Theses

A system is considered complex if it is composed of individual parts that abide by their own set of rules, while the system, as a whole, will produce non-deterministic properties. This prevents the behavior of such systems from being accurately predicted. The motivation for studying complexity spurs from the fact that it is a fundamental aspect of innumerable systems. Among complex systems, fly swarms are relatively simple, but even so they are still not well understood. In this research, several computational models were developed to assist with the understanding of fly swarms. These models were primarily analyzed by using the …

Modeling The Disappearance Of The Neanderthals Using Concepts Of Population Dynamics And Ecology, Michael F. Roberts, Stephen E. Bricher

Faculty Publications

Current hypotheses regarding the disappearance of Neanderthals (NEA) in Europe fall into two main categories: climate change, and competition. Here we review current research and existing mathematical models that deal with this question, and we propose an approach that incorporates and permits the investigation of the current hypotheses. We have developed a set of differential equations that model population dynamics of anatomically modern humans (AMH) and NEA, their ecological relations to prey species, and their mutual interactions. The model allows investigators to explore each of the two main categories or combinations of both, as well as various forms of competition …

Building And Validating A Model For Investigating The Dynamics Of Isolated Water Molecules, Grant Cates

Senior Theses

Understanding how water molecules behave in isolation is vital to understand many fundamental processes in nature. To that end, scientists have begun studying crystals in which single water molecules become trapped in regularly occurring cavities in the crystal structure. As part of that investigation, numerical models used to investigate the dynamics of isolated water molecules are sought to help bolster our fundamental understanding of how these systems behave. To that end, the efficacy of three computational methods—the Euler Method, the Euler-Aspel Method and the Beeman Method—is compared using a newly defined parameter, called the predictive stability coefficient ρ. This …

Application Of Inverse Problems In Imaging, Xiaoyue Luo

Post-Grant Reports

In this project, we studied how to enhance image quality by denoising and deblurring a given image mathematically. We compared some existing state-of-the-art methods for image denoising and deblurring. We implemented the algorithms numerically using Matlab.

We studied the possibility of combining statistical analysis with the traditional image restoration methods including using wavelets and framelets and we derived some encouraging preliminary results.

My research student Alleta Maier gave a sequence of talks on the project including the Pacific Northwest Mathematical Association of America conference at Oregon State University in April, 2016; Linfield College Taylor Series in March, 2016, and Linfield …

Nonlinear Harmonic Modes Of Steel Strings On An Electric Guitar, Joel Wenrich

Senior Theses

Steel strings used on electric and acoustic guitars are non-ideal oscillators that can produce imperfect intonation. According to theory, this intonation should be a function of the bending stiffness of the string, which is related to the dimensions of length and thickness of the string. To test this theory, solid steel strings of three different linear densities were analyzed using an oscilloscope and a Fast Fourier Transform function. We found that strings exhibited more drastic nonlinear harmonic behavior as their effective length was shortened and as linear density increased.