University of Geneva
Simulation and modeling of natural processes
University of Geneva

Simulation and modeling of natural processes

Taught in English

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40,761 already enrolled

Course

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals

Bastien Chopard
Jean-Luc Falcone
Jonas Latt

Instructors: Bastien Chopard

4.2

(359 reviews)

23 hours to complete
3 weeks at 7 hours a week
Flexible schedule
Learn at your own pace

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Assessments

19 quizzes

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There are 8 modules in this course

This module gives an overview of the course and presents the general ideas about modeling and simulation. An emphasis is given on ways to represent space and time from a conceptual point of view. An insight of modeling of complex systems is given with the simulation of the grothw and thrombosis of giant aneurysms. Finally, a first class of modeling approaches is presented: the Monte-Carlo methods.

What's included

7 videos1 reading1 quiz

This module intends to provide the most basic concepts of high performance computing used for modeling purposes. It also aims at teaching the basics of Python 3 which will be the programming language used for the quizzes in this course.

What's included

12 videos2 readings3 quizzes

Dynamical systems modeling is the principal method developed to study time-space dependent problems. It aims at translating a natural phenomenon into a mathematical set of equations. Once this basic step is performed the principal obstacle is the actual resolution of the obtained mathematical problem. Usually these equations do not possess an analytical solution and advanced numerical methods must be applied to solve them. In this module you will learn the basics of how to write mathematical equations representing natural phenomena and then how to numerically solve them.

What's included

9 videos3 readings3 quizzes

This module defines the concept of cellular automata by outlining the basic building blocks of this method. Then an insight of how to apply this technique to natural phenomena is given. Finally the lattice gas automata, a subclass of models used for fluid flows, is presented.

What's included

7 videos2 readings2 quizzes

This module provides an introduction to the lattice Boltzmann method, a powerful tool in computational fluid dynamics. The lesson is practice oriented and show, step by step, how to write a program for the lattice Boltzmann method. The program is used to showcase an interesting problem in fluid dynamics, the simulation of a vortex street behind an obstacle.

What's included

8 videos1 reading4 quizzes

A short review of classical mechanics, and of numerical methods used to integrate the equations of motions for many interacting particles is presented. The student will learn that the computational expense of resolving all interaction between particles poses a major obstacle to simulating such a system. Specific algorithms are presented to allow to cut down on computational expense, both for short-range and large-range forces. The module focuses in detail on the Barnes-Hut algorithm, a tree algorithm which is popular a popular approach to solve the N-Body problem.

What's included

6 videos1 reading2 quizzes

In this module, we will see an alternative approach to model systems which display a trivial behaviour most of the time, but which may change significantly under a sequence of discrete events. Initially developed to simulate queue theory systems (such as consumer waiting queue), the Discrete Event approach has been apply to a large variety of problems, such as traffic intersection modeling or volcanic hazard predictions.

What's included

6 videos1 reading2 quizzes

Agent Based Models (ABM) are used to model a complex system by decomposing it in small entities (agents) and by focusing on the relations between agents and with the environment. This approach is derived from artificial intelligence research and is currently used to model various systems such as pedestrian behaviour, social insects, biological cells, etc.

What's included

6 videos1 reading2 quizzes

Instructors

Instructor ratings
4.2 (94 ratings)
Bastien Chopard
University of Geneva
1 Course40,761 learners
Jean-Luc Falcone
University of Geneva
1 Course40,761 learners
Jonas Latt
University of Geneva
1 Course40,761 learners

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4.2

359 reviews

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MB
4

Reviewed on Sep 20, 2020

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4

Reviewed on Jul 1, 2020

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Reviewed on Sep 7, 2021

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