2009 Brommel Award winner give lecture at NEIU

NEIU associate professor from the Computer Science department, Zhonggang Zeke Zeng delivered a lecture titled "The Joy, Challenge and Opportunity in Scientific Computing" on April 5. Zeng received the Bernard J. Brommel Distinguished Research Award in 2009.

Zeng began his presentation with the earlier history of computing, beginning with the abacus in 1828, where learning of abacus' usage was part of the regular academic curriculum. Then he talked about how slide rules were introduced eventually leading to punched cards being used as an earlier means of computer programming. Finally, Zeng said, electronic computers began to be developed.

Zeng then discussed mathematical computer programming, using various mathematical and scientific measures, including Newton's laws of motion, Hooke's law of elasticity and basic algebraic calculations, which have been used to develop graphics for a long time. "Any basic scientific computing process includes three basic steps: modeling, solution of equations and interpretation of computed results," said Zeng.

He then gave example of mathematician and scientist John Francis, who took the challenge to compose Eigen values in the late 50s, and then finally in the 60s he wrote a book titled "The Q.R Transformations" in which he discussed Super Value Algebra. Francis made some monumental contributions to computer programming at 25, but after a while he suddenly disappeared, explained Zeng.

"A computer's way of solving an equation is quite different from the way algebra originally works, as it may include backward or forward errors," said Zeng. James H. Wilkinson (1919- 1986) invented measures to overcome those errors. "A numerical algebra is judged by its backward accuracy," said Zeng. "A well-posed problem is determined by its existence, its uniqueness and its continuity with respect to the data, while an ill-posed problem is infinitely sensitive to perturbations."

Ill-posed problems are the most common problems in scientific computing and proper algebraic calculations and statistical measures could overcome those problems. "You, the little guy, can make all the difference in scientific computing," said Zeng as he concluded, "Technology is the doom of possibilities, think of every challenge as an opportunity, and in order to make most of those opportunities, one has to think outside the box."

Zeng received his Masters in Computer Science and Mathematics from China and his Ph.D. from Michigan State University. He joined NEIU in 1994. Zeng has been awarded with the prestigious Brommel Award five times.