Presidential Faculty Fellow: Numerical Studies in Wave Propagation and Scattering

这个研究领域是电磁波、声波和光波的传播和散射。目前的研究兴趣包括粗糙表面散射、冰冷卫星的雷达散射、超声乳房x光检查、电磁学中的计算机辅助教学和微波无损评估。PFF奖将用于建立一个波传播和散射数值研究实验室，用于上述主题的研究。在粗糙表面散射中，工作主要集中在两个方面：建立了精确预测随机粗糙表面散射的模型，并开发了蒙特卡罗时域有限差分（FDTD）方法来对粗糙表面散射进行精确的数值模拟表面。我们还使用时域有限差分方法试图解决冰卫星异常极化返回的难题，了解这一点有助于确定冰卫星的起源和演化。在超声乳房x线照相术中，我们正在研究一种成像算法，当患者预后最有利时，它将允许早期发现乳腺肿瘤。在教育方面，我们开发了交互式软件，与两门初级电磁学必修课结合使用。该软件由笔记本组成，每个笔记本都有动画图形，方程和涵盖特定主题的文本。到目前为止，已经写了十部，还有更多正在进行中。最后，计划将研究扩展到利用微波无损评估来检测大型复合材料结构（如飞机机翼）的缺陷。我们将使用时域有限差分法研究复杂复合材料中不同缺陷引起的微波散射。

This research area is the propagation and scattering of electromagnetic, acoustic, and optical waves. Current research interests include rough surface scattering, radar scattering from icy moons, ultrasound mammography, computer-aided instruction in electromagnetics, and microwave nondestructive evaluation. The PFF Award will be used to establish a Laboratory for Numerical Studies in Wave Propagation and Scattering for research in the aforementioned topics. In rough surface scattering the work is in two areas: developing models that accurately predict scattering from randomly rough surfaces and developing a Monte Carlo finite- difference time-domain (FDTD) method) to perform exact numerical simulations of scattering from rough surfaces. We are also using the FDTD method to try to solve the puzzle of anomalous polarization returns from icy moons, an understanding of which is needed to assist in determining the origin and evolution of icy moons. In ultra sound mammography we are working on an imaging algorithm that will permit the early detection of breast tumors when patient prognosis is most favorable. In the area of education we have developed interactive software that is used in conjunction with two required junior-level courses in electromagnetics. The software is composed of notebooks, each with animated graphics, equations, and text covering a particular topic. Ten have been written to date, and more are underway. Finally, the plan is to expand the research to study the use of microwave nondestructive evaluation to detect defects in large composite structures such as an airplane wing. We will use the FDTD method to study microwave scattering induced by the different defects within complex composite materials.