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Applications of Computer Science. Mars Exploration Rover Mission . Part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration Mars Rover collects information that would be impossible for NASA to gather otherwise Cannot send a human to Mars
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Mars Exploration Rover Mission • Part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration • Mars Rover collects information that would be impossible for NASA to gather otherwise • Cannot send a human to Mars • how to keep humans healthy in space? risk? hard enough to keep robots alive! • USA has best track record: 1 out of 3 robotic probes survive (in Russia, 2 out of 12) • What are the robots doing? • Radio spectrograms to find elemental content of rocks • Burrow under surface to find water • Searching for signs of possible life • Computers allow for continuous gathering of information • Without computers – radio signals have 1 hour delay, no communication on one side of planet
Missiles and bombs • Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) • Artificial Intelligence in conjunction with inertial navigation and GPS • used to accurately and efficiently identify targets • Smart Bombs • cameras • real-time imaging • Computer programs are fast enough • humans are not
Biology • Bioinformatics • biologically oriented computer science techniques and technologies • Genomics • the study of genes and their function • Computational Biology • development of computational tools for solving problems from molecular biology • construction of mathematical/statistical models • development of algorithms • code implementation on various platforms • protein structure determination, prediction and modeling
The Manhattan Project • Led to development of the atomic bomb • Computers played essential roles into the US weapons program from the earliest on days of the Manhattan Project • led to the development of the atomic bomb • Since then weapons program is one of the most important driving forces for the development of powerful large scale scientific computers • One of the first projects to use large scale finite element analysis • when differential equations cannot be solved analytically, one can divide space up into small bits (finite elements) and solve them numerically
Celera / HGP • The Human Genome Project • Mid-1980's, sufficient scientific breakthroughs had been made for scientists to begin considering mapping the genome • Watson was one of its early advocates • Congress complied with advocates' requests and funded the effort • In 1990, goal was to sequence the genome by 2005 at estimated cost of $3 billion dollars • Eight years after it began, just 7% of the genome had been sequenced • Celera Genomics (Celera = “Quick” or “Swift” in Latin) • 1998, Craig Ventner (with PE Biosystems) founded Celera Genomics • Venter said he would fully sequence the human genome by 2001 for just $200 million • Celera utilized immense computing power (it is said to have the most powerful computing center outside of the Pentagon) in pursuit of the goal
The Human Genome February 15, 2001: HGP consortium publishes its working draft in Nature … … and Celera publishes its draft in Science on February 16
Computational chemistry • Computer methods are used to solve chemical problems which would be intractable or even impossible via experimental methods • Computational chemistry established itself as mainstay of modern industrial and academic chemistry • now acknowledged as a subdivision of chemistry alongside the more traditional ones • rapid emergence of this discipline with applications throughout all areas of chemistry has impacted the work of all chemists and significantly increased efficiency in a number of fields. • Drug development, molecular modeling, …
Computational physics • Reliable and accurate solution of scientific problems by numerical computation, algorithms and data analysis • Simulation, visualization and modeling of physical phenomena • Examples • characterize radiation properties of the Earth's upper atmosphere • develop new remote sensing techniques for better understanding the upper atmosphere
Computational archaeology • Umbrella term for a variety of approaches that use computer-based methods for the study of archaeological methods • Use of computer aided design (CAD) for the reconstruction and analysis of archaeological remains • Geographical information systems (GIS) for spatial analysis • Remote sensing for landscape analysis and archaeological survey • Computer modeling and computer simulation of human behavior • Variety of other forms of analysis dependent on computer software such as architectural analysis