John Zweck

Professor The University of Texas at Dallas Department of Mathematical Sciences, FO 35 800 West Campbell Road Richardson, TX 75080-3021 Office: FO 3.704J Phone: (972) 883 6699 zweck 'at' utdallas 'dot' edu Ph. D., Mathematics, Rice University, 1993 B.Sc. (Honours), Mathematical Sciences, University of Adelaide, Australia, 1988 CV [pdf] Google Scholar Citations Publications NSF EDT: Team Training Mathematical Scientists Through Industrial Collaborations UTD Computational Science Seminar Graduation Address, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of New Mexico [pdf] How to Study for Qualifying Exams Teaching Math 2415.001: Calculus of Several Variables, TuTh 10-11:15 in GR 3.420 Math 5302.001: Elementary Analysis II, TuTh 1-2:15 in FN 2.204 Fall 2015 Office Hours: Tu 2:30-3:30, W 3-4 and by appointment. Past Courses

Results of My Analysis of the Methods Satellite Engineers are Using to Predict the Flight Path of MH370

• [Oct 22, 2015] An Analysis of the Methods Used to Reconstruct the Flight Path of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 [to appear in Education Section of SIAM Review]
• INMARSAT 3-F1 Position Velocity Data
• [Nov 2] Slides of Talk I gave on MH370 at TAMC.
• Here are slides of an April 4th Talk I gave on MH370 with Graphics and Animations by Yanping Chen [31.5 MB file].
• Here is a link to an article by Burkard Polster and Marty Ross in the Melbourne Age Newspaper that discusses some of the results from the May 12 slides above.
• Here is a link to SIAM News Article I wrote in early April that attempts to explain some of the mathematics that the Inmarsat engineering team was using at that time to deduce the flight path of the MH370. Some of the ideas here are now outdated. It contains no equations, so as to improve the chances it can be understood by a lay audience.
• Also, see a March 25th story by NBC Science Writer Alan Boyle that is based on an interview he did with me.

Research

Specific research areas:

• Modeling, analysis, simulation, experimental validiation, and design optimization of high performance optical systems and devices
  • Optical fiber communications systems
  • Short-pulse mode-locked fiber lasers (pulse dynamics, stability, noise modeling)
  • Trace gas sensors (QEPAS and ROTADE sensors)
  • Models typically involve partial and/or ordinary differential equations and often incorporate stochasticity
  • Advanced Monte Carlo methods for the simulation of rare events
• Image analysis and applications of differential geometry
  • Human and computer vision (contour completion and saliency)
  • Computational anatomy (diffeomorphic curvature flow of surfaces)
  • Statistics on manifolds (nonparametric Bayesian density estimation)

Current Projects:

• NSF EDT: Team Training Mathematical Scientists Through Industrial Collaborations
  
  
• Modeling of short pulse laser systems. Joint work with Curtis Menyuk (CSEE, UMBC) and Yannan Shen (UTD).
  
  
• Modeling coherent optical fiber communications systems. Joint work with Curtis Menyuk (CSEE, UMBC) and Michael Dennis and colleagues (JHU-APL).
  
  
• Computational modeling of quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS) sensors. Joint work with Sue Minkoff (Math and Stat, UT Dallas), Frank Tittel's Laser Science Group at Rice University, and Rob Kirby (Math, Baylor). [From 2006--2012, this project was sponsored by the NSF Engineering Research Center on Mid-InfraRed Technologies for Health and the Environment (MIRTHE).] Sue Minkoff and I jointly advised Noemi Petra who did her Ph.D. thesis on QEPAS. Noemi is now an Assistant Professor at U.C. Merced.
  
  
• Statistics on Manifolds. Joint work with Anindya Roy (Math and Stat, UMBC) and Statistics graduate student (now Dr.) Justin Jacobs (UMBC and NSA), who won a PECASE Award for his work for the NSA.
  
  
• Mathematical modeling of plasmas. Joint work (just beginning) with Matthew Goeckner, Mathematical Sciences graduate student Yanping Chen, and Yannan Shen (UTD).
  
  

Some Research Resources:

• PhoSSiL: Photonics Systems Simulator Library is a library of C++ codes written by John Zweck, Curtis Menyuk and members of the Computational Photonics Laboratory to simulate photonics systems including optical fiber communications systems and lasers.
• Resources for Course on Modeling Optical Fiber Communications Systems

• QEPAS Software