Dr. Suzanne M. Shontz
Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Pennsylvania State University
Office: 343J IST Building
Phone/Voice Mail: (814) 865-0193
Fax: (814) 865-3176
Office Hours (Fall 2008): 
1:15-2:15 PM TR or
by appointment.


 		 E-mail address: shontz@cse.psu.edu
US mail address:
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
343J IST Building
University Park, PA 16802

Vita: [PS]   [PDF] (Updated on 8/6/08.)

Biography

Suzanne Shontz received her Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Cornell University in 2005. She received her B.A. in mathematics and B.S. in chemistry from the University of Northern Iowa in 1999 and her M.S. degrees in computer science and applied mathematics from Cornell University in 2002. Prior to joining Penn State in August 2006, she was a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and a Minnesota Supercomputing Institute Research Scholar at the University of Minnesota. Professor Shontz received a National Physical Science Consortium Fellowship from 1999-2004 and an Honorable Mention for the Alice T. Schafer Prize for Women in Mathematics in 1999. She has presented her research at several international and national venues. Selected presentation venues in 2006 have included talks at the Fields-Mitacs Industrial Problem-Solving Workshop in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the World Congress on Computational Mechanics in Los Angeles, and the Finite Element Circus.

Research

My research is in scientific and parallel computing. Specific interests include Mesh Generation, Numerical Optimization, Computational Materials Science, and Computational Cardiology.

Recent projects have included the development of efficient methods for the geometry optimization and electronic structures problems in computational materials science. Other recent work has involved the development of mesh warping algorithms and a nonlinear solver for problems with moving meshes; these methods have been applied to problems in cardiology and solid mechanics. Additional projects have been in mesh smoothing and the use of approximation models in parallel nonlinear optimization.

Current projects are described below.

Current Research Projects, Recent Publications and Presentations  
  • Mesh Smoothing Algorithms
  • Meshing and Linear Solvers
  • Modeling and Numerical Algorithms for Computer Systems
  • Computational Modeling of Blood Flow in Diseased Patients
  • Publications
  • Presentations

    • Research Group and Collaborators

  • Shankar Prasad Sastry (Ph.D. Student)
  • Nicholas Voshell (Ph.D. Student)
  • Shontz is a member of the Scalable Scientific Computing Laboratory .
  • Current collaborators at Penn State:   Sanjukta Bhowmick, Anirban Chatterjee, Mahmut Kandemir, Emre Kultursay, Frank Lynch, and Padma Raghavan.
  • Current collaborators at other institutions:   Steve Vavasis (University of Waterloo),   Yousef Saad (University of Minnesota),   James Chelikowsky (University of Texas at Austin),   Michael Singer (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory),   Patrick Knupp (SNL-NM),   Lori Diachin (LLNL),   Todd Munson (ANL),   Patricia Hough (SNL-CA),   and Victoria Howle (SNL-CA).
  • I've also been fortunate to collaborate with many talented individuals at the Fields-MITACS Industrial Problem-Solving Workshop in 2006 and 2008.
  • Click here for links to related institutes, research groups and conferences.
    •  

    Teaching

    Fall 2006
  • CSE/Math 451 Numerical Computations (2 sections). Course website in ANGEL. Send e-mail to obtain password.

    • Spring 2007
  • No teaching assignment.

    • Fall 2007

  • CSE/Math 451 Numerical Computations. Course website in ANGEL. Send e-mail to obtain password.

    • Spring 2008

  • CSE 598C Advanced Topics in Meshing (course ad). Course website in ANGEL. Send e-mail to obtain password.

    • Fall 2008

  • CSE/Math 555 Numerical Optimization (course ad). Course website in ANGEL. Send e-mail to obtain password.

    • Future Teaching Assignments (TENTATIVE):

    Spring 2009

  • CMPSC (formerly CSE)/Math 451 Numerical Computations, 2 sections

    • Some Recent Professional Activities

  • 2008 Invited Academic Expert, Fields-MITACS Industrial Problem-Solving Workshop
  • 2008 Invited Panelist, NDSEG Graduate Fellowship Panel, Department of Defense
  • 2008- Referee, ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software
  • 2008- Referee, Journal of Chemical Physics
  • 2007 Invited Panelist, Broadening Participation in Computing Program, National Science Foundation
  • 2007 Invited Panelist, SMART Scholarship Program, Department of Defense
  • 2007 Posters Committee, Supercomputing Conference
  • 2007 Faculty Marshall, PSU Commencement
  • 2007- Referee, International Meshing Roundtable Conference
  • 2007- Referee, Computational Materials Science
  • 2007- Referee, Computer Physics Communications
  • 2007- Referee, ACM Crossroads Magazine
  • 2006 Invited Academic Expert, Fields-MITACS Industrial Problem-Solving Workshop
  • 2006 Editor of the National Research Council (NRC) Group report for the Fields-MITACS Industrial Problem-Solving Workshop
  • 2006 Member, Grace Hopper Conference Committee on Presentations, Panels, and Workshops
  • 2005- Referee, SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing
  • 2005- Mentor, Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) Mentor Network