You may recall James Colovos, a doctorate student in mechanical engineering here at the U., who recently won Best of Show in the Spring 2015 Research as Art Contest, a competition of image and videos produced from scientific work. Well, today Colovos’ research as art (above) entitled, “Tungsten Wave” is on display at the National Gallery of Art in Lithuania.
Colovos said thinking about his work more artistically has allowed him to “break away from my desk and start to describe what I’m working on” to non-engineers. He’s given out dozens of prints of the “Tungsten Wave” as gifts, and “everybody’s loving them,” he said.
The simulation is of a plate striking a rock — which took just 200 microseconds to occur — during his work on simulation software that models what happens when things such as explosives impact soil and rock. It took a cluster of computers at the U’s Center for High Performance Computing about a day to create the image. Colovos’ research could benefit how explosives are made for oil and gas exploration or used in simulations of landslides and earthquakes to determine how the ground is altered.
The Research as Art contest was sponsored by The HSC Cell Imaging Core, Huntsman Cancer Institute and The Leonardo Museum of Salt Lake City.
The U’s STEM art and poetry magazine, “The Sponge” is also highlighting Colovos’ “Tungsten Wave.”
Read the full fascinating story and the journey of Colovos’ research as art to Lithuania in the Deseret News article written by Daphne Chen.
The Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Utah is committed to providing students with broad-based, rigorous and progressive education. By combining state-of-the-art facilities with renowned faculty, the department provides an education that gives students the necessary skills to become the next generation of innovators.