The center is supported by a research grant from the US Department of Energy - Office of Fusion Research. In the areas of Computational Sciences, two faculty members conduct research projects in high-performance computing under the sponsorship of NASA and the U.S. Army. Research includes investigating the performance of massively parallel high-performance computers in aerodynamics applications, computational solidification using a phase field approach and parallel algorithms for optimal subset selection of observation variables. In this capacity, the major research focus has been in the development of new statistical analysis software tools and methods for predicting the life performance of products ranging from X-ray tubes for medical diagnostic equipment to large locomotive systems. Other significant research work has been in the area of designing sampling plans and implementing advanced data analysis techniques for environmental applications.
Graduate students are an integral part of the department's research activities.
They work as graduate research assistants under the guidance of first-class research faculty. Research activities are supported through grants from federal agencies and national research laboratories, including the National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research, U.S. Army Research Office, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, NASA, and Department of Energy.