Mathematician Discovers Novel Ways of Solving Differential Equations

February 29, 2008

Doctoral candidate Valeriu Savcenco of the University of Amsterdam has come up with new methods for the numerical solution of ordinary differential equations.

The development is important because many natural phenomena are modeled by systems of ordinary differential equations. In the case of large systems of such equations, however, some components often exhibit more active behavior than do others within the system, making solutions difficult to find.

Savcenco's approach is to use multirate methods, whereby large time steps are taken for slowly varying components and small steps for components with more rapid variations.

Savcenco designed, analyzed, and tested his methods and then submitted his work as a project in the Open Competition of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).

Source: Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, Jan. 11, 2008.